On 1 June 1939 His Majesty's Submarine Thetis sank in Liverpool Bay
while on her diving trials. Her loss is still the worst peacetime
submarine disaster the Royal Navy has yet faced when ninety-nine men
drowned or slowly suffocated during their last fifty hours of life.
The disaster became an international media event, mainly because the
trapped souls aboard were so near to being saved after they managed to
raise her stern about 18 ft above sea level. Still the Royal Navy-led
rescue operation failed to find the submarine for many hours, only to
rescue four of all those trapped. Very little is known about what
actually happened, as the only comprehensive book written on the subject
was published in 1958.
Many years have now passed since the Thetis and her men died, for which
no one was held to be ultimately accountable. However, a great deal of
unpublished information has come to light in archives throughout the
United Kingdom and beyond. After four years of painstaking research
Thetis Down; The Slow Death of a Submarine explores in minute detail a
more rounded picture of what really happened before, during and after
her tragic loss. In doing so Tony Booth's book also takes a fresh look
at culpability and explores some of the alleged conspiracy theories that
surrounded her demise.
The result is the first definitive account what happened to HMS Thetis -
and her men - a fitting tribute, as the seventieth anniversary of her
loss will be on 1 June 2009.
