25 MAY 1991, Page 27

Dive to death

Sir: I was most interested to read Andrew Roberts' article (Affray in the Channel', 27 April). It was a scandal that Roy Foster-Brown was not given the recogni- tion he deserved for finding the wreck of the Affray. Everyone in Portsmouth at the time knew that it was the Foster-Brown triumph.

You say the Affray sailed on Monday 16 April, but I think this was the date the Admiralty decided for the death of the crew. I think the submarine sailed the previous Friday. His son Richard, a sub- lieutenant on board, sent a letter to his mother saying that he was looking forward to the weekend cruise and that the doctor had let him out of hospital so as not to miss it. In fact when the submarine was lost I still thought my son was in Haslar hospital. At the time I was Captain of HMS Vernon, the shore establishment in Port- smouth responsible for all underwater activity, Asdics, diving and so on. It was in fact my divers with the borrowed commer- cial TV camera who filmed the wreck and exposed the name Affray. From these reports I always understood that the sub- marine dived with the vents open, which would of course cause a terrible explosion with the sea water rushing in over the batteries. The divers found fish around the vents. I never heard of a snorkel accident and I think this was taken care of by special closing devices. Otherwise there would have been many such accidents in the past if just a broken tube cottld flood the boat. The real scandal of this tragedy is that, to make room for the class of Sub- Lieutenants (of which my son Richard was one) and the class of Engineer Lieute- nants, 20 of the crew were left ashore. In addition there was either a newly appointed Captain or First Lieutenant: I `I swore at a man who swore at a man who was sworn at by the Prince of Wales.' do not recall which, but either were key persons for the duties of diving. A dreadful series of mistakes were made and these were covered up.

Rear-Admiral C. D. Howard-Johnston

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