The newspapers of last Saturday contained the distressing intelligence of
the loss of a British submarine with all hands on the previous afternoon. It appears that the Union Castle liner ' Berwick Castle,' from Southampton to Hamburg, re- ported at Portsmouth, at 3 p.m. on Friday, the 18th, that she had been struck by a torpedo in the fairway. The liner con- tinued her voyage, and as Submarine Al failed to return, a thorough search was made, resulting in the discovery that she was lying in seven fathoms of water about a, mile to the east of the ' Nab Light' vessel. Examination by divers showed that the submarine had been struck at the conning- tower, and a salvage corps has been unceasingly employed in the task of raising the vessel during the week. Submarine Al, the latest designed and largest of the flotilla employed in the recent Manoeuvres, had on board her Lieutenant Mansergh and Sub-Lieutenant Churchill and a crew of nine men at the time of the disaster, and the feeling of the Service is correctly expressed in the general signals made by Sir J. Fisher last Sunday : " Practically our gallant comrades died in action. Their lives are not thrown away if we consider their splendid example of cheerful and enthusiastic perform- ance of a duty involving all the risks of war." That, too, is the feeling of the nation.
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