Why did the British sunken ship resist salvage?

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Royal Navy added six submarines, and the Admiralty numbered them K. However, after these six submarines were put into active service, they suffered misfortune one after another.

During the service of K-type submarine, K 1, K4 and K 17 collided with other objects and sank during the voyage, which can be said to be a general maritime accident and has not attracted people's attention. However, the fate of the other three submarines was quite strange, and they sank one after another in incredible accidents, which caused the sailors to panic.

1917 65438+1On October 29th, the naval submarine K 13 sailed in the Crandall River in Scotland to test its performance. K 13 dived into the Crander River and never surfaced again. After 57 hours of intense struggle, the naval rescue team finally raised the bow to the surface. Rescuers dug a hole in the bow, and 20 people on the submarine survived, while others died. After the whole submarine was salvaged from the water, rescuers entered the boat, and the boat was in a mess. The victims were unrecognizable and it was terrible. After that, the bodies of the victims were buried in the cemetery of a small village in the north of Glasgow.

What caused the misfortune of the K 13 submarine? According to the investigation, the accident of K 13 was completely caused by an negligence. When diving, the ventilation equipment in the submarine boiler room was not closed, which led to the sinking of K 13. This routine inspection should not be forgotten, but it was a small oversight that ruined the fate of K 13.

Later, the submarines numbered K crashed one after another, leaving only K 18 and K 19, so the Admiralty decided to renovate these two submarines and renamed them M 1 and M2 respectively.

But the name change did not change the fate of the submarine. A mysterious force still exists and seems to be manipulating the fate of the submarine. 1925165438+1October 12, M 1 was mysteriously killed in the waters near Difan, and all 69 people on board survived.

When the sailors learned the news, they were all surprised and confused, waiting for the next tragedy that they thought was inevitable, but nothing happened. Year after year passed peacefully. The bad luck in the K-shaped submarine was slowly forgotten by people. 193265438+1On October 26th, the M2 submarine sailed off the coast of Douste, England, and the weather was clear and calm. During the voyage, the M2 submarine suddenly jumped out of the water with a bow, as if it had been hoisted by something. After a while, it slowly sank into the sea, with the stern facing down. Just then, a British merchant ship "Tanniside" passed by nearby. Captain Edward witnessed the whole process, but strangely, the captain knew almost nothing about submarines. He thought this was the way the submarine dived, but he didn't think it was an accident at all.

A minute passed, and there was still no news of the M2 submarine in the base. According to the plan, M2 arrived at Portland Port at 4: 45pm that day. 1 hour later, the Admiralty found that there was still no sign of M2's arrival and no radio signal from M2. The Admiralty initially concluded that the submarine had an accident, so it issued a warning that the submarine was late to attract everyone's attention, and further issued an urgent notice that the submarine was killed that night. At that time, all the Royal Navy in Portland Port were called together to search for M2.

Although senior naval officers are worried about the fate of M2, they still have a glimmer of hope. M2 was one of the largest submarines in Britain at that time. A small maritime reconnaissance plane can be docked, and the most advanced safety equipment is newly installed, that is, the waterproof cabin in the boat is flooded, and the people inside can still support it for 48 hours.

Finally, the Admiralty confirmed that the M2 submarine sank. The key to the problem is to find the correct location of the sunken ship. If we can find the location of M2 on the seabed as soon as possible, most people on board still have hope of survival. When the captain of the rescue boat cleaned up all the ships in the port and began to search, they realized that if they didn't know where M2 was missing at all, it would take days or even weeks to find it. So, 15 rescue boat set out to explore the English Channel near Portland Port.

On the 27th, the day after M2 disappeared, the Admiralty announced: "The submarine probe of the rescue ship has touched two unknown objects, but it is difficult for divers to dive into the seabed for investigation due to the high tide. Although there are many ships involved in the search, no oil floating on the sea surface has been found yet. "

Shortly after the news was released, the captain of Tennyside heard the news of the submarine's disappearance broadcast in London in the French port of Caras. He immediately thought of the submarine he saw that day. The two unidentified objects mentioned by the Admiralty were several miles away from where he saw the submarine. Therefore, he immediately radioed his shipping company and asked them to tell the Admiralty: "A sunken submarine, probably M2, was seen about two and a half miles off the northwest coast of Portland Port."

After receiving the report from the shipping company, the Admiralty ordered all rescue boats to gather at the place pointed out by Captain Edward. When the rescue boat was concentrated at the designated place, the underwater telephone released from the boat received the knocking sound from the seabed, which was weak and intermittent. Although no one can be sure that it was M2, it was probably the sound made by the people in the submarine after hearing the sound of the ship propeller overhead in order to survive.

The target has been found, but the rescue work cannot be carried out smoothly. The bottom of the sea was dark and nothing could be seen. Coupled with the high tide, divers can't get close to the submarine. Finally, rescuers put powerful diving lights into the sea for lighting, so that divers can clearly see the objects on the seabed in the water. Although divers found the wreckage of several ships and found human bones in the wreckage, it wasn't M2. Where the hell is M2?

As the days passed, optimism was gradually replaced by disappointment, and there was no knock at the door. What is certain is that the people in the submarine will never survive. One morning, people found a sailor's hat floating on the sea. That's a sailor hat of an M2 submarine. On February 4, submarine detection instruments touched the wreckage of a ship lying on the seabed. Rescuers confirmed that it was M2!

The diver dived into the dark bottom of the sea and spent several hours examining the outside of the submarine carefully. To their surprise, the submarine showed no signs of damage. A diver reported: "So far, the hull has not been damaged. Why he was killed is still a mystery. "

On February 8, the salvage work began. After everything was ready, the diver dived into the sea and tried to enter the interior of M2. When two divers approached the submarine and opened the observation deck of M2, they saw four eyes staring at them in the dim light, as if they were crawling towards them. "Ghost", the two men were scared and ran away at once. Later, the two men got up the courage and approached the watchtower carefully. When they looked intently, they turned out to be two bodies stuck in the watchtower. Their eyes are wide open, and their eyes reveal a desire for life.

The diver recalled afterwards: "I sneaked into the hangar, and it was dark inside ... I felt something in my thigh, and when I looked closely, I found it was a body." Finally, after careful search, more than 60 people in the submarine were killed.

Medical experts told the mission that they could not determine the cause of death. The crew may have drowned, but there is also the possibility of gas poisoning.

After tracking and analysis, the commander of the submarine M2 sent a signal to the mother ship Titan before it was killed, indicating that there was something wrong with the diving and floating operating system of the submarine M2. According to this clue, the investigators analyzed: "It is very likely that the submarine chief took several emergency measures to make up for their mistakes and changed the submarine's balance system. When the commander ordered the submarine to dive, because the new balance posture of the submarine could not cooperate with the sinking action, the whole boat lost control and its center of gravity tilted to the stern. If this was indeed the case at that time and the tilt angle was large, the acid in the battery would overflow, causing all personnel in the submarine to die immediately due to gas poisoning. "

However, this is only theoretical speculation. The truth of M2 tragedy can only be determined after it is fished out of the sea and thoroughly examined. But when will M2 see the light of day again?

Time is running out, and all attempts have failed. Divers report that the submarine is sealed, so as long as air is injected into it, it will automatically float. But in fact, M2 Hull still couldn't find the gap in the right position, so this method didn't succeed.

Rescuers tried to screw a 7-inch thick wire rope into the seabed with a winch, tied a giant pontoon bridge to the submarine, and twisted the submarine by buoyancy and the power of the wire rope. When it was almost finished, M2 appeared on the sea, and the staff were very happy. But at this moment, the cable suddenly broke and a pontoon floated away, so M2 sank to the bottom of the sea in a huge splash. The same attempt was made again, this time M2 was several feet above the water, but the steel cable could not support M2' huge body, and the result was the same as the first time.

On February 7, 65438, rescuers used the same method for the third time. However, M2 was just halfway out to sea when the weather suddenly changed. The wind is strong and the waves are strong. The rescue boat swayed in the storm, and the inclination of the boat could not be controlled. Because the inclination angle is too large, the cable is under too much pressure and may break at any time. For the safety of workers and ships, the commander had to order M2 to be put back to the bottom of the sea, which changed the salvage plan.

A series of failures is frustrating, as if something is really working. A year's time has not yielded any results. So the Admiralty decided to give up M2, let it lie on the bottom of the sea, and let the sea become its permanent grave.

The cause of death of the M2 submarine is always a mystery and cannot be answered.