Site of HMS Thetis beaching, Traeth Bychan

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In September 1939 the wreck of the new submarine Thetis was brought ashore at Traeth Bychan. It took several weeks to remove the bodies of the 99 sailors who had died inside the submarine.

Photo of HMS Thetis beached at Traeth BychanThe submarine was built by Cammell Laird of Birkenhead and put to sea on 1 June 1939 for a day’s testing. More than 100 people were on board, roughly twice the number in the normal crew for such a vessel. Some were officers in other submarines who wanted to see the latest technology for themselves. Also on board were engineers from Cammell Laird.

Photo of HMS Thetis alongside steamshipSome small errors combined to cause the submarine to sink on its first attempted dive in Liverpool Bay. Only the stern could be raised above the surface, but the escape hatch remained underwater. Only four men escaped from the submarine. The bad luck continued weeks later, when a diver involved in the salvage operation died of “the bends” after getting into difficulties and surfacing too quickly.

The vessel was lifted by a salvage rig using cables 15cm (six inches) thick and slowly moved to the beach here.

The pressures of war dictated that Thetis was rebuilt rather than scrapped. As HMS Thunderbolt it sank several enemy ships before being wrecked by depth charges in the Mediterranean in 1943.

The photo of Thetis beached at Traeth Bychan was taken by Harry Rogers Jones, and is shown here by kind permission of David Rogers Jones. The photo of the submarine alongside a steamship is from the collection of the late James Roberts.

Postcode: LL73 8PN    View Location Map

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