Mystery Cleared

From the British Admiralty came an announcement last week that the mysterious "sinking without a trace" of the great monitor submarine M-1 (TIME, Nov. 23) is now thought to have resulted from a collision with the little Swedish freighter Vidar, of only 2159 tons, off the coast of Devonshire.

The captain of the Vidar, on reaching Stockholm, reported that his ship had been "struck by something under water with an awful shock"; and experts representing the Admiralty were at once despatched to examine the Vidar's slightly damaged hull. They reported that "every circumstance connected with the affair seems to point to a collision between the Vidar and the M-1 when the latter was on the point of rising to the surface,"

The official bulletin of the Admiralty concluded: "Under the circumstances it is certain that the M-1 was rapidly and completely flooded and that the crew perished immediately."

It was recalled that only a few weeks ago (TIME, Oct. 5, NATIONAL AFFAIRS) the U.S. submarine S-51 was run down in nearly similar circumstances by the U.S. coastwise steamer City of Rome. In this instance three of the submarine's crew escaped through the conning tower of the S-51 as she sank. The crew of the M1, less fortunate, perished to a man. Like the Vidar, the City of Rome was unharmed. The hulls of submarines are not so stout as those of surface ships.

One Otto Kraft, 20-year-old expert German diver, established what is said to be a world's record when he achieved a depth of 238 feet, last week, while searching vainly for the M1.