The Search for the Affray

The British Admiralty last week explained how it had finally located the hulk of the submarine Affray, which sank last April with its crew of 75 men and officers (TIME, April 30). It had not been a diver who first spotted the missing vessel, but the sharp eye of an underwater television camera, peering about the rocky bottom of the English Channel.

The discovery of the Affray was the first practical application of underwater TV by the Royal Navy. After two years of experimental tests, British scientists succeeded in mounting a TV camera in a watertight container specially welded to withstand high pressure at extreme depths, added a pipe frame containing powerful searchlights, and connected the apparatus to a salvage ship with a coaxial cable.

The search for the Affray took 59 days, covered a 1,000-sq. mi. Channel area where sonic gear marked the position of more than 90 different wrecks. Each time, the camera was lowered away. Sitting comfortably in the captain's cabin, the Navy diver needed only a glance at the TV screen to see that most of the wrecks were old fishing boats or coal barges.

On the 59th day the sonic gear picked up another marker in the underseas graveyard. Over went the camera, 285 feet down off the island of Alderney. Onto the screen came the image of a submarine's conning tower. As the camera swept along the hull, the brass name plate came into focus: Affray.

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