Military mystery solved

Australia’s most enduring military mystery has been solved after the wreckage of the country’s first submarine was found more than a century after it vanished off Papua New Guinea, officials said Thursday.

HMAS AE1, the first of two E Class submarines built for the Royal Australian Navy, disappeared on September 14, 1914 near the Duke of York Islands with 35 crew members from Australia, Britain and New Zealand on board.

It was the first Allied submarine loss in World War I.

AE1 was found in more than 300 meters (1,000 feet) of water after an expedition – the 13th such search – was launched last week using Fugro Equator, a ship also used by Australia to hunt for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.

“After 103 years, Australia’s oldest naval mystery has been solved,” Defence Minister Marise Payne told reporters in Sydney.

“This is one of the most significant discoveries in Australia’s naval maritime history... The loss of AE1 in 1914 was a tragedy for our then fledgling nation.”

Payne said she hoped the discovery would help investigators establish the cause of the sinking.

Rear Admiral Peter Briggs said the most likely cause of the loss “remains a diving accident,” the Australian newspaper reported.

“The submarine appears to have struck the bottom with sufficient force to dislodge the fin from its footing,” it quoted Briggs as saying.

Photo: AFP A handout photo received on December 21 from the Royal Australian Navy shows the wreckage of submarine HMAS AE1 in waters off the Duke of York Island group in Papua New Guinea. The mystery of its disappearance was finally solved, officials said...