Aust submarine found after 103 years

AUSTRALIA: One hundred and three years ago, the Australian World War I submarine AE1 vanished without a trace.

Now it has been found, ending one of the nation’s most puzzling and oldest naval mysteries.

AE1 went missing while on patrol off East New Britain on September 14, 1914, with 35 Australian, New Zealand and British crew on board. There was no distress call and no witnesses.

It was the first wartime loss for the Royal Australian Navy and the first Allied submarine loss in World War I.

Over the years there have been 13 searches for AE1. One in 2013 involved a navy minehunter, and another in 2014 used multi-beam sonar carried aboard a chartered mining survey boat.

The latest and successful search, which only began last week, used the Dutch-owned survey vessel Fugro Equator.

Most were confined to an area east of Duke of York Island, off the New Britain capital Rabaul.

AE1’s final contact with destroyer HMAS Parramatta at 2.30pm, more than a century ago, placed the sub in this area.

Mioko Island villagers at the time spoke of seeing a ‘‘monster’’ or ‘‘devil fish’’ that appeared and then quickly disappeared.

It was assumed AEI was not a victim of enemy action, because the only German vessel nearby was a small survey ship.

Because no wreckage, oil or bodies were found it was also believed that AE1 sank intact, most likely after striking a reef. Whether this is what happened is still to be publicly verified.

The primary search depth was 400 metres. The wreck of the submarine was eventually found in 300 metres of water. It appears to be well preserved and in one piece.

AE1 was one of two E-class submarines built in Britain for the new Australian navy. It was launched in May 1913 and commissioned into the navy in February 1914.

Commanded by Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Thomas Besant, AE1 accompanied the Australian expeditionary forces dispatched at the start of WWI to capture then German-occupied New Britain.

In one of the epic feats of naval warfare, its sister vessel AE2 achieved fame when it penetrated the Dardanelles waterway at the same time Australian troops landed on Gallipoli.

To remember both vessels and crews, brass commemorative plaques were dedicated in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra in 2014.

Soon, AE1 will have its own memorial at its final resting place. – AAP

PHOTO: FAIRFAX The battery ventilation trunks on the wreck of HMAS AE1 lie on the seabed, 103 years after the submarine was lost off the Duke of York Island group in Papua New Guinea. The wreck’s discovery has solved one of Australia’s oldest naval mysteries.

Thirty-five Australian, New Zealand and British crew were lost in the sinking of HMAS AE1.