Australian E-type submarine

[Venatore]

On 25 April, the Australian E-type submarine AE2 was ordered to the Straits of the Dardanelles to disrupt and attack enemy shipping.

Although it managed to torpedo a Turkish vessel, the boat had little further success, and five days later, it sank in the Sea of Marmara. The crew abandoned the boat and were imprisoned by the Turks.

For the next 83 years, AE2 remained out of sight and basically out of mind until Turkish marine archaeologist Selçuk Kolay located the wreck of a submarine in the Sea of Marmara. Australian counterparts Tim Smith and Mark Spencer were invited by Turkish authorities to establish whether it was in fact AE2, which they did after diving on the wreck in 1999.

The AE2 archaeological project

A group of enthusiastic Australians has since taken up the cause to conserve AE2 as an important national relic, managed by the not-for-profit AE2 Commemorative Foundation.

One area of work necessary to determine how best to do so is that of ascertaining the condition of AE2’s internal structures. Given that it would not be possible for divers to safely carry out this work, DSTO’s Dr Roger Neill was approached to make an assessment of the chances of successfully using robotic survey devices to make the assessment.

Dr Neill and several of his colleagues agreed to undertake this assessment, working in their own time. As a preliminary step, the team decided to create a 3-D computer model of the AE2 interior to see if a small remotely operated vehicle could negotiate the maze of pathways involved.

The model was devised using copies of the original plans for AE2 plus photos of other E-Class submarines from various sources, including the original builders, Vickers Shipyards, the Royal Australian Navy Archives, the Australian National Archives, the British Submarine Museum and the private collections of Tim Smith and Mark Spencer.

“This has proven to be a very challenging task because there are significant inconsistencies between the various plans and photographs,” says Dr Neill. “In several instances we have had to pretend to be the submarine builder deciding how best to arrange piping and machinery. After three years of work we have produced a model that we believe will realistically represent the layout of the submarine.”

During the course of this project, it was decided that it may also be useful to have access to a high-fidelity model of the outside of the submarine, so the team set about making computer-based models which were recently completed, showing the boat rigged in various operational trims.

Virtual survey for a real-life exercise

The finished 3-D models of the boat have enabled the team to conduct virtual fly-throughs and fly-arounds of AE2 to confirm that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) could usefully assist a survey team in undertaking a marine archaeological assessment of AE2.

A more detailed and comprehensive archaeological investigation of AE2 will be carried out in September this year in what will be another joint Turkish-Australian expedition mounted to investigate the wreck. The venture, being driven by the Submarine Institute of Australia, has attracted support from the Australian Government.
DSTO has agreed to assist the investigation by providing a specialist team to work on site with the ROV.

“This vehicle will undertake a number of tasks,” says Dr Neill. “In addition to its photographic and sonar survey duties, it will use specialist instrumentation to measure the thickness of the submarine’s hull at a number of structurally critical locations.”

A practice run with the ROV and full team members was carried out in February this year on a scuttled RAN J-class submarine in the waters off Port Phillip Heads at a depth of 34 metres.

A number of options are being considered for future management of AE2. These include leaving the boat on the seafloor as it is, taking steps to protect it from trawler and shipping activity and slowing the rate of corrosion; and recovering it for display on land in a wet or dry environment. A decision about the eventual fate of AE2 will be made jointly by the Australian and Turkish governments.

A short-lived but strategically effective mission

The story of HMAS AE2’s mission begins on the first day of the Gallipoli landing when she set off into the Dardanelle Straits with orders to ‘wreak havoc’ on Turkish shipping in the Sea of Marmara. For the next five days and nights, Captain Henry Stoker and his crew of 31 braved treacherous unknown mine-infested waters when submerged, and fire from the formidable Turkish shore batteries and naval vessels while surfaced.

AE2 earned the distinction of becoming the first Allied submarine to reach the Sea of Marmara. In the course of her journey through the Narrows, she seriously disabled a Turkish cruiser with a torpedo attack, and this also resulted in the withdrawal of a battleship that had been shelling the Anzac landings on the far side of the Gallipoli peninsula. Because of inherent defects in early torpedo design, and various misadventures experienced when carrying out torpedo attacks, the boat failed to otherwise inflict any damage.

Although AE2 made little impact in terms of sinkings, the alarm caused by her mere presence is thought to have significantly assisted the Gallipoli campaign by disrupting enemy supply lines to the invasion zone. Some analysts consider that without AE2’s contribution, British and Anzac forces may well have been quickly driven back into the sea, with a far more disastrous outcome ensuing than that from the foothold occupation attained.

AE2 met her demise when she experienced control difficulties that caused her to involuntarily surface right into the line of fire of a Turkish torpedo boat. After sustaining several hits, Captain Stoker gave the order to scuttle the vessel before surrendering. The boat slowly sank to its watery grave on a flat seabed in 73 metres of water. The crew were rescued, and most of them survived the rest of the war in internment.

[Jacky Fisher]

I wonder if they ever found the French subs lost in the straits. They suffered heavy casualties