The Sidon Incident

TheThe SidonSidon IncidentIncident

HMS Sidon portside in 1952.

HMS Sidon shortly after the explosion.

Copyright NavyBooks

HMS Sidon after being salvaged.

During the latter stages of the Second World War German naval engineers, under the guidance of Dr Helmut Walther, developed a revolutionary new propulsion system for their submarines. The system incorporated a fuel called High Test Peroxide and it enabled a submarine to travel underwater at high speed and independent of an external air supply.The system worked so several experimental U-boats were constructed using this new form of underwater propulsion.

However, the fuel was extremely volatile which resulted in numerous accidents and was not liked by the crews of the submarines. It also came too late in the war to give the Germans any tactical advantage. Furthermore, the technology fell into the hands of the Allies as the German naval construction yards were overrun in the advance on Berlin. After the war the Royal Navy launched two submarines, HMS Explorer and HMS Excalibur both of which used High Test Peroxide as their main power source, but with the advent of nuclear propulsion the technology was abandoned. However, what is not well known is that the Royal Navy in the 1950s experimented with High Test Peroxide engines to power some of their experimental torpedos.

Explosion on Sidon On June 16th 1955 five submarines moored alongside the Depot Ship HMS Maidstone in Portland harbour. One of the vessels was HMS Sidon, an S-class submarine built by Camell Laird and launched in September 1944. HMS Sidon was originally completed with a 4” gun forward of the conning tower and a 20mm Oerlikon anti-aircraft mounting aft. Her gun armament had been removed after the war and like the other vessels in the group, the superstructure and casing had been modified giving her a more streamlined appearance. At 0820 several of the submarines, including HMS Sidon prepared to cast off and head out to sea for a torpedo firing exercise.

The torpedos onboard the Sidon that day were Mk 12s - these were converted Mk 8s fitted with HighTest Peroxide motors.After the war, the Royal Navy had been impressed with the performance of the experimental German torpedos, and it was these torpedos that were being tested that day. HMS Springer, a sister ship of the Sidon cast off and got underway. HMS Sidon would be the next to depart but five minutes later the sound of a muffled thud was heard by the crew of HMS Maidstone followed almost immediately by the shrill sound of alarm bells. It very quickly became apparent that an explosion had occurred onboard the Sidon.

Surgeon-Lieutenant Charles Rhodes heard the sound of the explosion as he sat down to start his breakfast onboard HMS Maidstone. His immediate reaction was to leave the wardroom and rush up onto the deck where he saw smoke rising from Sidon ’ s conning tower. The time was now 0825.Witnesses saw sheets of flame shooting up from the conning tower followed by bits of debris and equipment rising into the air from the interior of the submarine. Clearly, something had gone dramatically wrong inside the submarine.

One of the crew, ERA Peter Leech, who was in the control room at the time of the explosion, reported hearing a large thud followed by a sheet of orange flame. He was thrown back ten feet into the radio room.The explosion had come from the forward section of the submarine. Immediately after the blast, the instruction “Everybody out of the boat!” was given.

Leech managed to escape and was able to cross over the gangway onto another submarine that was lying alongside.Another crew member, Petty Officer William Day, was also in the control room just beneath the conning tower hatch when he heard a dull bang and then the blast lifted him off his feet.The next thing that he knew was waking up in hospital.

In the meantime Surgeon-Lieutenant Rhodes had put on breathing apparatus and leapt down onto the deck of the Sidon.Witnesses saw him go down into the submarine in a cloud of smoke, emerging a few minutes later carrying an injured seaman. He then went back into the submarine, repeating the operation three more times to bring out more of Sidon ’ s injured. When he went down for the fifth time the submarine was already beginning to sink, and by this time Lieutenant Rhodes appeared to be gasping and struggling with his breathing apparatus. He was not seen again.

Sidon ’ s captain,Lieutenant Commander HT Verry was on the bridge when the explosion occurred along with engineer officer Roy Hawkins. Hawkins had just reported that the engines were ready for sea when they heard the explosion followed by a rush of air through the conning tower hatch. Some of the crew emerged immediately after, shocked and dazed, both men then went below down to the control room.Although the lights were on they could hardly see anything. Hawkins found one of the other officers in the engine room and they managed to get the ventilation blower working to clear the smoke, but as the after hatch was open it had little effect.

After putting on breathing apparatus they went forward to see if they could get any of the men out but the passage way was blocked by smashed bunks and debris which left them no choice but to leave the submarine. The Sidon had now dipped noticeably by the bow and although not immediately noticeable to those still inside the submarine, the Sidon was now beginning to sink.The visiting Swedish submarine Saelen, which was on Sidon ’ s port side, was towed away to safety.

When the order to abandon ship was called, men emerged from the submarine blackened with smoke and soot. One of the last to leave was Jack Gill, a twenty-three year old engineer from the Maidstone. “I went into the submarine to help, ” he later said. “And through the smoke I heard someone gasping. I could see Lieutenant Rhodes laying at the bottom of the conning tower. He was struggling with his breathing apparatus.Just then someone shouted that the submarine was sinking and I got clear just in time. ”

At 0845, with all of the internal watertight doors open, HMS Sidon sank by the bows, settling on the bottom at a depth of thirty-six feet, listing twenty-five degrees to starboard. On the other side of the harbour the mooring vessel Moordale immediately went to Sidon ’ s aid and managed to secure a mooring wire around the submarine ’ s stern, but the flooding submarine proved to be too heavy for the Moordale and the submarine sank, taking the cable down with her.

HMS Sidon portside at speed in 1952. HMS Sidon in 1955.

HMS Sidon in June 1953.

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Frogmen from HMS Maidstone clambered into launches and then into the water. Working in pairs they worked their way along the side of Sidon ’ s hull, tapping our messages in morse code to any crewmen that might still be trapped inside her, but there was no reply.At the bow, a torpedo was seen sticking out of one of the torpedo tubes and by the early afternoon there was little hope that any of the crew still inside the submarine would be alive.What was also worrying was that now, two patches of air bubbles were rising from the stricken submarine.

Three Officers and ten ratings had been lost when the Sidon exploded, including Lieutenant Charles Rhodes. So what had gone wrong?

After the accident the Board of enquiry determined that the likely cause of the disaster was the accidental starting of one of the torpedos when a stop valve was being opened.A safety valve had failed to function and this caused a build up of pressure which burst a fuel line spraying High Test Peroxide inside the torpedo.The resulting explosion blew the torpedo tubes doors open. Fortunately the torpedo was not fitted with a live warhead otherwise the explosion would have been even greater. Both the bow cap and inner door of the torpedo tube were blown open allowing the sea to flood into the submarine.

Two days after the accident work began to raise the Sidon.The salvage vessels, Kinbrace and Swin were sent from Dover along with the Portsmouth-based Barcross. Four large buoyancy cylinders, known as camels, were brought to the scene of the sinking, and after two of the camels had been secured she was raised slightly enough to enable wires to be passed under the submarine and secured on either side of the hull.After this was completed, the salvage operation began and the Sidon ’ s stern rose above the surface.

The conning tower came into view just below the surface, and after further hoisting on the wires, the conning tower hatch was finally above the waterline. However, the Sidon had a strong list to port so further raising was halted. It was decided to lower the submarine again in an effort to correct the list as the salvage team wanted to bring the submarine to the surface on an even keel. This was successfully achieved and in the early hours of 23rd June HMS Sidon was brought to the surface. She was finally secured at 0430.

The following day at noon, the submarine was towed by two fishing vessels a mile away to a causeway off Chesil beach, an area of shallow water not far from the mainWeymouth to Portland Road.The bodies were removed, and on 28th June were buried in the small naval cemetery on the cliff edge at Portland. Two years later on 14th June 1957, Sidon was towed from Portland and sunk for use by the Royal Navy as an anti-submarine target.

Today the Sidon lies in thirtyfour metres of water off Weymouth.The wreck has been acquired by a Dorset-based marine salvage company whose intention is to make the wreck available for other salvage equipment manufacturers to test their knowledge and equipment in respect of any future salvage attempt. After the incident, the Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth,Admiral Sir John Cressy commended both Sidon ’ s Captain Lieutenant CommanderVerry and Lieutenant Commander CF Allington from HMS Maidstone for their bravery for removing a torpedo in darkness from the stricken submarine. Commissioned engineer Hawkins was also commended for his bravery along with ERA Pearson and Chief Ordnance Artificer JW Ward. Surgeon Lieutenant Rhodes was posthumously awarded the Albert Medal.

Ironically, the submarine world had not finished with High Test Peroxide and forty three years later in August 2000 the Russian submarine Kursk was lost as the result of an explosion in the forward torpedo room. It was later revealed that the cause of the explosion was a fault in one of the Kursk’ s torpedoes which was powered by High Test Peroxide.

HMS Sidon at sea including a close up of crew in the conning tower (bottom photo).

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