The wreck of Australia’s first submarine is disintegrating, sparking a new mission to salvage a relic from it for the Australian War Memorial.
HMAS AE1 disappeared with 35 crew on board while on a mission near the Duke of York Islands in Papua New Guinea in September 1914, less than two months after the outbreak of the first world war.
The submarine was the first wartime loss for the Royal Australian Navy and the first Allied submarine loss in the first world war.
It was last seen on patrol on 14 September as part of Allied efforts to seize the German colonies in New Guinea and the south Pacific.
A multidisciplinary team found it 300m under water in 2017. It was more closely examined in 2018, and the team saw increasing corrosion from sand being washed around it in strong currents. A report at the time noted the wreck was “in an area exposed to strong ocean currents and [was] suffering active corrosion”.
“It is noticeably weakened in a number of areas,” the report found. “Lacking a protective layer of concretion, the hull is actively rusting … most of the lighter-weight steel plating has disappeared. It is predicted that the wreck will undergo major structural collapse in the next 5–12 years.”
The Australian E-Class Submarine Foundation, who found the wreck, is now urgently trying to raise funds to do another survey to assess the level of damage, before trying to find a relic that will form the centrepiece of a new display at the AWM.
“We’re trying to meet an almost impossible window at the end of June so we can use a ship that’s already out on a mission,” said retired Rear Admiral Peter Briggs, who is chair of the AESMF.
“We’d rather like the two periscopes, but we don’t know what the state of the wreck will be. It’s been over five years since we did the survey.”
The foundation is now running AE1 Project Touchstone with the support of the AWM, the Royal Australian Navy, the UK’s Royal Navy, the Submarine Institute of Australia and descendant families. The Australian National Maritime Museum is supporting the new survey.
Vice Admiral Mark Hammond, the chief of navy, said he wished the project “every success”.
“[AE1] was the first RAN unit to be sunk during the war and a terrible reminder of the challenges of naval operations, particularly in early submarines,” he said. “The death of the entire crew was a heavy blow for the navy and most particularly their families and friends.”
AWM’s director, Matt Anderson, said he hoped that Australian industry and potential sponsors would also get involved.
In 2017 an autonomous underwater vehicle was used to find the wreck, with images showing the boat had imploded.
A second expedition in 2018 captured high-definition images with a remote operative vehicle. The team created a three-dimension model of the wreck and discovered one of its ventilation valves was open.
Water rushing in would have sunk the submarine it to its “crush depth”, at which point it would have imploded.
Along with fears the submarine will rust away, there are concerns trophy hunters could find and loot the wreck.
In a plea for donations, retired navy captain and AESMF team member Roger Turner said divers hoped to “bring home something which is accessible to the public and can preserve the memories long after the wreck itself has gone”.
“It is hoped to recover something from the wreck which can form the centrepiece of an exhibition in the Australian War Memorial, which tells the story, pays tribute to Australia’s submariners, and particularly to the courage and dedication of the men of the AE1 who all perished,” he said.
Most human remains are likely to have been washed away during the implosion, Turner said, but any salvage missions will be done with “care and sensitivity”.
“The wreck is the last resting place of 35 souls,” he said.
