France: Daphne the Doomed

On a gray February day two years ago, Charles de Gaulle journeyed to Toulon to deliver a speech and attend a memorial Mass honoring 52 naval crewmen who had disappeared along with their ship, the 850-ton submarine Minerve. To the navy’s surprise, the President suggested taking a brief dive himself in one of the doomed submarine’s sister ships, the Eurydice. The general’s ride, to a depth of 130 feet, was a gallant gesture of confidence in the submarines of the Daphné class, to which the Minerve and the Eurydice belonged.

One morning at dawn last week, the Eurydice slipped out of her port at the resort of St.-Tropez for a three-hour training exercise. Her skipper was Lieut. Bernard de Truchis de Lays, 34, who had served for two years as executive officer of the Minerve but had been transferred a few months before she was lost. At 7:13, the Eurydice sent her last message: she was diving in calm seas off Cape Camarat, 35 miles east of Toulon. A few minutes later, a geophysical laboratory picked up the shock waves of a violent underwater explosion.

Beyond Doubt. For five hours, French and Italian naval vessels and helicopters searched the area until they found an oil slick and a few bits of debris, including a spare-parts tag that bore the name Eurydice. In the loss of the Minerve, authorities had held out hope for four days because the crew had an air supply of 100 hours. In last week’s tragedy, they were forced to tell families and relatives immediately that the Eurydice’s 56 crewmen, as well as a visiting Pakistani naval officer, were lost beyond doubt.

What went wrong? On the chance that the Eurydice might have collided with one of the four cargo vessels in the vicinity, the navy ordered all four into port for inspection. No evidence of a collision was found. Lending some credence to the theory that the Daphné-class subs might contain a hidden structural fault was the fact that the Eurydice had recently undergone inspection and was found to be in perfect shape. To the French, the question was more than a matter of national pride. The French navy still has nine Daphné subs in service. In addition, France has sold three to Pakistan, and has taken orders for twelve more from Spain, Portugal and South Africa.