There were too many dependants of the seventy-five men lost on Affray to allow the accident to remain silent for long. On Sunday 2 December 1951 the Sunday Pictorial newspaper – renowned for bringing sensational stories and racy ‘exclusives’ to the Sunday breakfast table – carried the front-page headline: ‘Affray – Startling Letters From a Dead Son.’ The letters were those penned from the Affray by Chief Petty Officer Engine Room Artificer 2nd Class David Bennington to his father, claiming that that the submarine ‘leaked like a sieve’ and was ‘just about finished’. Readers were told that the letters
were handed to this newspaper by Mr Oscar Bennington, the father of the author. Mr Bennington, who was extremely disturbed by the letters, has spent much time and money investigating them, both among relatives of those who served in Affray and with the naval authorities. He seeks no reward for their publication other than that the fullest publicity should be given to them in the interests of all who go to sea in submarines.
The letters we print today were considered by the Admiralty Board of Inquiry. Later Mr Oscar Bennington was informed that they had been unable to find any clue, which could lead to the supposition that Affray was not fully seaworthy. The Pictorial prints these letters without comment, believing that the public should have all available evidence.
On pages 6 and 7 of the paper, under the headline ‘Letters From a Doomed Submarine’, David Bennington’s correspondence to his father telling the story of engine failures, mechanical problems and engine room stress were shared with a public hungry for more news about Affray after weeks of silence. The double-page spread quoted the young sailor’s father as saying that he had done everything possible to avoid any publicity ‘which would bring fresh sorrow to the relatives of the men lost on Affray. It is only as a last resort in the interests of everyone that I have decided to approach the Sunday Pictorial to make the matter public.’
The paper said that two days earlier, the First Lord of the Admiralty had informed him by letter:
The Board took evidence from friends who were in Affray with your son during the exercises in 1950, but were unable to find any clue which could lead to the supposition that Affray was not fully seaworthy. There were some minor defects normal to an operational submarine and involving no danger whatever to the crew and those were put right in the dockyard in Portsmouth in the early months of 1951.
The letter added:
David was an extremely conscientious and hard working Engine Room Artificer and he was undoubtedly depressed by working for long hours in rough weather. A less conscientious man would probably have not been so prone to worry.
The following week brought another sensational Sunday Pictorial headline: ‘Days of Worry in the Affray’. The paper claimed to have received ‘new evidence about the condition of the submarine . . . given by a man who served in her in 1948/49’.
After reading the previous week’s story about Bennington’s letters home regarding the condition of Affray, Gerald Smart, an ex-chief petty officer from Birmingham who had been invalided out of the Navy, had contacted the paper to tell his own story. Smart had served in the Affray from October 1948 to February 1949 and told the newspaper:
Not only the main engines but practically all the auxiliary machinery had to be nursed along. During the period I was aboard her, we were not fit to go to sea. Nevertheless, we went and there were many hectic moments.
Our first diving trials in October 1948 were ominous. We plunged towards the bottom at a disconcerting angle instead of planing down. The trouble was in a starboard vent, which got jammed. After that, it went on jamming quite often. And all the crew were sincere when they said they didn’t want to sail in Affray.
A few days later, the submarine dived again in the Channel and Smart claimed:
a hole suddenly appeared in one of the main pipes circulating water to the engines. It was found to be corroded. Then five hours out of port on our way to the Bay of Biscay we had serious trouble with the steering gear. Back in harbour again a week later, another defect developed but we put to sea just the same.
Again that starboard vent jammed and we went down at an angle that could have been dangerous. On one occasion the skipper called the petty officers together and asked what was wrong with the crew. No one told him.
The newspaper said that Gerald Smart had served in four submarines and ‘his naval history sheet shows him as a “competent, intelligent and reliable rating”’.
When asked what were his reactions when he heard that the Affray was lost, he replied: ‘I was shocked. But I should have been more surprised if it had been any one of the other three subs in which I served.’