Eurydice and the 'underwater object'
On 4 March 1970 the French submarine Eurydice exploded and sank off Cape Camarat, east of Toulon, with all 57 crew; the cause has never been determined.
1970 CE · 43.12, 6.80 · status: unexplained
The account
A geophysical laboratory recorded the shock of an underwater explosion, and searchers found an oil slick and debris bearing the boat's name. The US research ship Mizar found the wreck in pieces at 600 to 1,100 m on 22 April. A French inquiry noted that a Tunisian ship, the Tabarka, bore scratches, paint and metal traces below its waterline suggesting a collision with an underwater object in the same area that month. The loss came two years after her sister Minerve vanished nearby.
The sceptical view
Internal explosion, battery or torpedo accident, or collision with a surface ship are the leading ordinary explanations.
Connections in the atlas
- The Israeli submarine Dakar vanishes
- The lost submarine Minerve
- HMS Affray and the ghost who showed the way
- USS Scorpion lost near the Azores