第１次大戦時の仏潜水艦「アリアーヌ」、チュニジア沖で発見

【ラマルサＡＦＰ＝時事】第1次世界大戦中の1917年にドイツの潜水艦に撃沈されたフランスの潜水艦「アリアーヌ」の残骸が、チュニジア北東部ボン岬沖で見つかった。（写真はチュニジア北部ラマルサ沖の海中で発見されたフランスの潜水艦の残骸。Ras　Adarダイビングクラブ提供の映像より）
　発見したのは、ダイビングクラブの幹事ら。生徒を連れて潜るため、新しい場所を探検していたという。
　潜水艦は、ほぼ無傷だったが藻に覆われ、ハッチや潜望鏡は今や魚と甲殻類のすみかになっていた。
　幹事らは潜水艦について複数の専門家に問い合わせ、アリアーヌしかあり得ないと結論付けた。アリアーヌは、当時フランスの軍港だったチュニジア北部ビゼルトを拠点としていた。
　フランスの元潜水艦乗組員の組合「ＡＧＡＳＭ」によると、アリアーヌは水上航行中、ドイツの潜水艦「Ｕボート」の魚雷を受けて沈没。救助できたのは、乗組員２９人のうち８人だけだったという。
　潜水艦を発見したダイビングクラブの責任者によると、チュニジアではこれまでに潜水艦が３隻見つかっているが、第１次世界大戦のものはアリアーヌだけだという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/10/09-15:58）

Tunisian divers have discovered a French submarine wreck from World War I, the Ariane, which was sunk by a German submarine in 1917.
The craft was spotted off Cap Bon by the managers of a diving club in the country's northeast as they were exploring new sites to explore with their students.
We knew they were wrecks but we didn't know what we were going to find, said the diving director of the Ras Adar club, Selim Baccar.
On the first dive, we came across the submarine.
The almost intact wreck is covered in algae, its hatches and periscope now home to fish and crustaceans.
After questioning several experts, the club deduced it could only be the Ariane, which was based in Bizerte, at the time a French port in northern Tunisia.
This is the third submarine found in Tunisia, and the only one from the First World War. It's exciting, as if a history book has come to life, said Baccar.
We came across military reports detailing minute by minute everything that was happening in the Mediterranean. And when we go back to that situation, I say to myself that I'm glad I didn't experience a war.
During the First World War, German submarines wreaked havoc off the Tunisian coast, where they were initially deployed to cut the Allies off from their reinforcements of men and provisions from the French colonies, said historian Ali Ait Mihoub, from Manouba university.
About 80,000 Tunisians were mobilised to fight or work in French factories during WWI, he told AFP.
The Ariane was torpedoed by a German U-Boat while still on the surface, and only eight of the 29 crew could be saved, according AGASM, a French association of former submarine operators.
It is not common to find wrecks of submarines, especially from the First World War, because we don't know exactly where they sank, said Admiral Dominique Salles, president of the group.
Submarines, which played a decisive role for the first time during WWI, then provided very basic comfort.
The French submarines, which originally had neither bunks nor toilets, were submersibles that remained mostly on the surface, says the Encyclopedia of French Submarines.
They would only dive for a few hours at a time, for attacks, during which men and food were piled up in a suffocating engine room.