DUBLIN (AFP) - One of nine Canadian sailors injured when their newly-delivered, British-built submarine caught fire in the North Atlantic has died, the Canadian government said.
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin announced the death of Lieutenant Chris Saunders in parliament in Ottawa just hours after three of the injured were admitted to hospital in Ireland, one in critical condition.
The trio had been airlifted Wednesday evening in a British Sea King helicopter to the general hospital in Sligo, northwest Ireland.
A British frigate reached the crippled HMCS Chicoutimi earlier Wednesday after the sub and its 57 crew endured a terrifying night adrift in gale-force conditions off northwest Ireland following an electrical fire.
The submarine was on its way to Halifax, Nova Scotia, home of Canada's naval fleet in the North Atlantic, less than a week after it was commissioned in Scotland following a thorough refit.
Irish officials told AFP that the diesel electric submarine -- one of four built in the 1980s that Canada has bought from Britain -- was off County Mayo late Wednesday, drifting southwards at three miles (five kilometres) an hour.
Informed sources in Dublin said they expected Ottawa to ask for permission for the submarine to be towed into Irish waters, probably Blacksod Bay on the western coast of County Mayo.
If such a request is made, "we will deal with it expeditiously," Irish Marine Minister Pat the Cope Gallagher said.
The British frigate HMS Montrose reached the Chicoutimi at around 1:30 pm (1230 GMT) Wednesday to coordinate rescue and salvage efforts, a Ministry of Defence spokeswoman in London said.
"HMS Montrose will be establishing communications with the submarine and assessing the situation to decide what the next step will be," she said.
Photographs from a Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft loitering over the Chicoutimi showed several red-suited Canadian sailors on its bridge, with white froth lapping at the black-hulled vessel in a dark swelling sea.
Commodore Tyrone Pyle, commander of Canada's Atlantic fleet, said earlier Wednesday any towing of the powerless sub would likely not take place before Friday and would last several days.
The submarine made a distress call at around 1415 GMT Tuesday from 100 nautical miles (180 kilometers) off the northwest coast of Ireland after a fire broke out behind an electrical panel, the Canadian navy said.
It took 15 minutes to put out the fire, but the blaze was enough to leave the Chicoutimi without power. Officials said all nine injured had been victims of smoke inhalation.
"They will have a certain amount of battery-powered emergency lighting, but they will be trying to conserve whatever power they have," a Royal Navy spokesman told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency.
"It's going to be extremely dangerous for someone to be on board that frigate throwing a line, and even more dangerous for someone from the submarine crew to be outside trying to tie that up."
Two tugs -- one from the British naval base at Faslane, Scotland and the second a coastguard vessel from Shetland -- were among several vessels trying to reach the submarine, as investigation teams prepared to probe the cause of the accident.
Last week the Times newspaper in London said Canada might sue Britain over all four second-hand submarines -- including the Chicoutimi -- after they had been plagued by "serious malfunctions and corrosion" including leaks and dents.