LONDON (AFP) - A board of inquiry set to work in Scotland to determine the cause of a fatal fire that disabled Canada's newest British-built submarine on its maiden voyage home.
HMCS Chicoutimi was towed back into the British naval base at Faslane on Sunday, five days after a suspected electrical fire off northwest Ireland which left a seaman dead and nine injured.
Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham was to visit the sub and its surviving crew of 56 on Monday. He was also to hold talks in London with British counterpart Geoff Hoon which were scheduled before the fire at sea.
Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, Canadian Forces spokesman Commander Chris Henderson said Monday that a board of inquiry was gathering at Faslane to determine what happened on the submarine.
"They need to interview all the crew members and they need to go down into the boat and assess the damage," he said.
"Then the engineers and naval architects and technical experts, who know how the systems all weave together, will essentially take things apart and work backwards to figure out what it was that happened."
Commander Henderson said a major electrical fire started on the lower deck and burned upwards, destroying the captain's cabin.
"It was a very significant event but the crew battled it brilliantly from what I understand and did an outstanding job of saving that boat, which is no mean feat in the Atlantic at this time of year and in this kind of weather."
The Chicoutimi was the last of four refitted former Royal Navy diesel electric submarines sold by Britain to Canada.
The previous three have been plagued by leaks, mechanical defects and, in one case, a dented hull, and Ottawa has not ruled out seeking compensation from London.
Even as the Chicoutimi was nearing Scotland under tow, Hoon denied Sunday that Britain -- which owned the vessel during its refit by defence contractor BAE Systems -- might have sold faulty submarines to a NATO ally.
"These boats were brought up to Royal Navy standards," he told BBC radio on Sunday.
"They had undergone rigorous trials and tests and, indeed, Canada has had the opportunity over very many years of surveying the boats and obviously has been in negotiation with the United Kingdom during that period," he said.
"So I think ... 'buyer beware' is absolutely accurate."