A colleague and close friend of the Halesowen sailor killed in an explosion on board a nuclear submarine has spoken of his devastation.

Scott Spragg, from Sedgley, joined the Navy within a month of leading operator mechanic Paul “Tinny” McCann, who died on board HMS Tireless while on exercise in the Arctic.

Mr Spragg was not one of the 130 members of the submarine’s 170-man crew sailing at the time, and the 35-year-old said he had been “praying it wasn’t Tinny” when he heard about the accident.

“It’s hard to take. I have just had my head in my hands for the last few days; I just don’t know what to do with myself,” he said.

“You would not meet a better bloke in your life.

“No matter how miserable you would feel, you would only have to spend 10 minutes in his company and you’d be on top of the world.

“When I heard about the accident, I was just praying it wasn’t Tinny.”

He said Mr McCann had asked for early release from the Navy this June, when he planned to move to be with his fiancee Julie in Philadelphia. “The fact he was planning to emigrate to the US later this year to be with his fiancee just makes it even more tragic,” he added.

“I think he was already in the process of selling his flat in Plymouth. Julie was the love of his life, and moving was his big dream. My thoughts are just with her and Tinny’s family now.

“I joined in May 2004, a month before Tinny, and we hit it off straight away.

“There was three of us from around here, and we’d normally knock around together – Tinny, who was a Blues fan, I’m Wolves, and Ryan Thomasson, who supports Villa, and we’ve had some great banter.”

Mr Spragg said HMS Tireless is due to return to the UK later this year, when he hoped to arrange an event to honour his friend.

A Board of Inquiry investigation has begun into last Wednesday’ accident, which also killed 20-year-old Anthony Huntrod, of Sunderland.