TRAPPED UNDER SEA

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 27, 27 October 1920, Page 2

TRAPPED UNDER SEA

IN A DISABLED UNITED STATES SUBMARINE ' FORTUNATE ESCAPE — ** "It was hell" was the graphic way in which one of the 40 meri imprisoned for 48 hours oil the disabled. United States submarine S-5 summed up his experiences. Tho submarine underloo.' .i quick diva for exercise—in naval piu-lanco a "crash dive." A large intake valve, failed to close when the boat went down, and some of the compartments began to fill with water. The crew mnnaged' to oxpel 6omo of the water, when the stern ol the submarine began to rise, until tho boat rested' with 'her nose on tho bottom of the sea, and tho stern inclining at, au angle of about CO degrees. Tho fact that the stern was out of.the water, which they soon discovered, gave the men a ray of hope, but their troubles woro made infinitely worse by the subsequeiit discovery that tho storage batteries had' flooded and chlorine gas formed and released. This is the, gas tnat was sent over by tho Germans in their original cloud gas attacks against the Canadians, and lias, a terrible c:ioilng and cutting effect on the throat and lungs. Tho imprisoned liion' had to work in darkness ill a terribly hot and..foul .atmosphere laden with deadly ga6 fumes foi' almost 4S hours. The commander set a man-to work trying to drill a small' hole ill the ■ steel plates of the vessel's stern, but the conditions were so. terrible that cue man couM work but. ten minutes and progress was slow. .There was'no fresh air in tho boat, and .no way of ' getting any. The supply of oxygen TSoon began to be depleted, and <it was only a few hours before the. men were ..bleeding from the nose and mouth aiid suffering from dizziness and nausea. '.'How 'they were rescued from' their awful position' is graphically related in 'The Sun and New York Herald," by Frederick W. Whitehead, chief machinist's mate on tho vessel. "There were 36 men and four officers on the S-5," said Whitehead. "We went down' into 150 feet of water, and the first we knew that anything was wrong was when water, started'to-rush..in on us'.. We. hit bottom , and rested , easily, ' The captain and the men down there at the bottom, of .the sea, had a. conference, and we started tho air salvage 'system.', to work. .This has 2300, : pounds of compressed air pressure, and-wo tried .to blow tlio water out, of the tank, but the'added water, was too much,.and wo could not rise. The torpedo room was completely flooded. We closed the watei tank .door from tho torpedo room into the-battery loom, but still there was two or threo.fcck of water in each room. We tried to blow the water out .of the torpedo room, but with no effect. We blew • all of tho oil out Of the fuel tank undei the boat, but .we were, still too heavy to rise. • "The captain then figured out that our boat was 291 feet long, and the watei was but IGO feet deep, and that by standing the bout on her nose the stern would nroject through- the water. ■ T& do this" we had to let tho water from other compartments run-into the storage room, where we knew it ; would form deadly chlorine gas, but .there, was nothing else to do. "We blew out this water, but as it rushed past and the stem began to rise we were all swept along with it, several of tho men sustaining injury. The salt, water 'on the battery plates caused the formation of the chlorine gas, ■ and the men bciran choking Wc had only six gas masks between us. "Tho captain worked his way aft, and we communicated with him through a speaking tube. Wo finally had to quit our' post, as we wero choking with the gas. We got into the next compartment with difficult, and had to return to open a valve so that wc could get air. The lights then went out. , "Finally we got into, the tiller room, Mid, after .five hours' work, managed to drill a small hole .through the steel plates,."" Wo were about 25 feet übove tho water then. Wo then put old rags on the fuel.oil' pipe, anjl pushed through one of these holes as a signal to a steamer we saw alwtil nvo miles avaw But she did not see us. "An hoar later the Alanthus came along, and, luckily for ns, she was off lier route through being partly disabled. She saw us and sent a .boat to holp us. After getting a cable around us two crews from that bo/it star.ed to drill fiom the outside We kept working inside. but tho air was so foul that we could work only for ten 'minutes at a time, and fall back exhausted. Finally a hole-was made large enough to put a hoso through, and thus air was pumped '""'wfrigscd up a funnel, -and through this we received the first Wwel had in 20 hours After being down 3a hours a plate was cut large ennueh' for us to bo carried out. Whitehead said all that the crew and officers; had'to eat for the 35 hours was canned tomatoes, corned beef, and string beans, as the con,par ment in jhichfto other food was,stored was flooded, lwo bucketsful of water was all the crew had to drink. ..