THIRTY-THREE SAVED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 May 1939, Page 5

THIRTY-THREE SAVED

FROM THE SUBMARINE SQUALUS FEARS THAT 26 MEN ARE DEAD GALLANT RESCUE EFFORTS SURVIVORS’ STORY OF LONG WAIT. (Independent Cable Service.) (Received This Day, 9.5 a.m.) NEW YORK, May 25. Thirty-three of her occupants have been saved from the United States submarine Squalus. Twenty-six of the crew are almost, certainly dead out of the vessel’s total complement of 59. Divers are at present trying absolutely to confirm the deaths, alter which the hatches will be sealed and the dead raised with the vessel. The last contingent of eight survivors included Lieutenant Naquin, commander of the Squalus. All were placed in the decompression chamber, where they are expected to remain for the night, because of their longer immersion in the bell, which was stalled at 150 feet, apparently becoming fouled in some lines. Divers descended to assist in clearing them. In in interview with the North American Newspaper Alliance, Quartermaster Murphy, one of the survivors, stressed the bitter cold - during the wait. “All through the first afternoon we took it easy trying to save all movement that would eat up air and gas. It was so cold I don’t think I will ever get warm again. “That was the worst part of the last night. We got into our bunks, as many as could, and wrapped ourselves up, and still we were cold. We did not do much talking because that took energy, and we did not know how long we would have to be there, and who could read when 26 shipmates were missing, and there was every reason to believe they were dead?” THE MOMENT OF DISASTER. Lieutenant Bland, one of those rescued, in a statement to the Press, said: “We knew something was wrong a minute after diving. The captain came below as water began coming in the ventilation lines. An unidentified sailor pounced upon and slammed the watertight door leading to the affected area, ic took super-strength to do that. I don’t know how he did it. “We lost all power almost immediately, and ■ all communication with the aft part of the ship. Throughout the long day and night of waiting no one was excited. We tried for hours to attract the attention of those in the aft compartment by telephone. We never got an answer. We don’t know what is was tnat happened. It could happen to any mechanism that requires complicated parts. “I never saw men handle a situation any better. The captain was perfectly cool. He gave orders calmly, and the orders were performed perfectly by each and every man.” TERRIBLE RUSH OF WATER. A naval officer said that, even if the water in the Squalus did not vise above the heads of the men in the flooded compartments, the terrible rush of water when the ship tilted upward as it struck the bottom must undoubtedly have crushed them. Any who might have survived immediate drowning or fatal injury undoubtedly succumbed to exposure. The water temperature at the bottom was 36 degrees. The wives of many of those rescued, who had spent the night together in the house of a naval officer in Porthmouth, danced with joy when they saw their husbands, who waved to them joyously as they were being taken to the base hospital for examination. The bell chamber which was used in this disaster for the first time in actual rescue work is said to be a development of the United States Navy and the design has been made available to all foreign navies. The United States now has five on each of its five submarine rescue ships. The bell is an intricate affair with electric lighting and telephone systems. It weighs nine tons and is operated by motor. ■