The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-11-25
FROM BENEATH THE WATER.
Torpedo Boat Fulton Arises safely.
Those on Board Did Not Know of
storm.

Torpedo Boat Fulton Arises safely.
Those on Board Did Not Know of
STERN.
New York. Nov. 24.-In the presence
of a. big crowd which, despite the
storm, assembled to witness the emerg-
ing of the submarine boat Fulton, that
craft rose from the bottom of Peconic
bay, which is at the eastern end of
Long Island, this morning at 10:30
o'clock with all well and greatly sur
prised to find that there was a storm
raging.
The test of the Fulton's staying pow
ers were highly satisfactory, not only
to the officers of the company that
built her and the naval officers pres
ent, but to those who went to the bot
tom in the boat. They say there was
not the slightest discomfort to them
during their more than fifteen hours of
submersion beneath the surface.
Capt. Gable of the Holland company,
who was in command, said that the
boat could have remained down for
three months If there was food enough
on board Although there was only six
feet of water over the top of the tur-
ret, those on board felt nothing of the
storm. Through the night there was
light rolling motion to the craft but
this was ascribed to the regular mo-
ton of the water. and not to the dis
turbance which was rolling the waves
high on the shore.
Immediately on coming to the SUR
face the Fulton, under her own power,
ran alongside the dock and tied up.
Rear Admiral Lowe and Lieut.. Arthur
Macarthur refused to go into any dis
cussion of the performance of the boat,
except to say that they would be sat
isfled to stay longer.
Members of the crew say they ex-
perienced no difficulty in breathing,
and that the air was all that could be
desired. and much purer and better
than in an ordinary closed room in
which are several persons. Every
piece of machinery worked to perfec-
tion during the night. The men ate
two meals while under water and en-
joyed them.
Rear Admiral Lowe said later:
when we went down I assisted
Capt. Gable in making an inspection of
the ship. Then | retired, while the
crew played cards and read. Every
few hours l was awakened and made
inspections of the conditions. Early
this morning Capt. Gable called my
attention to the pressure gauge, which
indicates the depth. 1t showed that
we were lower in the water than at
high tide last night when we SUBJ
merged. There was nothing to show
us why it was. but little while later
l noticed that the water. as we saw
it through the dead lights, was very
dirty. and l imagined that a storm
was blowing. There was no rock or
roll Of the vessel to indicate what was
going on"
Con- inuing. Rear Admiral Lowe said
that the air in the boat was clean and
pure.
Not once" added the Admiral. did
l notice any sign of bad air. gas or
other impurity Considering that we
did not draw on the tanks at all, con-
slider this wonderful. II upsets all the
theories of the physicians and scien-
lists who tell us that what we did last
night was impossible. ] was very crit
ical all night and nothing escaped
me-
The longest time that any submarine
boat had been under water heretofore
in the United States was three hours.