The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-10-21
AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA.

Sensations the First Time You Go Down in a Submarine Boat.
 Lieut.. F. c. Pendleton, an assistant to the equipment ocffire at the Reston. Navy Yard, gave the following vivid account during talk the other even 1 ing at the Grand of his first eXperi- ence under water in submarine boat. l At the time, about year ago, he was an ensign and attached 10 the battleship Massachusetts, stationed | in the Pacific:
 q may first tell you," he said, "that, when in the submerged state the motive power of a submarine is no longer supplied by gasoline en- zine, but by an electric motor of a lit- tie more than half the others horse power. The reason for the reduction is that under water the submarine, having less resistance to encounter is more easily driven along, though it is not thought wise to go at greater speed under water than seven or eight miles an hour. Well, then to tell you of tine sensations I felt on going down on such craft for the first time. As we were about to descend a violent whirling filled my ears and 1 experi- enced what seemed an intens2 vibra- tion which threatened to shake the bottom out of the vessel.
 Suddenly the submarine took a tremendous list, and the tiny craft seemed to be tumbling over in a mad scamper that suggested the end of of everything. But instead of a smash against the ocean bed the vessel Irighted herself and I experienced a feeling similar to that I suppose the aeronaut must feel when floating through space in his balloon. The fact was the vessel had been forced 95 feet under water head first. My feelings after I realized that l was rushing through the water at depth from the surface sufficient to drown a six-foot man, were he six times as tall, is almost fndescribable. I con- Hess I had a kind of haunting fear thSt every moment would bring a sickening crash, telling that some Isemi-sunken object had been fouled.
 and never again would I see the blessed light of day. The electric lamps gleamed and sparkled through out the vessel, lighting up the com-
 pact stuffy interior in a fairly present. able way, but from the tiny glazed port holes-they were no longer win
 dows-of the brass coming tower l could see nothing except a huge harled wall, rising from unknown depths to | hnf frl,t 1p 0f course, and imperivious to the eye as stone. We travelled along in dense. liog like darkness, guided by the com- lpass and other delicate instruments. I may say here that the submarine is lso delicately balanced-longitudina stability to give it it's technical name that a man walking from bow to stern would be sufficient to tilt the
 bowup a few degrees were it not that an ingenious arrangement compensates for thenece ssary movements of the crew. Even more pronounced would
 be the effect of discharge of one of the vessels torpedoes from the tube in h CT hull did not a compensatory
 weight, in the shape of sea water come to the rescue. As soon as this tube is vacated the water rushes in and takes it's place. But to return
 As you know, below the surface we breath artificial atmosphere of com
 pressed air, and although I was early
 conscious of the fact, for a time dur ling my first trip below I experimented no inconvenience, although I had al , occasional longing to run upstairs fol just one big gulp of fresh air But
 after while my breath came in shor , quick gasps.
 Then it grew and grew until it be- came one of almost insup. portable misery, and I turned to my fellow officers to learn the effect ol , the phenomena on them. But being , old hands at the game they were all mighty strong and comfortable look ing. I need hardly tell you that any