The Cairo bulletin., 1906-08-12
Story Of d Submarine
'originnt

W ioriginatl
" A party OF sJapanesevwcre sitting in
tent on one OF the burned blocks Of
san Francisco after the recent earth
quake swapping yarns.
"Ishlro,' said one tell us about the
battle Of the Sea of Japan ! have
heard that your arm of the service +
The submarines accomplished nothing,
so YOU must have had fine chance to
see the fight"
"u'm." grunted lshiro lshimura, that
4 comes OF orders for secrecy, How
ever. | don't mind telling you follows
! an experience of twelve of us that was
! more terrible Clan any other In that
! unique.
we were ordered 20 torpedo the
Russian flagship. Wei, you know the
secrecy Of our government Ii WAS
not desired that any success Of our
submarines should be known. So we
were all sworn to secrecy. AS soon
as we sighted the fleet and located the
flagship we skinned the surface be
behind and concealed aly one of our
own vessels tilI'we rot HI position. then
filed the tanks. closed the coming
tower and settled down. y submarine
has vertical and a horizontal ruddeI,
ana rs soon as we reached the proper
depth To move forward under water
the horizontal rudder was turned -
Keep her from going down farther.
IT tue same time the propeller was
started
Perhaps if one of YOU laudluhbers
had been aboard you wouldn't have
had sense enough to be frightened at
noticing that the boat didn't obey her
rutlder. Instead of moving straight
ahead She kept going lower. There is
n tank ia submarine 70 be used only
in an emergency 1t holds five tons of
water and can he emptied in a iify.
our Lieutenant in command ordered .
tsis tank emptiad
we all expected to see orr boat rise f
like cork. She didr't do any such
thing. She started % rise. brs soon .
began sinking again. The screw
should have been stopped, for since our
nose was pointed down we only sank
the quicker Down. down we went
till there was shock and we knew
she had struck bottom. 1t was ut
least comforting to know that we
70 any lower that is. If there
Is any comfort in being at the bottom i,
Of the sea without much hope os get
ting TO the surface The officers were
cool. but any one could see that they
expected almost certain death. |
ut the depth register and was
horrified 10 see that we,were 10 feet
beneath the surface.
Z ''Three alternatives. threatened US
First. there were many tons Of water
holding down the coming tower, our
only means Of getting out: second. the
terrible pressure without was forcing
the water In through leaks that were
starting and threatened TO drown us.
and third, we would at last be suffo
.ated by poisonous gases.
And yet you say the men in the
had nothing TO do but look
1t the fight. All we could see of it
was through the periscope. but we
weren't looking at the fight We were
making a fight for our lives.
we must T5ss to the surface NJ once
,r never Tile lieutenant ordered the
'otary pump started to expel the wa
or ballast from the tanks. What was
,ur horror TO find that the pressure of
water from the outside was greater
han the force of the pump. But one
rope remained-the hand pump. On
his we must put a greater force than
IN the mechanical pump. Would It
itand so great strain?
There was not a man put to work
m that pump but expended more pow
'r than he had ever expended before or
'ver would again. All pumped, know
ng that IL the attempt was a failure
here was nothing more 10 be done.
The pump proved strong enough for
De work. and the men proved strong |
'uough to cxpel the water against the
normous pressure from without
THE happiest moment of my life
vas feeling the boat leave the bottom
The question now was whether we
.ould get ont Of the depths before