Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1906-08-29
Story Of a Submarine
loriginai.

tent on one OF lne DuTlled oioNhS VI
San Francisco after the recent earth
quake swapping yarns.
"Ishro," said one, tell us abolt the
battle of the Sea of Japan. have
heard that your arm of the service
the submarines accomplished nothing,
40 YOU must have had fine chance to
zee the fight"
.u'm," grunted Ishiro Ishimura, that
comes of orders for secrecy How
ever, l don't mind telling you fellows
an experience of twelve of Us that was
more terrible than any other IN that
terrible fight At any rate ii was
unique.
We were ordered to torpedo the
Russian flagship. Well, you know the
secrecy of our government. 1t 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 by one or our
own vessels till we got In position, uen
filled the tanks. closed the coming
tower and settled down a submarine
has vertical and horizontal rndder,
and as soon as we reached the proper
depth to move forward under water
the horizontal rudder was turned 10
keep her from going down farther.
At the same time the propeller was
started.
perhaps II one of you landlubbers
In
had sense enough to be frightened at
noticing that the boat didn't obey her
rudaer. Instead of moving straight
ahead she kept going lower There IS
n tank in n submarine to be used only
i In an emergency 1t holds five tons of
water and can be eInptied in li1y.
j Our lieutenant In command ordered
this tank emptied.
I'VE all expected to see our boat rise
like n cork. She didn't do any such
thing. She started to rise. but 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 a shock, and we knew
she had struck bottom. 1t was at
least comforting to know that we
couldn't go any lower-that Is. II there
Is any comfort In being at the bottom
Of the sea without much hope of get
ting to the surface The officers were
cool, but any one could see that they
expected almost certain death. L
glanced at the depth register and was
Mortified to see that we were 10 feet
beneath the surface.
"Three alternatives threatened us.
First, there We're 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-
: Gated by poisonous gases.
; And yet you say the men in the
submarines had nothing to do but look
at the fight All we could see of 1T
was through the periscope, but we
weren't looking at the fight We were
making n fight for our lives.
1--WE must rise to the surface at once
or never. The lieutenant ordered the
rotary pump started to expel the wa
ter ballast from the tanks. What was
our horror to find that the pressure of
water from the outside WIS greater
than the force of the pump. But one
hope remained-the hand pump. On
this we must put a greater force than
t on the mechanical pump Would 1t
stand so great strain?
There was not man put to work
on that pump but expended more pow
/ er than he had ever expended before or
ever would again. All pumped, know
ing that If the attempt was a failure
there was nothing more to be done.
''T'he pump proved strong enough for
the work, and the men proved strong
enough to eXpel the water against the
enormous pressure from without
: ''The happiest moment of my life
was feeling the boat leave the bottom.
The question now was whether we
could get out of the depths before a
!, collapse 1t was like the last no
. ments of a race when n spasmodic eff
fort Is needed to win. Under such an
effort we rose slowly till we reached
the surface Then we gasped in re
lief"
$50 you failed to torpedo the flag
, ship?"
Ishimura cast IA look of scorn at the
speaker. Not so fast If you please.
Our commander gave us ten minutes to
, rest, while the sweat poured out of us
4 In streams Then we dived again."
+ "Dived again. exclaimed every one
= at once
"Yes, the lieutenant had no fancy for
: harakiri which would have been nee
+ essary for him had he failed to make
:. q second attempt so we filled tanks
' and down we went. This time she