Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1906-12-28
Story Of a Submarine

quake swapping yarns
'Ishiro," said one. tell us about the
battle of the Sea of Japan. | have
the submarines-acc nothing
so you must have had a fine chance to
see the fight"
HIM" grunted Ishiro Ishimura, that
comes of orders for secrecy How.
ever, | 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 it was
unique.
I'VE 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 of our
own vessels till we got in position, then
filed the tanks, closed the coming
tower and settled down. A submarine
has a vertical and horizontal rudder
and as soon as we reached the proper
depth to move forward under water
the horizontal rudder was turned to
keep her from going down farther.
At the same time the propeller was
started
perhaps if one Of you landlubbers
had been aboard you wouldn't have
had sense enough to be frightened at
noticing that the boat didn't obey her
rudder. Instead of moving straight
ahead she kept going lower. There is
a tank in a submarine to be used only
in an emergency. 1t holds five tons of
water and can be emptied in a jiffy.
Our lieutenant in command ordered
this tank emptied
I'VE all expected to see our boat rise
like a 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, if 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 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-
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 fight for our lives
'We must rise to the surface at once
vi htNCl lAC lnt
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 was greater
than the force of the pump But one
hope remained-the hand pump On
this we must put a greater force than
on the mechanical pump. Would 1t
stand so great strain?
There was not a 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.
The 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 mo
ments of a race when a spasmodk eff
fort is needed to win. Under such an
effort we rose slowly till we reached
the surface. Then We gasped IN re-
lief"
so you failed to torpedo the flag
shipr'
lShimura cast 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
IN streams. Then we dived again"
"Dived again" exclaimed every one
It once.
Eyes. the lieutenant had no fancy for
harakiri, which would have been nee
essary for him had he failed to make
a second attempt, so we filed tanks
and down we went. This time she
obeyed her rudder. and we moved
along about ten feet below the sur
face. We could feel a tremor at ev-
ery explosion of cannon. The lieuten-
ant watched tho Ruaeian throu1b 81.