Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1911-10-26
WITHIN OF AWOMAN
II Cost Her Her Life In the Wreck
of a Submarine.
DROWNED WITH HER FIANcE.
Story Of Pathetic Episode That Was
intert@ined With the Tragic Loss
With All on Board of the French
Torpedo Goat Pluviose.

intertSined With the Tragic Loss |
With All on Board of the French |
Torpedo Boat Pluviose
Underlying the tragedy OF the loss
OF the French submarine torpedo boat
Pluviose with twenty seven lives
when she was sunk IN the bottom of
he English channel by collision
with surface steamship GU May -.
1910. was piteous episode. involving
the death OF. beautiful and brilliant
young Frenchwonan
The French government suppressed
the story 50 thoroughly that TO this
day the name oi the youuE woman is
not known save ga those in paramount
authority in lhe raty uut American
naval officer, say the fact of the hap
pening has become known to other
naval men an over the world.
The Pluylo>e and sister submarine
had gone out from the navy yard at
Calais about ] o'clock in the afternoon
for series Of uaueuvCrs she was
about two niles from shore and was
iisportin@ I'm "a series OF dives and ris-
ings TO the surface. The feat known
as "porpoisng' was being accom-
plished with great skin, the submarine
being entirely responsive To every turn
OF a directing wheel in her machinery.
The act of ''porpoiainl" s. I'D Imitation
of the action Of the porpniSe in its leaps
above water and prompt disappear
ance Immediately afterWaId In the
submarine the maucuver is made for
the purpose Of scouting The boat be-
ing brought toward the sariu,e sufii-
GENTLY for its peliscole 10 Iro;rude out
of water. when the officer below is en-
abled TO make u general circular sur
vey of the water above him. Then the
boat dives ont OF sight. In case of war
she would have sighted her enemy and
be enabled to proceed closely to bat
tleship or cruiser and discharge tor
pedoes directly at her Zoe.
In the act Ct thus coming 10 the sur
face the Pluviose came up directly un
der the channel steamship Pas de Ca
lais. The keel Of the Calais struck the
submarine and tore huge hole in her
upper easement. a rent fifteen feet
long and two feet wide. Into this the
water rushed. The submarine stag
gered along with her hull just showing
above the surface, her engines dis
abled, her crew unable to do anything
to check the thrush of water. And she
went down,
She had crew of twenty-seven men.
Commandant Pras was the senior Off
two ~
Which one of these three it was whose
sweetheart was aboard is not definite
ly known to the American naval off,
GERS, but they declare there is no doubt
of the fact
One of the three officers listened to
the pleadings of his liancee that she be
allowed to make a trip in the sub
| marine with him and share with him
the peril that his duty so often required
him TO brave. He must have had a
consultation with his brother officers
and got their consent to wink at it,
for the regulations of the French navy
strictly forbid women to make any
| trips in submarine boats. Perhaps
the very fact that it was forbidden,
| that if she succeeded in making a
| journey to the bottom of the sea in a
submarine she would have enjoyed an
experience the like of which no other
Frenchwoman might claim, actuated
| her. But, whatever the conditions that
brought it about, the young officer
did escort her secretly aboard the Plu-
| viose.
She wore Il long oilskin coat and
sou'wester hat belonging to her sweet
heart, which sufficiently disguised her
sex to admit Of her going aboard with
out being challenged by any of the
sentrieS patroling the quay where the
Pluviose lay tethered on the day that
| she was to make her fatal trip. And
| the girl, smiling over her triumph,
| climbed down the ladder into the little
gasoline filed room and heard the or
| ders given for the battening down of
\ all the matches. the firm screwing into
| places of these coverings and then,
perhaps fascpatedly. watched the dial
Indicator as = told how the Pluviose
was sinking deeper and deeper into
| the sea.
Divers who went down after the
| PluvioSe was sunk, carrying below
steel cables with which Intellectual at
tempts were made with huge derricks
above to bring the Pluviose to the sur
face, reported that they heard rappings
in the interior of the submarine. In
any event, when, days later, the Plu-
viose was raised and tugged into shall
| low water, none that had been aboard
| Of her was alive. She had filed COM
| pletely with water. AS she was raised
the water poured from the great cash
| that had been cut in her steel case
ment by the Channel steamship.
Once in shallow water it was the
work OF only n little while to remove
the covering of the coming tower. In
that tower they found the young off,
Ger. And dead in his arms, with her
own arms tightly clasped around his
neck and her young face resting
against his breast, they found the
| young woman.-New York World.