The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1911-12-06
Wh|M OF AW0MAN
Il Cost Her Her Life In the Wreck
Of a Submarine.
DROWNED WITH HER FlANcE

Story Of a Pathetic Episode That Wa
lntertwined With the Tragic Loss
With All on Board Of the French
Torpedo Boat PIuvioss.
Underlying the tragedy of the loss
Of the French submarine torpedo boat
Pluyiose with twenty-seven lives
when she was sunk in the bottom Of
the English channel by a collision
with a surface steamship on May 25,
1910, was a piteous episode, involving
the death Of a beautiful and brilliant
young Frenchwoman.
The French government suppressed
the story so thoroughly that to this
day the name of the young woman is
not known save to those in paramount
authority in the navy, but American
naval officers say the fact of the hap
pening has become known to other
naval men all ove the world.
The Pluviose and a sister submarine
had gone out from the navy yard at
Calais about / o'clock in the afternoon
for q series of maneuvers. She was
about two miles from shore and was
disporting in a series of dives and ris-
ings to the surface. The feat known
as ~"porpoising" was being accom-
plished with great skill. the submarine
being entirely responsive to every turn
of a directing wheel in her machinery.
The act of "porpoising" is ar imitation
Of the action of the porpoise in its leaps
above water and prompt disappear
ance Immediately afterward. In the
submarine the Is made for
the purpose Of scouting. the boat be-
ing brought toward the surface sufi-
GENTLY for it's periscope to protrude out
of water, when the officer below is en-
abled to make a general circular sur
vey of the water above him. Then the
boat dives out of sight. In case Of war
she would have sighted her enemy and
be enabled to proceed closely to a bat
tleship or cruiser and discharge tor
pedoes directly at her foe.
In the act of thus coming to the sur
face the Pluviose came up directly I'M
der the channel steamship Pas de Ca
lais. The keel Of the Calais struck the
submarine and tore a 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 a crew of twenty-seven men.
COmmandant Pras was the senior Off
Ger. There were two other officers.
Which one Of these three it was whose
sweetheart was aboard is not definite
~ 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 fiancee 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 q
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 a 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 %patrolling 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 fascinatedly, watched the dial
Indicator az it 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 vas raised and tugged into shall
low water, none that had been aboard
of her wal alive. She had filed com
pletely with water. As she was raised
the water poured from the great cash