The Celina Democrat. (Celina, O. [Ohio]) 1895-1921, 1912-06-21

was OF such heroic quallues as 10
merit special attention, by receiving
the American medal Of honor from the
hands Of the president Of the United
States. The American medal of honor
ranks with the Victoria cross Of Eng.
land or the Iron cross OF Germany,
and it is as hard, II not harder, to win.
This medal always carries with It a
gratuity Of 800, but to either man or
officer It means a good deal more.
There is the case OF James f.
Scott, a gunners mate on the U. S. S.
Montgomery, who, knowing Of his dan
ger, obeyed orders and went to the
bottom Of Narragansett bay in a div
ing suit, after a lost torpedo, which
had slowly sunk after being fired from
a submerged tube, and which might
start off at any moment. Down he
went and found the torpedo resting
in a dangerous position, but approach
ing carefully he inspected it, and
thinking It still dangerous went up
and reported conditions. He was
again ordered down to fasten a line
to it, and he went-but let him tell his
own story.
Torpedo Practice.
1T was on Aug "a, 1909, and we
we're firing torpedoes on the range in
Narragansett Bay. l was working in
the forward torpedo room preparing
an 1S-inch Whitehead torpedo for fir
ing from the submerged tube The
torpedo was set to run 1000 yards at
q knots per hour We made all the
adjustments and. placed the torpedo in
the tube ready for firing Having pre-
pared the torpedo for the run I was /
naturally interested in its perform !
ance, and went to the forecstle to !
watch it. The gunner remained be-
low to see that all went right, as he |
torpedo was to be fired from the |
bridge-firing apparatus. The torpedo |
left the ship without turning over its |
engines, but went about Sc yards |
with its own initial impulse headway |
and then slowly sank to the bottom in |
about A feet of water. Boats were |
called in from the range and buoys |
were dropped over the spot where the !
torpedo sank.
Well, the executive officer from the
ship had seen bubbles rising to the
surface from the escaping air of the
torpedo and was in a terrible hurry to
get after it. ] knew that it was dan
gerous to go after a torpedo that had
went to the bottom the way this one
had 1t might start off at any min
ute, and besides It would probably
float of its own accord by the way
the air was escaping from It. You
know the compTessed-air charge gives
a torpedo negative buoyancy, but
when a certain amount would leak out
the torpedo would have positive buoy
ancy and rise to the surface. This
hat go down, although I stated that
we did not generally dive for torpe-
does that sank like this one did. It
was thought, however, that the tor
pedo might get adrift and that it
would be all right for me to go down
If I went right away.
Was Gaining 8uoyancy.
so l went out in the boat and
donned the diving suit Before the
helmet was put on, told them
would find the torpedo first and look
over the ground and then come up
for line to put on it. Going down
followed the buoy line. The water
was not very clear and / couldn't see
more than a few feet, but just before
| touched bottom the head Of the tor.
pedo appeared right before my eyes,
and ! thought that it was already on
its way up, but when my feet touched
bottom ] realized my mistake
THE torpedo was only four or five
feet away and resting at an angle