Valdez daily prospector., 1913-05-24
RUSSIAN CREW v NEAR DEATH -t.
Boat Lies Nine Hours on Bottom of Sea--Raised and All Arc
 Saved.

A ftCcllL ulSpdtCH o'ii ot' Petersburg relates the following terrible experience of the crew or a Russian submarine:
 Owing to- the official inquiry, h" full details of the terrible cX- perience of the commander and }crcw of nineteen of the submarine Minoga are now available. The iboat, under the command of Lieut.. Garsoev, was manoeuvering off iLibau, when she was seen to take a sudden plunge. The appear ance of the emergency buoy first gave the alarm. Then for nine hours nothing was known.
 The accident happened at 5 in the afternoon, but owing, it would seem, to the dispersal of the men on a Saturday the message was not acted on for several hours, and it was not until 9 at night that the salvage vessels reached the spot. The weather conditions remained happily favorable, and divers having fixed the lifting chains, the Minoga was success fully brought to the surface by midnight, having been nine hours at the bottom of the sea.
 When the after hatch was op- ened three men staggered out, barely able to crawl. Fifteen of the crew and the captain were got out unconscious from the after part of the vessel. There remaim-' ed only the cOXSWaln, who was in the coming tower amidships It was necessary to raise the sub marine we'll out of the water to get al the coming tower, and this took another three hours work, but the cOXswain. when releas- ted after l2 hours confinement, was in the best condition of any lof the crew. Thus the whole command of 20 men was saved and the submarine recovered af- ter lying nine hours at the bot tom of the sea helpless.
 The cause of the accident has been ascertained to have been defective ventiIatnr Before eX- ercising, these ventilatorS. which are indispensable to the proper action of the accumulatOrs which provide the motive energy of sub marines. are screwed home from the inside. \ vcntilatOr in the forward part of the vessel was either defective OF had not been properly screwed home. The laI- fer mi"h' happen owing to the presence of some foreign body, a tclraning rag, for instance. which lwouId suffice to prevent a proper ,watrrl ight closing of the venti- lator. while leaving the man who had charge of il under he i'm 'prrSsion that he had duly screw ed it home.
 Whatever the inquiry may show to have been the immediate cause of the defect, il is known that the accident happened by water leak ing in through this forward ven- ltilatOr until the delicate trim of the submarine was affected and she plunged head foremost to the bottom. Water continued to en- |, ter until the air within the vessel was so far compressed as to re- sist the entrance of any more at pressure of seven fathOms' depth.
 On this air the crew of 20 sur vived, the captain and. fifteen of the men in the body of the ves- sel suffering also from the fumes of chlorine gas given off by the accumulatOrS. The three men who craw1rd out unaided by the afterhatch, and the cOxswain, who after being confined in the con- ming tower three hours longer than any of his mates was yet the least affected, were apparent ly out of reach of the chlorine gas fumes, and the latter, in ad dition, appears to have had more and better air to breathe. All have now recovered from the ef- fects of their terrible experience. oh n