Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1914-12-17

few hundred yards, get my bearings,
duck. lessen the distance between me
and her and fire my torpedo.
The weather favored the attempt, it
being murky evening, with just
enough light for me to see a big snip
and not enough for her to see all OF
my boat there was above water-the
periscope. l gave the order to lower
the horizontal rudder. and we went
down, intending to make curve /
had figured out, coming up near the
cruiser amdships. Everything looked
well for success, and, having compiet-
ed the first half of the arc, / gave the
order for a gradual elevation of the
rudder.
What was my horror to find that my
boat did not obey it,. I knew at once
that my attempt would be failure,
and l knew Furthermore that l, my
crew and the submarine were in dan
ger of going to the bottom and stay
ing there Unfortunately, when l gave
the order to stop her, to keep from 60
ing any lower, the engineer lost his
head and, turning the wrong handle,
put on power instead of taking 1t OIL
This gave us so much momentum that
before we could take any measures to
right our direction we were scraping
bottom.
There was nothing for it but to let
the water out of the tanks in order to
rise straight up to the surface. What
l feared occurred. We were under so
much pressure that the pump was not
able to overcome it. This indicated
another danger-if the pumps could
not overcome the outside pressure we
would not be able to lift the cap of the
periscope, which in case We couldn't
get the boat to the surface meant that
we would not be able to escape
through the coming tower.
sprang to the hand pump / didn't
need to give an order TO the crew, for
they knew as we'll as l that this was
our only hope, and a very thin hope,
because it was hardly to be expected
that we could do what mechanical
force could not do. Knowing that our
lives depended upon our success, we
worked with that superhuman power
that is given to man when some great
object is to be achieved.
All in vain we worked till we found
that our efforts were growing less;
then one after another in quick success
sion abandoned the effort.
Not a man of us but saw certain
death ahead. We could not make the
rudder work, and neither of the pumps
was sufficiently powerful to 'expel the
water from the tanks. The most fear
full part of it was that we must die
lingering death.
Our chief thought was of those we
would leave behind us, and, thinking
that the boat might eventually be re-
covered, some of the men set about
writing letters to leave in her, bidding
loved ones goodby and telling them of
our last moments in the flesh. /, know
ing that it would be some time before
death would come to u.s. thought only
of a possible means of escape. The
only hope was that when it became
evident that we had sunk and could
not rise an effort would be made to
save us. But how could wreckers
work within few hundred feet of an
enemy's guns?
Suddenly thought struck me. De-
string to have as much depth room as
possible, I had consulted the almanac
and found that the f1oodtide CORE
sponded with the hour of approaching
darkness. We had gone under at high
tide, the difference between flood and
ebb being 16 feet. In other words,
we had 16 feet more of water pres
sure on us than we would have at
the ebb. I electrified the crew by tell
ing them the situation. Here was a
hope. If our engine could empty the
tanks at low tide we would be saved.