The daily Alaskan., 1915-01-26
ASubnnarine Episode
By F. A. MTCHEL

1 There was time when warfare. it's 1 appurtenauces, it's novelties, indeed everything pertaining to 1t, was public property. The Japanese changed all that making everything secret Since 1 the Russo-JapaneSe fight the war cor resnondent has had q hard time of It, and many officers are pledged not a reveal what occurs in the line of their i duty. When I was assigned to the command of q submarine was obliged to make pledges that prevent my giv- ing certain points connected with this story.
 Before I was ordered to attempt to blow up an enemy's ship l was given time to get used to my submarine. This did not take long, though at first [ confess sinking down under water made ne creep a bit. When I had had a couple of weeks of 1t l was ordered on several attempts that were all fall ures. The difficulty in handling sub l marine is that when beneath the sur | face you can't see anything and when l above it, if you are near an enemy's ship. you are liable to get knocked out 1 by a shot.
 l was orderad one afternoon to go for a cruiser The time chose was between daylight and dark, my object being to steal upon her to within a 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 a murky evening, with just enough light for me to see ht@ ship . and not enough for her {" Svr all of my boat there was above w#trr-the , peCiScupe 1 gave the order tu lower 1 the horizontal rudder, and we went | down. intending to make curve l ] had figured out. coming up near the cruiser amidShipS Everything looked l Well for success. and, having Complet- rd the first half of the are, gave the order for a gradual elevation of the ruddrr.
 ] What was my horror to find that my ] boat did not obey 1t. l knew at once that my attempt would be a failure, and 1 knew furthermore that l, my crew and the submarine were in dan. ger of going to the bottom and stay ir- there Unfortunately when l gave the order to stop her. to keep from go ing any lower the engineer lost his head and. turning the wrong handle, put on power instead of taking it off. . This gave Us SD much momentum that before We could take any measures to right our direction We were ScrapinS 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 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 periSrOpe. 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. l didn't need to give an order to the crew, for they knew as we'll as that this was our only hope. and very thin hope, because 1t was hardly to he expected that we could do what |, mechanical force could not do. Knowing that our lives daueudrd 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 son 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 cXpel the water from the tanks. The most fear full part of 1t was that We must die lingering death.
 Our chief thought was of those we would leave behind us. and, thinking rhat the boat might eventually he re covered some of the men set about
 writing letters to leave ill her bidding loved ones cOodby and telling them Of our last moments in tue flesh. l. know in= that it would be some time before dcath would come tO Us, thought only uf possible means of escape. The only hope was that when it became evident that we had sunk and could uut rise an effort would be made to Savp us. But now could wreckers work within few hundred feet of an rapmy's guns?
 suddenly q thought struck me. De string tu have as much depth room as possible, had consulted the almanac and found that the foodtide core sponded with the hour of approaching darkness. We had gone under at high tide. the difference between flood and ebb being sixteen feet. In other words, 5 We had sixteen feet more of water pressure on us than we would have at . the ebb. 1 electrified the crew by tell ing them the situation. Here was a