The Press., 1915-01-06
ASubnariine Episode
By F. A. MITCHELL

| appurtenanceS, Its novelties, indeed everything pertaining to it, was public
 property. The Japanese changed all
 that. making everything secret. Since the Russo-Japanese fight the war cor
 respondent has had hard time of 1t
 and many officers are pledged not to
 reveal what occurs in the line of theil
 duty. When l was assigned to the
 command of q submarine 1 was obliged
 to make pledges that prevent my giv' | ing certain points connected with this
 story.
 Before l was ordered to attempt to
 blow up an enemy's ship I was given time to get used to my submarine
 This did not take long, though at first
 I confess sinking down under water
 made me creep bit When had had
 a couple of weeks of it 1 was ordered on several attempts that were all fail
 ures. The difficulty in handling a sub.
 marine is that when beneath the sur face you can't see anything and when
 above 1t. if you are near an enemys
 ship. you are liable to get knocked out by a shot.
 was ordered one afternoon to go l for a cruiser. The time I 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 murky evening, with just enough light for me to see a big ship and not enough for her to see all Of
 my boat there was above water-the periscope. I gave the order to lower the horizontal rudder, and we went down. intending to make curve had figured out, coming up near the cruiser amidships. Everything looked we'll for success. and. having complet- ed the first half of the arc, I 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 1 knew furthermore that l, my crew and the submarine were in dan ger of going to the bottom and stay ing there. Unfortunately when I 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 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 1 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 ill case we couldn't get the boat to the surface meant that we would not be able to escape through the coming tower.
 l sprang to the hand pump. l didn't need to give an order to the crew, for they knew as well as that this was our only hope. and very thin hope, because 1t was hardly to be expected 
 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 s-on n ndoupd fha offort
 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 1t was that we must die a lingering death.
 Our chief thought was of those we 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. l. know ing that 1t would be some time before death would come to Us. thought only of 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 Il thought struck me. De- string to have as much depth room as possible. 1 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. we had sixteen feet more of water pressure on us than we would have at the ebb electrified the crew by tell Ing them the situation Here was hope. If our engine could empty the tanks at low tide we would be saved.
 That was Il long six hours. In four hours we made trial. but without success. In five hours we tried again. Where seemed to he occasional rises of. say. foot or two. In another half hour we tried it again and could feel ourselves rising. but very slowly. How ever. as the pressure above lessened we went up more rapidly till we reach ed the surface.
 Shall l ever forget that first sight of the upper world?
 Two days later l tried again and