The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-05-07
E BOAT, DAMAGED,
TRAVELS 800 MILES
Strikes Mine and Suffers
Greatly. but Mechanism
Prevents Explosion.
HOLDS WITH BROKEN NOSE
Special cor,espondenes 10 TnE srx

LONDON. April lin a certain dock
yard In England there IL to he found a
splendid ribute 10 the prowess of Brit
ish submarines and the skill of those
who man them. II liz one of the finest
Of the British undersea boats, which.
with her bow twisted and bent rs the re-
suit Of q collision with an enemy mine
In enemy waters. covered a distance Of
almost three hundred miles under her
own power and arrived safely in n
home port. Through tho courtesy OF the
British Admiralty I was permitted TO
See this submarine and tall with her
oA4cers and crew.
She IL In harbor. with her bow facing
tenn into strips and two Of her torpedo
tubes crushed. Her plates are crumpled.
two Of her bulkheads are broken away
at the bow bat In her tubes are two
unexploded torpcdoes. Their casing Is
twisted and STAYED In and the mouth of
the aft tube II damned. But the quality
IT the high explosive In her torpedoes
and the mechanism controlling II pre-
vented an explosion. thus saving her
from total destruction.
She struck the mine head IN. The
collision smashed two OF her ~bulkheads.
broke all glass aboard her and sent the
crew sprawling to the floor Of the COM
rartments. Hut her torpedoes did not
explode her engines did not stop, her
dials did not fail to register. She
dropped 10 the bottom Of the sea and the
water flooded IN under the doors OF the
torpedo tubes aft. But within ten min
utes after the collision she had been
lighted. come to the surface and turned
her nose toward home.
When ! looked at her lying there with
her exposed tubes shining In the sun
light and her bulkheads in strips OF
rusty iron II seemed incredible that she
had been under the coast guns Of the
enemy, that she could have made In her
damaged condition a Journey Of three
hundred miles. returning TO a safe har-
Dor with the information that she had
,een sent to obtain. n added TO this
was 'he fact thai she had made the
voyage In n high sea that for twenty
hours. defcncelcss, she evaded the enemy
patrols.
had heard stories Of German sub
marines sunk by a single shot. so !
asked one OF the officers how his boat
had survived the tremendous shock Of a
mine explosion.
Her strength saves Her.
"She held because Of her strength"
HI said. 1T broke her nose and It tore
IN two Of her bulkheads. But she held
The efficiency OF the pumps was moi inn
paired. Within two minutes We had
them working
lie asked me n, would not go below
and see the marks OF the disaster. SO
followed him across a sancway and upon
he narrow iron deck which already was
beginning 90 show red patches OF rust.
The hatch was open. Below I could see
. white compartment with brass dttinRs,
7 do not know what ! expected TO lind,
but when ! stood in this compartment
I could see ITO traces whatsoever of the
catastrophe. Directly In front Of me the
four rear doors ~ the torpedo tubes,
painted a brilliant white. and to my
right and left the grea; shining torDedoes
were clamped In their racks. Only the
wheel controlling the bow rudder was
not true. The slender brass rod sup
porting IL had suffered from the vibra-
lion.
This vas the only mark made by the
mine OF the enemy. Not hat II was "a
he estimated as minor DAMAGE, for the
rudders 'ave their part 10 play in the
wise and dive and II was necessary to
come up from the bottom OF the sea. No,
a simple matter with the rudders no,
under control.
you see one OF the officers explained
to me-, I'VE didn't know what had hap.
rened-the water was pouring In aft and
bfoken glass was everywhere. w
ridn't know how much OF her was gone
We knew that every man aboard had
been knocked fat on his face. tina ths
glass OF the dials was rafting about
ander foot. But we didn't know VITA,
was TO become Of US.
ut W fine. you know. to see the
crew. They got IN their feet and al
their places before the commander hat
Time 10 order them there. In two minute.
he order to rise had gone through tc
the engine room and the pumps were
going, But whether We were going &c
rise or not remained to he seen.
ut was still enough. down there. aftel
all the noise of the explosion and tn,
smashing OF the glass. You could hea,
the motors turninE-its not much o
a SOUND they make-and the testing o'
the wireless. We were glad enough I,
hear that. And when we saw the bub
ble In the clinometer was still regis,
'ering inclination We knew that matter,
were not as bad as they might hav,
been.
"Then they threw In the levers. W,
waited. That was a bad minute. Thor
the broken glass began to rattle arount
under foot again. We were moving
We weren't long in getting up. Al an,
time there's nothing like coming IN int,
the air and sunlight after you've beer
under for n bit, But this was differ
ont. Yes, this was a bit different. S,
We started looking her over for tn.
damage"
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