The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-08-01
DIVING VESSELS
 SAILORS PANICkY
 WHEN SUB FAILS
Suffers Accident That Lake Boat Crews Never Have
 to Fear.

Additional proof of the superiority of Lake types of submersibles comes today from Block Island where it has become known that a crew of one Of the new L-type boats had narrow escape from death as air valves in one of the forward tanks refused tempo rarily to function and the boat sank.
 The despatch under date of July 31 states:
 The desperate plight and near panic of the crew of a submarine in practice trials here last week were learned to- day.
 Three submarines, the L-1, L-3, and L-4, have made the new harbor here their rendezvous for several weeks preliminary to the tests that are to be conducted beginning August 4. They have been accompanied by the moth CT ship" the U. S. s. Bushnell, named after the Connecticut inventor of the first crude submarine. craft.
 The submarines on the day of the accident were practicing diving. They are of the type manufactured by the Fore River Shipbuilding company and make their dives on an inclined plane while the Lake boats, designated as G-boats, sink horizontally. One of the L-boats had submerged to depth Of 50 feet, and, after certain tests, the order was given to rise to the sur
 face This lightning of the craft is, accomplished by injecting air into the water tanks. The air pumps were set to work, but the boat did not rise.
 Instead, it began sinking further and before the captain realized the s1tua- ton it had sunk to a depth of 85 feet and struck bottom with thud. The downward impulse was so great that after resting on the bottom the sub marine at once listed badly. The shock of the impact with the bed of the ocean and the listing of the boat gave the first information to the crew of 2S men that something serious had happened. Just how serious form the panic that followed took on cannot be learned, as the members of the crew refuse to discuss the matter, but it is known that some of the men be- came hyster:cal.
 The captain and his men then had consultation and it was decided to go over the machinery piece by piece and to follow each wire until the cause of the trouble was learned. This thorough investigation consumed over an hour before the fault, whatever it was, was found and remedied. It was then found possible to work the com pressed air and the submarine was soon on the surface of the water, with Q crew relieved. who had received the fright of their lives.
 The diving type of boat mentioned above plunges under water by inclin- ing it's bow through the manipulation Of horizontal rudders generally placed at the stern, but in some instances they are also placed at the bow. To accomplish this dive it is necessary that the submarine should be as sem sitive fore and aft as a we'll balanced pair of scales.
 Otherwise great speed is required to produce the necessary force against the tipping or diving rudders which affects the unbalancing of the boat and causes her to plunge. Because of lack of stability diving boats have stood on their ends, have run their bows against or into the bottom and have also been known to ground their steI-ns at imminent risks to their crews. Great skill and nerve racking attention at all times is required to operate a diving type of boat.
 The Lake type of even keel sub- mergence is based upon great longi- tudinal stability covering in numerous patents procured by Simon Lake. The submergence is made by sinking cn an even keel as the name implies. Leaking tanks or accident to machin- cry do not cause the boat to incline forward or aft as in the opposing type of boats.