The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1920-09-07
7 ELL s OF
THEIR EXPERIENCE
CHIEF MACHINIST'S MATE OF So
DESCRIBES THEIR
ESCAPE

new 1OTk, sept. l.-FTeUerlck w /.
Whitehead, chief machinist's mate of
the submarine SIS, gave an account
in his home in Brooklyn of the ex-
periences of his shipmates during the
hours they were trapped beneath the
sea. He got permission from his
commanding officer to visit his wife,
a war bride, who is in delicate health,
and was transferred to the destroyer
McDonough bound for New York in
stead of going to Philadelphia in the
Biddle with the rest of the crew.
After discussing the preliminaries
to what he termed ''the last drive
called for in the test" he said:
I'VE hit the bottom and rested
easily The captain and men had a
conference, then we started the air
salvage system to work. There was
1890 pounds of compressed air pres
sure, and we tried to blow the wa
ter out of the tank, but the added
water was too much and we could
not rise The torpedo room was COM
pletely flooded. We closed the wa
ter tank room from the torpedo room
into the battery room, but still there
was from two to three feet of water
in each room. We also were unsuc-
cessful in trying to blow the water
out of the torpedo room. After blow
ing all of the oil out of the fuel tank
we were still too heavy too rise.
"The captain" he continued, 'then
figured out that our boat was 231
feet long and the water was but 160
feet deep and that by standing the
boat on her nose the stern would pro-
ject through the water. To do this
we had to let the water from other
compartments run into the storage
room where we knew it would form
a deadly chlorine gas. But there was
nothing else to do. We blew out this
water, but as it rushed past and the
stern began to rise, we were all swept
along with it. Several of the men
sustained injuries. The salt water
on the battery plates caused the for
nation of chlorine gas and the men
began choking We had only SIX
masks between us.
"The captain worked his way aft
and we communicated with him
through speaking tubes. We finally
had to quit as we were choking
| Then the lights went out.
Finally we got into the tillel
room and after five hours worl
managed to drill a small hole
through the steel plates. We were
then about twenty-five feet above
| water. We put some rags on the fue
oil pipe and pushed it through one o.
these holes as signal to steamer
we sawopassing about five miles
| away.
"But she evidently did not see III
and passed us by.
| "An hour later the Alanthus cam'
along and luckily for us she was of
her route through being partially dis
abled. She saw us and sent boa
| to help us. After getting a cabl'
around us, two crews from the boa
started to drill from the outside. w
| kept on working inside, but the al
4 was so foul we could work only fo
ten minutes at a time and fall bacl
exhausted. Finally hole was mad
large enough to put a hose through
and air was pumped in to us.
I'VE rigged up a funnel and thr
this we received the first water W
had in twenty hours. After bein
down thirty-five hours, a plate wa
cut through large enough for us I
be carried out"
Whitehead said all the officers an
! crew ate for the entire time the
were submerged was canned toms
toes, corned beef and string beans, a
the compartment in which other foo
was stored was flooded. The suppl
of drinking water for all on boar
: during the period of distress, wa
two bucketsful. Whitehead explain
ed there was no danger from possibl
explosion Of the eight torpedoes 0
board because the electric batterit
were damped by water that rushe