The Washington times., 1920-09-06
SAILOR TELLS
OF S. 5RESCUE
Men Would Follow Captain
Through He'll, Baltimore Ma
Chinist's Mate Declares.


die, machinist's mate, first class saved
from death in the submarine So, sat
beside his bride OF less than a year
in Baltimore today and told his STORY
His buddy. George Bradbury Conkiin'
OF Los Angeles, was with them In the
parlor OF the home OF James Barnard
Pendle's brother-in-law.
Both men wore borrowed uniforms.
Their own clothes were ruined In the
wreck of the So, when the big SUD
marines intake valve failed during
"crash dive" and she sank by the bow
OF Cape Henlopen last "Wednesday.
with the water pouring into her.
Pendle had on the uniform or
wireless operator. Conklin had on
uniform that bore the marks OF his
own rank. but IL belonged TO an old
shipmate whose rank was the same
Both men. like the other SO heroes
are on leave over Labor Day.
ON DUTY IN ENGINE ROOM.
II was on watch in the engine
room" said Machinists Mate Pendle,
-and we were just ending four-hour
full-power practice run, with orders
for a crash dive at the end or the
run We were on our way to Balti-
more 1t was recruiting trip we
were making. with Boston as the
starting point. We intended also to
visit Philadelphia, Washington and
some other cities along the coast.
Il didn't know anything was wrong
Until felt the ship bump on the bot
tom. Then l started aft to put tho
high-pressure pump into commission
to pump the water from the bilges,
and as I came aft the stern began to
rise rapidly and everything went
scooting forward like coal down a
chute. I found all the pumps except
one practically out Of commission.
Lieutenant Commander Cooke and
the other officers and some OF the
men were In the control room. with
the boat fitting as she was the water
in the engine room banked up against
the control room door. imprisoning
them. If we had opened the door to
let them out the water would have
rushed in upon them. So l got sue
tion pump to work and we lowered
the water at the control room door
SO we could open the door.
CHLORINE GAS FORMS.
by that time the salt water slosh-
ing around in the battery compart-
ment had started the chlorine gas
coming out, but there wasn't enough
of it to do any real harm. I've read
some newspaper stories about oU
having to put on gas masks. l didn't
have any on and only three or four or
the men really did put them on. But
1t was hard to breathe because our air
supply had been cut off.
by the time the officers and men in
the control room were able to get into
the engine room we could hear the
water tapping against the stern of the
boat. Believe me, that was 49,
sound. 1t meant we were part way
out of the water.
80 Captain Cooke sent Conklin to
bore a hole near the motor room
hatch, but he found that part was
still under water. Then he sent
Frank Peters to bore a hole in the
tiller compartment, away up aft. He
had to use a little hand drill and the
steel was about five-eighths of an
inch thick. The electric drill wouldn't
work.
"Peters found that the tiller COM
partment was out of the water
BREATHED IN GASPS.
'~Then the crew started working in
shifts to cut out with the hand drill
a square hole in the tiller compart-
ment big enough to let mans body
through. That was a tough job. Not
more than three men could get into
the tiller room at once; it isn't much
bigger than a hoGshead, and it was
terribly hard to breathe. You had to
breathe in short gasps, and you felt
as though you were carrying ton
on your chest. Nobody could bore
more than couple of holes at time.
THE water was all gone. We had
been able to save two buckets of it
out of the control room and with
thirty-eight men going after 1T you
can see that 1T couldn't last long. We
had some canned beans and we opened
them and slipped the liquid from them
but it wasn't much good. There was
some canned bill (sailor term for
canned roast beeD, but nobody dared
to eat any because 1t is salty.
FINALLY, Percy Fox and I were sent
up on the drilling shift. BY that time
we had bored a sort of L in the tiller
room, about seven inches long on one
side and four inches on the other. We
set to work gouging and chipping at
the corner of the L to mako a hole
big enough to stick a pipe through
for signaling.
SAW SHIP NEAR BY.
pretty soon the hole was big
enough for a pretty good view out
doors, and Percy Fox looked through
About 800 yards away he saw a ship
"But she didn't seem to see us. She
sailed right around our stern and in 4
minute she was out of sight. For Il
minute ! thought we were goners
But Captain Cooke was in the tiller
room with us and he sent for some
copper pipe to use for flags. When
the pipe came up, one had Joe You
ker's undershirt tied to it and the
other had some other piece of rag.
"We stuck them out and waved
them. / waved one and Fox waved
the other. Pretty soon the ship came
in sight again, this time not more
than 200 yards away. and Captain
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