The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-09-10

from his commanding officer to visit
his wife. war bride who is in deli
cate health, and was transferred to
the destroyer McDonough, bound for
New York, instead Of going to Phila-
delphia in the Biddle with the rest Of
the crew.
After describing preliminaries to
what he termed "the last dive call
ed for in the test" he said:
1--WE hit bottom and rested easily
The captain and the men had a con-
ference when we started the air sal
wage system of work. This was 1900
pounds of compressed air pressure
and we tried to blow the water out Of
the tank, but the added water was too
much and we could not rise The
torpedo room was completely flood
ed. We closed the water tank door
from the torpedo room into the bat
terry room, but still there was from
two to three feet of water y each room
two to three feet of water in each
room We were also unsuccessful in
trying to blow the water out of the
torpedo room. After blowing all Of
the oil out of the fuel tank we were
still % ncavy to rise.
Thu captain" he continued, then
figured out that our boat was 231
feet long and the water was but 100
feet deep. and that by standing the
boat on her nose, the stern would
project thru the water. To do this.
we had to let the water from other
compartments run in:o the storage
room, where we knew II wouid form
a deadly chlorine gas. But there was
nothing else to do.
I'VE blew out this water, but as il
rushed past and the stern began to
rise, we were all SWEEP along with 1t
Several of the men sustained injuries.
The salt water on the battery plates
caused the formation Of chlorine gas
and the men began choking. We had
only six gas masks between us;
had none.
1.-THE captain worked his way aft
speaking tube. We finally had to
quit our posts as we were choking
with the gas. With difficulty We
got into the next compartment, but
had to retur nto open a valve so that
we could get air. The lights then
went out.
Finally we got into the tiller room
and after five hours work, managed
to drill a small hole thru the steel
plates. We were then about twenty
five feet above the water. We put
some old rags on the fuel oil pipe
and pushed it thru one of these holes
as signal to steamer we saw
passing about five miles away.
But she evidently did not see us
and passed us by.
An hour later the Alanthus came
along and luckily for us she was off
her route thru being partially dis
abled. She saw us and sent boat
to help us. After getting a cable
around us, two crews from the boat
started to drill from the outside. We
kept on working on inside, but the
afr was so foul we could work only
for ten minutes at a time and fall
back exhausted. Finally hole was
made large enough to put hose thru
and air was pumped into us.
1--WE rugged up funnel and thru
this we received the first water we
had had in twenty hours. After be-
ing down thirey-five hours plate
was cut thru large enough to be car
ried out"
Whitehead said all the officers and
crew ate for the entire tine they were
submerged was canned tomatoes,
corned beef and string beans, as the
compartment in which other food was
stored was flooded. The supply OF
drinking water for all on board dur
ing the period of distress was two
bucketsfull. Whitehead explained
there was no danger from possible ex-
plosion of the eight torpedoes on
board. because the electric batteries
were dampened by the water that
rnshnd into tho tornado commandment