The New York herald., 1921-12-09

With their dinky little coffee cups"
these men bailed a good part OF eight
tons of water by hand and threw
it into the bilge, whence 1t was
pumped out into the Sound. Still the
salt water poured into the battery
room Electricians Mate Fritz cut
piece of rubber tubing into short
lengths, risked his life in the gas
filled chamber and stuck one end of
these rubber pipes beneath the battery
tanks. And then he and his pals got
down on their knees and sucked acid
from under the tanks until the water
followed it, and thus the water was
siphoned out and the generation OF
gas stopped.
TorpcdOes Call Help.
Further to tighten the bow, the men
blew out what water ballast they could
from the chambers OF the double hull.
An electric pump, the one live piece OF
machinery aboard, worked steadily at
its hopeless task OF trying to combat
the whole ocean. Lights went out, and
to the other trials was added darkness
An electricians mate. Michael A
Fritz, fingered his way into the battery
room and IN some way which he hasn't
the words to explain, rigged one of the
batteries so that the bulbs In the for
ward compartments, to which the men
were being driven, glowed again. That
battery room reeked with chlorine gas. |
The one hope of the men lay In the
position of the submarine, slantirg up
ward from stern TO stem. The boat was
240 feet long. Now. II they could only
raise that nose out of water
They had two dummy torpcdoes, and
by shooting them out through the for
ward tube they got rid OF several thou
sand pounds To make this act count
for the maximum. they painted on the
sides Of the torpedoes, SAB sunk. Send
help" The men knew the torpedoes
would float; there was just a chance
some one might see them. Then they
lghtened ship more by dropping nearly
5000 pounds of pig lead ballast through
the air locked sounding tube.
boy Crawls Through Tube.
All this consumed many hours-about
eight hours. The S-4s had submerged
at 10 80 A. M. Wednesday. 1t was now
6 40 p NJ. Compartment doors mad
been shut against the gas, but IL was
seeping through and gradually permeat-
ing ALL 1t is the kind of gas that sears
the throat, bronchial tubes and lungs.
often producing pneumonia, II nothing
worse. The men were still keeping
away from Ii pretty well, but some we're
coughing and holding their throats.
From the inclination of the submarine,
its commander. Capt. Joseph ELI V Aus
tin Of Bridgeport, who works for the
Lake corporation, and two naval Off
cers--Lieutenant Commander Walter
Stanley Haas OF Bridgeport and Lieut..
Francis Adams Smith. II. 5. N, of
Monrovia. Cal.--who were witnessing
the test for the Government. knew
after this eight hours of toll that the
prov had risen above the water.
Peter Frank Dunno. civilian employee
of the Lake company. 10 years cid. 1.-THE
and nervy. with a body just fitted for
wriggling through torpedo tube, volun-
teered to crawl through the forward tube,
twenty -one inches In diameter ond see |
what the world outside looked like. He
did 80. AS he stuck his inquisiiive head |
through the mouth of the tube he found |
that high wind was kicking up white
caps over the black sound. that the nose
Of the submarine was dashed with icy |
spray. but that Il was well out of the
water and his own head was ABOUT two !
feet above II. He had dragged line
with him up through the tube. He could |
not crawl up the steep. slick side Of the I
submarine to the upreared prov. so he |
unhesitatingly jumped into tho forbid |
ding water and with an end Of the line |
In his teeth swan around the vessel un- !
I'll he could ascend on the gentler slope |
Of the backbone
Flare Seen at Last.
A wave carried him away and another |
brought him back. He thus fought the |
seas until he gained the submarine. /
Fighting upward he found a clcat and |
fastened his line around II with a good |
sailors hitch. Through the torpedo tubs |
and up the line that Peter Dunno mad |
affixed every man of the subn ,rins
eventually climbed. At first there were
only six of them lying on the deck; /
there was danger of everything heing |
lost by the sinking of the bow II more
got there. They had small search
light. and this they flashed to AL points
Continued on Pare Two.
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