The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1921-12-09
THRILLING STORY
OF SUNKEN VESSEL
Detailed Account Told by Mem
bers of the Crew of Lake
Submarine S-48.
(By The Associated Press)


NEW YORK, Dec. S.-Leut Fran
els Adams Smith, who. with 80 mem
bers of the crew of Lake submarine
s-4s, We're brought to the New York
navy yard today from observation
following the accident to the s-4S.
gave a detailed account Of the acci-
dent tonight.
"Soon after casting off at Bridge
port" he said, I'VE decided It would
be best to submerge before making a
long run. AS we started down, the
engine and motor rooms flooded and
we sank to depth Of about 40 feet.
The stern struck bottom and the boat
floated at an angle Of about45 degrees.
"The chemical reaction of the salt
water on the suIphuric acid in the
batteries generated a flood of chlorine
gas which soon became almost un-
bearable In order to lessen this dan
ger, we battened down the deck as
tight as possible and swabbed the salt
water in the battery room with blan-
ket, then fired two torpedoes to tighten
the vessel. Then the fuel was blown
overheard.
1--WE got rid OF the pig iron ballast
through the sounding machine. From
noon until o'clock at night we were
at this work, then started to blow the
water from the engine and motor room
but gave up because OF the precious
air lost.
"The riddance Of the pig iron caused
the boat to rise about six feet, but
she dropped back again to a depth this
time between so and so feet. The boat
was a great angle this time and the
gas increased. All hands used their
coffee cups to bail out the battery
room and then the boat tilted to such
an angle that the torpedo tubes reached
above the surface.
Dunno climbed through the tube
with a line which he made fast to a
cleat. This enabled the men to reach
the surface with ease but they did so
in relays so as not to overweight the
bow.
with a small searchlight the men
though several passing vessels an
swered none came to our aid. Many
others passed but either did not see
or pay attention to the signals. Then
the oil tug with a tanker in tow came
up. The sea was running heavy and
Captain Olsen Of the tug is to be COM
plimented for his able direction Of our
rescue"
BRIDGEPoRT, Conn, Dec. S.-one
of the men rescued from the submarine |
S AS, which sank last night in the
waters Of Long Island sound about five
miles from here, charged tonight that /
some person or persons at the plant
Of the Lake Torpedo Boat company |
blundeFed in not properly clamping
the lid CT a manhole and that the |
of the boat was followed !
by an inrush of water. AS a result of |
having gone wrong Of men
faced death for II hours.
The submarine was to have been /
at noon yesterday to the gov
arnment at New London. 1t was
passed upon as being mechanically
perfect when it left the plant Wednes-
lay morning.
Simon Lake, consulting engineer OF
he Lake company. said tonight that
he accident might have resulted from
some mechanical defect or a blunder
1y some human agency.
p. B. Brill. general manager OF the
Lake company, says that carelessness
1y some one at the plant might have
saused the accident.
Both Lake and Brill admit that the
,harge OF carelessness at the plant
nay be sustained By an investigation. Il
out said they could not make any
iefnite statement until after the boat
,ad been examined J