Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1925-09-28

NATERVlLLE LOCAL NEWS
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worlds deep sea diving record. He
went down in 800 feet Of water in
Pearl Harbor, Hawaiian Islands. to
reach the sunken F-4. A fast patrol
boat Is waiting at the submarine
base to speed him to the scene of the
disaster, SO miles away.
The check-up of the story told by
Dewey G. Kile, engineer first class,
one of the three survivors, gave fur
Their indication, officers here said,
that there is no life aboard the, SOL.
The officers pointed out that Dewey
Kile, Alfred Geier, electricians mate
second class, and Michael S. Lira,
fireman first class, escaped from the
rammed submersible only because
their hunks were so near the coming
tower hatch that they were thrown
against its ladder by the crash.
Fate Commander Uncertain
The others aboard including Lieu
tenant Commander Rodney II. Dob
son, the commander who was report
ed trapped and dragged under by the
sinking submarine when his head be-
came entangled in the radio antenna
as he came up to the bridge through
the coming tower hatch, must be
dead officers here believe. They said
1t would have been impossible for
anyone to have closed the watertight
compartment doors in the minute and
one half during which the Ssh re-
manned on the surface after the col
lision.
About noon today the divers sue
ceeded in placing single sling about
the stern of the sunken submarine.
During the day it held its position
H. To-, 90
| ness of sea tonight would displace
their line. The divers worked for
several hours, each one remaining
under water half an hour at a
stretch. to make this line fast to the
wreck.
The first move to be made after the
| derrick ship Monarch arrives, one of
| the divers said, would be to place
enough sings about the hull so that
her stern could be hoisted to the sur
| face and clear of the water. Then
plate wide enough to free the i'm.
prisoned crew or allow the passage of
| their bodies would be ripped open.
The S-51 then would be released
and allowed to drop back to the bot
tom, and the bow would be be raisel,
so that the torpedo compartment
might be broken in two. After that
the engine room would be investi-
gated, the divers said. The two re-
naming compartments were smash
ed by the bow of the City of Rome.
A Mourning Group
The spectacle at the scene Of the
disaster today was described by one
observer as 1.-THE death watch of the
submarines" The mother ship.
Camden. with the submarines gath
| cred about hoY he to,
of mourning group. The object of
their figurative sorrow was what the
men at the submarine base here have
called zone of the unlucky S-boats,"
one OF the latest type submarines in
the navy. Four Of the S-types, built
since 1920 at Bridgeport, Conn.,, have
met with mishaps in the last two
years. The S-51, in that number,
alone carried men to their death.
Three of the S-boats were wrecked
In New England waters. The Ssh
lies at the bottom off Block Island:
the S-19 grounded off Cape Cod last
January and remained on a sandbar
for many weeks; the S-4S was
pounded to pieces on the rocks at the
entrance to Portsmouth. N. H.. har-
Dor on January 80 last; and the
fourth, the So, collided with a de-
SCOyCk al Il dT East WATERS.
Relatives Optimistic
I Today was another day of suspense
for Mrs. Dobson, wife of the COM
mander of the Ssh. who is here
awaiting reports from the. rescue
work. In the face of the apparently
hopeless aspect of The disaster as re-
lated to her by brother officers of her
husband, she has refused to surren-
! toe h,k H.
| son will be found safe inside his ship
when the divers break open the hull.
Her courage and hope are shared by
the families and relatives of five en-
listed men of the submarines crew
whose homes are in this city. All in
/ sist that their men are alive and will
] be restored to them when the wreck
! Of the Ssh is lifted from the ocean
floor.
! Twin Brothers in Crew
| Two of those believed to be lost
are Frederick P. and William c.
\ Teschemacher, twin brothers, Of
Bangor, Pa, both seamen, first class.
The twins, who refused to be separ-
ated and always demanded assign
ments on the same ship, had adjoin-
ing hunks in the smashed control
compartment, which was in the path
| of the merciless bow Of the city o.
Rome as it ripped through the SUBJ
marines steel plate.
A report that one of the twins was
absent on shore leave when the Sol
set out on her last fatal trip, one Of
the periodical tests prescribed for
vessels of the class, could not be
| verified. Intimate friends at the sub
marine base discounted this theory,
declaring that the brothers always