The Waterbury Democrat., 1932-07-08
Crew of Submarine
 Had No Choice
(Continued from Page 1)
water and led to the discovery.

water and led to the discovery.
 Divers went down immediately but. the position of the submarine left little hope that it could be raised.
 Microphones lowered near the hull recorded no signs of life in- side the ship.
 Hysterical women, and weeping relatives thronged the beach where two native fishermen had brought the survivors-exhauste seamen who had drifted an hour at sea with only two life belts among them.
 The ship had gone down within two minutes-so quickly the radio operator didn't have a chance to flash word of trouble. All hope for the men aboard has been abandon ed.
 Lieutenant Gouespel Dumesnil, commander of the submarine, told Admiral Malavoy:
 About noon, I heard noise above me. rushed to the deck and felt the ship literally sinking under my feet. I was immediately blown into the water with the six other men who were with me on the deck. I fear that the craft sank so fast that there was little chance for those below to eXtricate themselves.
 The men, stunned by the explo- sion and forced to watch the sub- marine disappear with their com rades aboard, agreed to share. the two lifepelts. Three men hung to one belt and four to the other. Each man took turns holding on to a belt for the belts were not strong enough to support all the men at one time.
 The channel waters were unus- ually calm, and the men shouted for help, until two fishermen. al- most mile away, heard their cries.
 The fishermen, Yves Nicole and Joseph Colin, became the heroes of Cherbourg and all France. The government planned to honor them with medals and other recognition for their rescue of the commander and six men. But they took 1t all very calmly.
 it was nothing" Nicole told the United Press.
 "We only did our duty. We were fishing at II a. m. off Cape Levi whe nthe Promethee passed us, near our starboard side. There were numerous sailors on deck and everything seemed shipshape. We thought nothing more of the submarine, for many ships pass us in the channel.
 "Then, about noon, we heard cries for help. We were amazed, for we couldn't see anything or tell where the cries came from. Then we saw black specks, bobbing up and down in the water. We started our old, puny motor.
 "We found the. specks to be heads of survivors. The men were completely exhausted. We had the greatest difficulty hauling them aboard. And still we had not de- termined who the men were until one of them said, T am the com- mander of the Promethee. She has just sunk beneath my feet
 "I noticed that the commander was completely overcome. Several of the other men appeared less ex- hausted. All wept like babies. It took us three hours to get into Cherbourg roads and land the sur- vivors.
 Colin and I worked on the men during the trlp ana reVlVeu one sailor and two officers. who were very i'll. We tore off their wet clothes and gave them our own dry things. We also gave them our lunch. which we had aboard wrap ped in a newspaper"
 Searchers reported that micro. phones failed throughout the night to pick up any tapping or other signals from the submarine.
 The only hope that some of the men might be found alive, and that hope was so slight that 1t was gen. erally discounted. was that some of the crew might have shut them- selves off In aF-tlght compart' ments. Even if they had done this, the men in the compartments could not live more than 24 hours.