Evening star., 1939-05-30
Navy Pays Tribute
To Squa|us Dead
With 21-Gun Salute
Girl Who Was to Wed
One of Victims Casts
Wreath Over Wreckuqe

BY the Associated Press.
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., May 30
The Navy paid tribute today to the
26 dead men aboard the sunken
submarine Squalus as divers
launched new salvage plans forced
on technicians by frigid ocean cur
rents.
The cruiser Brooklyn and the de-
stroyer Semmes were ordered to
send 21-gun salutes crashing over
the rolling waters which hide the
100000 submersible and her ghost
ly crew, Is miles off this port, and
ensigns of other vessels in the rescue
flotilla were lowered to half mas.
Ashore, the 33 survivors attended
memorial services at Portsmouth
Navy Yard for the comrades who
died in flooded after compartments
when the Squalus went down in 40
fathoms a week ago today.
Services at Cemetery.
The Portsmouth Navy Yards lit
tie hillside cemetery, which lies
within the borders of Kittery, Me,
was visited as usual by the towns
war veterans, Boy and Girl Scouts
and detachment of marines, pay
ing their Memorial Day tributes to
the dead in the towns burial
grounds.
AS Comdr. A. E. Stone, navy yard
chaplain, began his prayer for the
repose of the souls of the departed,
shaft of sunlight broke through
the gray clouds above and illumi-
mated the fresh spring green of the
little cemetery, its white stones, it's
tributes of flowers and the flags
above the graves.
During brief talk, without di-
rectly mentioning those who died
in the submarine disaster, Comdr.
Stone said, only this past week,
members of our naval family gave
their lives in the line of duty. We
grieve for them and feel a deep sor-
row, but we have every reason to be
proud of the fact that they lived and
died in the best traditions of the
Navy and of our great Nation to
which We must rededicate ourselves"
The ensuing silence was broken by
the three traditional volleys. fired
from the rifles of the Marine de-
tachment. And then, as the echoes
died, plaintive bugle sounded taps.
Girl Remembers Sweetheart.
For one man there was another
lonely tribute. Miss Ruth De Sautel,
20, OF Dover, N. H., cast a wreath
on the water at the scene of the
disaster in memory of Sherman
Shirley of Little Rock. Ark. the
man to whom she was to have been
married Sunday.
For the more than three score
divers there was no respite. Under
the new plan of operations, which
entails moving the sunken Squalus
to shalloWer and warmer waters with
the aid of pontoons, the divers
struggled to put chains under the
flooded after section to which pom
toons could be attached.
A messenger line, with a tail of
heavy chain, already has been looped
beneath the buoyant forward sec
ton and the divers. chilled by. icy
waters and hampered by freezing
air lines. labored to fasten chains
aft. When that is done six pontoons
Will be attached-four at the stern
and two at the bow.
Then salvage officers hope to lift
the 1,450-ton Squalus about so or
90 feet and tow her until she
grounds, then shorten the chains
and tow again. The most difficult
problem was looping the chains un-
der the 295-foot craft, about 1876 feet
OF which was imbedded in the mud.
When the Squalus is shoaled the
original salvage plan will be put
into action, officers said.
Extreme Cold Brings Change.
The change was ordered after
Diver William Baders, acting as a
human guinea pig sat on the
sunken sub for 50 minutes Yesterday
and came up to report cold, so cold
the air line clogged even using
hellum." One officer said the tenn
perature Of the water was % degrees
at the 240-foot level. Only one diver
was equipped with an electrically
heated suit but more were on the
way. The tremendous pressure at
the bottom also was a factor in the
decision to change the salvage plans.
"A sudden squall forced suspension
OF work late yesterday afternoon
and the Squalus' sistership, Sculpin,
came back into Portsmouth for the
first time since she sighted the red
smoke signal off the Isles of Shoals
which told the world the Squalus
was down, crippled.
Some officers predicted the en-
forced change of plans would pro-
long salvage operations for weeks,
perhaps months, but added there
was too much danger to the lives of
divers to continue the original
scheme at the 240-foot depth.
Embedded in Mud.
Divers working around the hull of
the sunken vessel have learned the
water-filled stern is embedded
about 20 feet into the moderately
hard blue clay bottom, a factor
which makes the looping of chains
extremely difficult.
The six pontoons to be attached
when the lifting time comes have
buoying power of about 80 tons each,
and compressed air will be used to
blow water out of the Squalus to
help in the lift.
AS the work at the disaster site
went swiftly forward other crews
studied the bottom for dangerous
rocks which might damage the
sunken craft still more if it should
be dragged across them. The tow
will be made in slow and leisurely
steps, officers said, to avoid accidents
which might prevent fulfllment of
the Navy's announced plan to re-
pair the Squalus and put her back
in service.