The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1939-05-29
Describes Recent Submarine
Disaster And Other Phases
OF Submerged Activities
BY FRANK w. LOWERING
Especial TO The Citizen)

ouSCSSS. OIlCG tie O-Cl DODDGu
up Unexpectedly and two of the
pontoons were lost.
! The men aboard the two sub
marines in the earlier tragedies
were victims of collisions. The
Squalus went down because Of
what? Time will tell. The men
aboard the S-4 and Ssh had no
chance in the world. Rescue ap-
paratus had not been perfected,
and even if the crew could have
escaped by chance from depths of
101 or 127 feet their lives would
probably have been sacrificed
through the lack of facilities for
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT of nj
trogen that is forced into the
blood stream at such depths.
In the case OF the Squalus, ten
years had elapsed since the in
vention of the Momsen lung,
but the 240-foot resting place of
the victim of the latest subma-
.'ine disaster in the United States
Navy made the lung" useless,
according to Naval experts. The
rope up which a man climbs
when wearing the oxygen-charg-
ed lung, is knotted. At each
knot the sailor must pause for
some time. He would probably
climb too fast in his eagerness to
reach the open air, and doing so
the experts say his body literally
would burst. Decomposition is
absolutely necessary.
The McCann Diving Bell
Matches were constructed on
the new submarines with oppor-
tunity to attach the rim of the
rescue device designed by Com
mander Allen r. Mccain of the
Navy. Mccain was a Massachu-
sets appointee to Annapolis in
January, 1913. He flew last week
from Washington to Portsmouth
for the first test of his device UNI
der the guidance of Lieut.. Nom
sen, who directed operations, a
master mind among the Nays
divers.
The rescue apparatus operated
perfectly till the winch rope
fouled on the last trip up. At
$50 feet the bell, with ten aboard,
two of whom were of the rescue
squad, snagged when the cable
kinked. The underwater prison
ers seeking life after death had
almost claimed them. hung lit
orally between life and death for
three hours again, till the kink
was finally cut and the huge
metal sea-elevator rose to the
surface under almost superhu-
man guidance.
. No more noble mission has
ever been accomplished in the
annals of the sea. No more
tragic thoughts of loved ones
saved or lost filled the minds of
those mothers and wives and
sweethearts who thronged the
weather-stained waterfront of the
Portsmouth Navy Yard-which
systematically is located across
the mouth of the turbulent Pts
cataqua river in Kittery, Maine
than filled the minds of the
heroic women of Key West and
other American ports in the days
of long ago when they paced the
widows walks, balconied path
ways for the beat of sentinel feet
and of aching, though hopeful
hearts. on many of the housetops
of the Island City.
The thrilling days of last week
when the marvels of radio
brought from the deck of the
U.S.S. Brooklyn, Is miles at sea.
the very words and sounds of the
noble rescue, and scattered them
to the corners of the earth, wove
new apestry out of vibrantly
living news-a tapestry which
will change its warp and wool
only when television becomes a
matter common in the shifting