Evening star., 1939-05-27
EIIsberg
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IhSDSs
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days been set awaiting her arrival.
And the fact that raising the
Soualus is a difficult problem is just
beginning to percolate through the
minds of many who thought that all
that was required to raise that
foundered submarine was to close an
inadvertently left open air induction
valve, attach a few air hoses to the
flooded compartments to blow out
the water and then tow the re-
surgent Squalus some II miles to
Portsmouth.
Always Exceeds Belief.
It is unfortunately true that every
salvage job is brand new problem,
different from its predecessors and
requiring a different solution. The
one thing that can with confidence
be stated about a salvage job is that
it will prove more difficult than the
salvagers in the beginning think.
Only those who have been sufficient
" battered about fighting the deep
sea for a wreck had enough optimism
knocked out of them to give the only
sensible answer to the oft-repeated
question:
When will she be up?"
That answer is:
Some day
Water rushing through a wreck
does queer things There seems to
be an air induction valve open on
the Squalus that requires closing.
How long will it take the divers
to close that valve? Who knows?
On the S-5l, had a similar engine
air induction valve to close, a valve
apparently undamaged and easily
accessible to my divers I estimated
that it would take one diver approx
imately five seconds to swing closed
that valve. After every diver I had
worked five days on the bottom of
the sea we got that one valve closed.
l concluded that l had better revise
upward the estimate l had appar-
emily made that the salvage lob
would take six weeks. actually it
took four and one-half months
work0 And why did it take five
days to close valve that should
have closed in five seconds? Simply
because water rushing through
ventilation main as the ship sank
las has happened on the Squalus)
washed some wreckage into the
valve, making it impossible to close
by normal operations control.
Plenty of Trouble Likely.
Rushing water has made a mess
out OF the after compartments of
the Squalus. How much trouble
that makes the divers remains to be
seen, but if previous experience is
any criterion, it will be plenty.
The Squalus is large submarine.
Like national debts, submarines
seem to grow with time. The Suualus
Is 30 per cent larger than the S-5l
and 10 per cent larger than the
S-4, the last two submarines our
Navy had to lift. That means more
and larger compartments to seal
on, much heavier boat to handle
IN lifting. That $50 far as now
known she is uninjured is some
thing that should make her lifting
easier, but there is no certainty
that she is uninjured.
When 1,450-ton submarine
badly flooded aft, smacks the bot
tom going down on her tail, injuries
may we'll result. The Ssh, going
down bow first in shallower water,
hit the bottom so hard she wrinkled
up the thick steel plating of her
hull forward as if it had been card
board. The Squalus may have done
likewise. Only careful diving ex-
animation can clear this I'D, How
much trouble will the great depth
at which the Squalus lies, 243 feet.
cause the divers? There will shortly
be an answer to that.
Twelve years ago when the Navy
used compressed air for diving work
on the S-4 in. ITO feet of water off
ProvincetoWn, 243 feet would have
been beyond our working range. In
1925 on the S-51 at 1872 feet, our
divers worked an hour on the bot
tom as normal dive, in a few
cases two hours and twenty minutes
on the bottom, the longest dive we
ever made, and then came up only
when they were pulled off the job
by literally yanking them off the
deck of the submarine.
30 Minutes at Most,
In 243 feet of water, such times on
the bottom are completely out of
question. Fifteen to twenty minutes
should be normal dive and 80
minutes probably the outside limit
How much diver encumbered by
heavily weighted diving rig, work.
ing in ice water (the water tenn
perature on the bottom is 81 de-
grees) inside a cramped submarine
compartment with miscellaneous
trash like blankets, mattresses, and
heaven alone knows what else
washed helter skelter through the
after hull, can accomplish in Is OF
20 minutes, any one can decide for
himself. 1t will not be much.
That our divers can work effect
lively even Is minutes at 243 feet is
due mainly to the perfection Of div
ing with helium, an innovation which
our Navy started Is years ago, ano
perfected within the last few years
under the supervision of 1t. Comdr
c. B. Momsen, now diving officer oi
the Squalus. 1t. Comdr. Momser
and his tuo aSeictopfe Ttc vor.