The Waterbury Democrat., 1939-05-26
Twenty Six Dead Are Sealed-Up In Vessel
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Every survivor, including the com mander, Lieut.. Oliver Naquin, said they owed their lives to Maness, who revealed that he had once almost closed the door only to open it again when men on the flooding side yelled: Keep it openl Keep it openl'
 T let the door slip back again." he said, land let five men come in before I slammed 1t shut and turned down the water-tight screws"
 These men, who owed Maness an additional debt of gratitude, were Raymond P. O'Hara, Roland Blan- chard, William Isaacs, William D. Boulton and Robert l.. Washburn.
 The strangest story, and one of gravest concern to naval authorities. was that of Prien, the man at the controls, who told newspapermen:
 T was in the control room at my post when we started the dive. My duties are to handle the levers and machinery controlling the vents, flood valves and the main induction valve.
 Receives Signal
 q received the signal that the dive was about to begin, by series of lights on a control board directly before me. The engines were stopped. I pulled the proper valves, closed the main induction valve so that water would not enter the submarine when we dove.
 T could tell that the valves were working properly and that the main induction valve was closed because lights flashed on and the lights will not slow up unless the valve is closed.
 Air pressure was proper in the ship as we began the dive and we descended 50 feet and checked the time of the descent.
 AS the ship levelled of, a mes- sage came through to the control room that water was coming into the engine room. We could feel the pres sure in the ship change and the word came to bolw the ballast tanks. checked the control board lights and saw that every valve was working properly and that none of the lights showed there was trouble with the valves.
 "As soon as the pressure began to change, the ship tilted backward at about 45 degree angle. I was thrown backward. I managed to grab a manifold handle and hang on to keep from slipping.
 T was still looking at the control board and could see that all the lights were on and this meant to me that all the valves were closed and I couldn't understand what had happened. In a minute or two the light all over the ship went out and of course this means that the lights on the control board went out too"
 May Never Be Duplicated
 Frank P. Miller, former master diver aboard the Falcon, the first man to explore the scene when the diving bell arrived, said he and his companions were undergoing ex- periences that may never be dupli- cated again"
 T was down on the S-4 and the S-51 accidents" he said, "and they were nothing compared to this. The S-4 was only down 108 feet and there's no comparison to the pres sure at that depth and at 240 feet. It's the greatest experience divers could have. I've been diving for the navy IT years so I know what say is true.
 Those men are working in total darkness at a point where atmos- pheric pressure is over seven times greater than at the surface"
 President Praises Navy,
 Washington, May 26-(UP)-Pres- ident Roosevelt today praised the navy for its work in bringing to the surface survivors of the sunken submarine Squalus.
 The navy, he said, deserves very great credit for conducting the res- cue operations under difficult and | trying circumstances.
 At the same time, in response to questions, the president said he had no advices limiting at sabotage as a cause of the disaster.
 The president said that the suc- cess of the rescue devices used on the Squalus proved the worth of | spending a great deal of money on experimental work.
 He regretted the deaths of those trapped in the flooded compart- ments of the submarine, and ob- served that human ingenuity had not yet perfected a machine that was perfect.
 He asserted, moreover, his happi- ness that all preparations had been arranged for emergency of the kind involving the Squalus. He pointed out that success of the Squalus res- cue operation was due to the care full training given the rescue crew and the availability of devices that worked about the extreme limit of which they were able.
 The president pointed out that the depth of 240 feet at which the Squalus lay was 100 feet deeper than that of any American subma- rine requiring rescue and salvage operations in recent years.