Evening star., 1939-05-25
Hope Never Left
Crew Of SqudIus,
Il. Nichols Relates
No Panic Among Men,
No Dramatic Speeches.
Says Rescued Officer
By the Associated Press,

C61CASIO, May Zo.-1ne CnlCdgC
Tribune published today a copy
righted interview with 1t. John C
Nichols, Chicagoan who was
rescued from the United States
submarine Squalus off Portsmouth,
N. H.
1t. Nichols account of the disaster,
obtained by telephone from the
naval base hospital at Portsmouth,
N. H., follows:
1--WE left the naval base at $50
am. Tuesday. We had orders to
practice fast dives. At TAO m. we
received our Q. K to go down. One
minute later the order to submerge
was given by 1t. O. F. Naquin, the
commander.
Everything seemed to be in order.
The ship dropped down perfectly.
She leveled off at so feet. A few
minutes later we in the forward
compartments had the first word
that anything was wrong. The con-
troll room was informed the after
engine room was flooded.
Order Given to Blow Tanks.
"The Squalus began to handle
heavily. An order was given to blow
the tanks and ascend to the surface.
The motors were stepped up to full
speed.
THE crew worked fast, but the
ship failed to respond. Communica-
ton with the rear compartments
was cut off. We couldn't COM
municate with the engine room nor
with the men in the rear torpedo
room.
Then the motors went out. With
them went the lights. The Squalus
began to sink. Whatever was wrong
was aft. Apparently the ship was
taking water by the air vent valves.
The forward compartments were
shut off, by water-tight doors, from
the flooded after parts.
With no power the Squalus con-
tinued to sink The descent seemed
to be slow. We settled on the bot
tom. There was no great jar.
No Panic Among Men.
"She settled at an angle of about
10 degrees by the bow. My guess
was that she was at about 210
feet from the surface.
There was no panic among the
men. All stayed at their stations.
Orders were obeyed instantly. 1t.
Naquin told everybody to keep
their heads. If they did, he said,
everything would be all right.
''He was correct, so far as the
personnel forward was concerned,
The flooding had been localized
and only little water seeped in
on us.
Pretty soon the forward marker
buoy was sent up. We knew this
would give our location and bring
help. Then we sat down to wait
and listen for the rescue ships.
We wondered how long it would
be until someone came along and
found the buoy and the telephone
wire attached to it.
"At 1910 we heard the beat
of the engines of the Sculpin,
sister ship. 1t was a great re-
lief to all of us when she communi-
Gated with us on the phone. After
that it was a question of holding
out. We had great faith in the
diving bell.
Conserving Air Chief Problem.
"The main thing was to conserve
air-to use as little as possible and
keep the supply pure. We purified
it, when it got bad, with soda lime.
When we had to, we released some
of our oxygen.
THE men didn't talk much, nor
move around a lot. Talking and
moving both burn up oxygen. AS
1t was, our supply stayed in ex-
cellent shape until just before the
rescuers arrived.
But we listened. After the tele-
phone line went out we waited for
the clank of divers feet above us
and we tapped out messages in code
on the iron above us.
'1t was cold there on the bottom.
In the forward torpedo room, where
I was stationed, the temperature
ranged between "a and 36 degrees.
Aside from the cold we were not
very uncomfortable. Although the
ships power was gone, we still had
lghts-hanging lamps that worked
on storage batteries.
For food we had our emergency
rations, but we didn't eat much.
We just sat most of the time con-
serving strength, saving oxygen and
wondering. Most of the men stood
up well physically. Two in each
forward compartment-four in all
became a little. sick, or perhaps
just weak.
Never Gave Up Hope.
None of us made any COM
plants. They didn't make any dra-
matte speeches. We all figured how
long 1t would take the Falcon to
diIlNC. we kIlt" W1lGIl S1l6 CdIIl6
that everything was going to be all
right.
when the bell finally was at
tached to the escape hatch, the men
in the torpedo room were command
ed to ascend first. The order in
cluded me specifically. With me
went the men who seemed most
nearly exhausted.
Hope never left any of us. We
knew that the rescue equipment was
fine. I had seen the bell tested
Besides, we all had our Momsen
lungs Individual breathing devices)
and we could have attempted to
get out in them if the other rescue
efforts had failed.
There is some question whether
at our depth, men could have with
stood the water pressure and the
cold, but the lung was still hope