Evening star., 1939-05-26
Submarine
Continued From First Page.)

Anacostia Naval Air Station
sometime after 2 pm, and go i'm
mediately to Admiral William D.
Ieahy's Office. Decision is eX-
pected tonight or tomorrow as to
the method to be employed in
raising the submarine.
tComdr. McCann SuperSived de-
velopment of the submarine res
cue chamber Comdr. Mckee is
an officer of the Construction
Corps. specializing in submarine
design work. Both officers were
flown to Portsmouth Tuesday
afternoon as members of the first
rescue partyD
Two-HOur Farley Last Night.
Actual operations, naval spokes-
men said. will get under way as
soon as delicate computations are
completed and approved by the
high command in Washington. A
two-hour conference of officials last
night ended without announcement
of a formal decision, but technical
mathematical work was begun at
once.
Only a short time before the doom
Of the 26 men still in the sub was
sealed in finality with the scant
report of a diver:
Opened after hatch. Found tor
pedo room flooded. Closed hatch" !"
That report apparently impelled
the decision to halt salvage opera
tions for the time-being to give
technical experts chance to decide
upon the best procedure.
I'VE have finished the job of life
saving and oui task has turned to
that of salvage" an officer said
Another explained that so intricate
Is the problem that one pound of
buoyancy either way could make
all the difference between success
and failure" An almost perfect
balance must be struck in buoyancy
as water is forced out and air
pumped in to bring the 1,450-ton
100000 craft to the surface.
Should too much air be forced in,
the Squalus might blow out some
Of its valves, fill with water and sink
again, he continued Should too
little go in it would not rise. If
the balance was wrong it might rise
nose first to strike the rescue ship
Falcon; or break it's lines and shoot
free. perhaps to sink again.
ut is delicate task" the officer
said.
To Leave Bodies in Squalus.
The bodies of the men will be
left in their tomb until the Squalus
Is raised and towed Is miles to the
navy yard here, officials said, unless
they interfere with operations of
divers, in which case they might
be removed in the escape bell which
brought their comrades up the 240
feet to safety.
For the sorrowing families ashore
there was only the solace that at
least the men had died mercifully,
swiftly.
The lives of the men in the after
compartment, in my opinion, were
snuffed out Immediately by the
quantity of incoming water" said
1t. o. F. Naquin, commander of the
Squalus.
He had only praise for his men
during their 30-hour ordeal which
began early Tuesday morning when,
somehow, tons of water began pour
ing into the submarine during a
routine dive off the Isle of Shoals.
Exactly what happened will not be
known until the Squalus is in dry
dock.
Mate Says Lever Was Pulled.
First blamed was failure of an air
induction valve, but Machinist's
Mate Prien said he pulled switch
and saw warning lights indicating
the valve was closed when the dive
started.
Lights flashed on to indicate the
main induction valve was closed"
he said. "I could not understand
what happened"
Consensus in naval quarters
seemed to be that mechanical failure
caused the light to flash despite the
fact the valve remained open.
Formal investigation of the disaster
BY special board of inquiry in
Washington was deferred until the
Squalus Is raised.
There was no official indication
Of how long the salvage job would
take and estimates ranged from a
day to three weeks. Ten pontoons
should they be needed in the work
and the rescue f1otilla still hovered
on the scene.
Senator Calls for Survey