LOSS OF AMERICAN SUBMARINE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume Li, Issue 16894, 26 November 1925, Page 10

LOSS OF AMERICAN SUBMARINE.

DEATH BATTLE RECOUNTED. How death rushed out of the night., l ■ ami engulfed the submarine, Bill, was, told by a surviv.or at the submarine base at. New London, Connecticut, 1 when Dewey Cf. Kile, first engineman, arrived from Boston, and related to base officers his experience. Kilo was one of the three men picked up by the City of Rome after her crash with the submarine. “If it had not been for a piece of cork I might not be here now. The crash came at '10.30 p.m, A piece of cork from a bulkhead flew off at the crash, and struck me in the face, and tlpit was, what woke me up. The first thing I saw was a flood of water rushing down the battery-room .deck, and I sprang from the hammock and went to the watertight bulkhead door that, separates tho battery deck from the control chamber. But I couldn't undo the. door, and it stuck on me. Then Ii rushed to the torpedo room and tried to close tho door leading to .that r,00m, : but that also stuck, and the rush of. the water which was pouring down IhCj hatchway into the control- chamber' sent me back to.the lja.tt.ery room deck. Tho lower deck was rapidly tilling with water. I found my way into the con-trol-room, and went up the.ladder to the, bridge, and, as I came on to the bridge deck a sea came over the side and washed mo with it. The two other men nearest the control room went up ahead of rue, and we were, so far as -I know, the only people saved. I saw nothing of the three men on watch on dock, and don't know what became of them. Wo three who were saved were 1 all from below. “Eor the next hour and fifteen niinutes I swum around. After the first few minutes I got my head andsaw that tho only thing for me to do was to keep afloat, and not use up my strength, and 1 floated, swimming only a little. The water wasn't very cold. Tho other two fellows had disappeared, and I didn’t know whether they wore afloat or not, and I had just, about made up my mind to take an observation and strike out for Block Island, or, whatever was the nearest land, when I heavd voices. They came from a lifeboat, from the City of Koine, which was- searching the waters. I called for help, and the men in the lifeboat flashed a small flash lamp, and they pulled be aboard., Aft,e,lf that we; picked up the other ttyo, and believe, me the three of us were pretty near gone. The water got very cold iib that hour and a quarter.”