SUBMARINE SALVAGE

Taranaki Daily News, 24 July 1929, Page 16

SUBMARINE SALVAGE

TUNNELLING OCEAN BED.

A DIVER’S STORY.

By skilful salvage work the United States submarine “S5l” was, after some months of effort, raised from the ocean bed by pontoons and brought into dock with her dead crew. Before the pontoons could be fixed to her sides, steel ropes had to be carried under the submaiine keel, and in tunnelling for this purpose through the clay-like bed on which ’t rested° a diver found himself in the position of desperate peril, described below by Lieut.-Commander E. Ellsberg, U.S. Navy, in the London Daily Telegraph. “It 'was out of the question at that depth for the divers to undertake the continued physical exertion of swinging pick and shovel in an excavation, apart from the mechanical limitations of trying to do this in a diving rig. All felt that the best solution lay in washing out a hole under the ship with a stream of water from a fire hose. We coupled up 250 ft. of the Falcon's 2y 2 in. fire hose, with a regular hose nozzle screwed to the end. “We cairied on in the face of constant difficulties, making progress, but it had almost to be measured by the inch. Sometimes the divers could not find the tunnel, and wasted half their precious hour searching out the small entrance hole under the port bilge. Others, lying down in the tunnel, had their suits filled with water, and had to be dragged up, half frozen and nearly drowned. TUNNEL CAVED IN. “As a result of two weeks’ desperate work in May, the tunnel had advanced sixteen feet under the port side, an average of about one foot a day. “We were still two feet from the keel on the port side. At this time Francis Smith was in the tunnel, burrowing his way along. Imagine his situation. In ice-cold water, utter blackness, total solitude, he was buried 135 ft. below the surface of the sea. No sight, no sound, no sense of direction except the feel of the iron hull of the S5l against, his back, as he lay stretched out flat in a narrow hole, "scarcely larger than his body, not big enough for him to turn round in. Ahead in his outstretched arms he grasped the nozzle, burrowing his way deeper, while around him coursed backward the black stream of freezing water, laden with mud and clay. Smith had been working about twenty minutes when the telephone man on the Falcon got a call from him. He could ’ not understand, and passed the telephone set to me.

“Hello, Smith!” In an agonised voice came the reply: “I’m in a very bad position, Mr. Ellsberg. Send someone to help!” Joe Eiben w r as working aft on the other side of the submarine. I dropped Smith’s telephone, seized Eiben’s, and ordered him to stop whatever he was doing and climb over the boat to the tunnel to help .Smith. Eioen acknowledged the message and started forward. Meanwhile I tried to figure out what had happened. The fire hose leading over the rail was throbbing violently. Perhaps the nozzle had torn itself from Smith’s grasp and was thrashing him to ’death. Taking Smith’s telephone again, 1 called down. “Shall I turn off the water?” Almost in a scream came the answer: "No! For God's sake keep it going! The tunnel has caved in behind me!” OUT OF THE GRAVE. I felt faint. Hastily we coupled up another fire hose, sliding it down the descending line for Eiben’s use. But it had taken two weeks to drive the tunnel to where Smith lay! On deck we looked at each other helplessly. Over the telephone I could hear Smith’s laboured breathing as he struggled in the darkness. No further messages came. The sailors stood silently about the deck, waiting for Eiben to arrive at the tunnel, wondering what good he could do when he got there. Eiben reached the descending line at the gun, cut loose the new hose, dragged it forward with him, and dropped over the port side to the bottom. Finally, after what seemed'an age, he reported himself at the tunnel mouth, said he ■was trying to enter. I waited; then over Smith’s telephone I heard Smith say to Eiben: “I’m all right now Joe. Had a little accident. You go on back to your own job.” Though he could not turn round, Smith had managed to pass the nozzle back between his legs, and guiding it with his feet he had washed his way out backward through the cave-in. Eiben left. Smith sat down on the ocean floor a few minutes to rest, then picked up his hose, crawled back into tha tunnel, and for half an hour more continued to w r ash his way towards the keel.