Off Provincetown

All that came to the surface of the Atlantic from the wreck of the submarine S-4 off Provincetown, Mass., was a chief petty officer's waist- coat.

Upon the usually placid sea of public opinion the disaster roused a storm of indignation which the Navy Department had to weather the best it could.

Questions hurled at Secretary of the Navy Wilbur included the following:

1) Why were the six survivors in the torpedo room not immediately safeguarded, when divers first reached the 54, by attaching airlines to the ship's "ears" (S. C. Tubes), as was done when too late, instead of to the ballast tanks, as was done at first?

2) Why was the sunken S-4 "lost" during the rough weather that prevented diving, causing further delay until the wreck was found again and rebouyed?

3) Why did no tender accompany the S-4 on her practice run, to warn away other ships?

Two aunts of one of the drowned officers telegraphed Secretary Wilbur such questions. Newspapers hounded Secretary Wilbur with such questions, several of which he said were "based upon misinformation."

Answer. One of Secretary Wilbur's most important answers was that the airline had been first attached, not to the S-4's ballast tanks, but to her general air supply system. When this system was found to be damaged, the air was transferred to the S-4's ballast tanks. Secretary Wilbur did not know why the air had not been transferred to the "ears".

Admiral Charles F. Hughes, Chief of Naval Operations, said tha transferring the airline to the S-4's "ears" had required special pipefitting which could not be . got ready before rough weather halted diving operations.

Investigations loomed. Secretary Wilbur ordered a naval court of inquiry to sit in Boston. In the House of Representatives, three resolutions demanded reports, not only on the specific subjects of the S-4 disaster and safety devices for submarines, but on the efficiency of the Navy in general. Speaker Longworth of the House declared such inquiries would await the findings of the naval court.

Looking harassed and anxious, Secretary Wilbur spent Christmas even seeing and hearing more for himself at Provincetown. He ordered the S-4 to be salvaged straightway. The divers tunneled under the S-4 in two places, to attach lifting chains. The Atlantic raged, delaying the work.

Returning from Provincetown, Secretary Wilbur said: "It is the business of the submarine to be on the lookout for and immediately sight surface vessels. Therein lies their whole offensive strength. If they can't protect themselves in peace time from surface vessels which are unaware of their whereabouts, well--!"

Devices. Inventors and ingenues, marine experts and housewives, Navy men and newsboys suggested schemes and devices by which the disaster might have been averted.

Dragging Ashore. Old salts of Provincetown early suggested hitching the whole rescue fleet to the S-4 and dragging her to shallow water. Rear Admiral Frank Brumby, in charge of the rescuers, said that would tear the bottom out of the torpedo room and drown the six survivors at once.

Oil on Water. Simon Lake of New Milford, Conn., submarine inventor, advised dumping oil on the waves to flatten them and permit divers to go down; also, telling the six survivors to keep their heads as high as possible in the torpedo room since carbon dioxide is heavier than air.

Inventor Sperry. Elmer Sperry of Brooklyn, N. Y., inventor and marine expert, scouted Admiral Hughes' report about the difficulty of fitting a connection to the S-4's "ears." Said he: "All you need is a blueprint and you can fit it before you even go down there. There is nothing involved about an airline coupling with those tubes. ... It seems as though air should have been got to them before. It's enough to make the dead turn over in their graves."

Inventor Sperry also described a compressed air barrage which might have made diving possible during the rough weather. "You take a pipe, perforate it with holes, let it down about 30 feet and then pump air through it at high pressure. The bubbles break up the waves over a limited area of ocean, and it seems to me that the Navy could have continued its rescue work behind that barrage. . . . The Standard Oil Company has done it."

Inventor Fessenden, who designed the oscillator detector or "ear" used on the 54, said: "The sinking of the S-4 was more than avoidable. It was criminal." Dr. Fessenden maintained that the destroyer Paulding, which gored the 54, should have been equipped with "ears."

Hull Hooks. Outstanding among safety devices suggested for future use on U. S. submarines were hooks or rings, welded into the hull, to which lifting chains could be fastened. German submarines have such accessories. U.S. submarines used to have them but, according to the Navy Department, they were abandoned when U. S. submarines were built too big to be lifted.

Marker Buoys. Foreign submarines have marker buoys, containing telephones, which bob to the surface when released from within. The Navy Department said such buoys had been removed from U.S. submarines during the War because depth charges sometimes released the buoys from outside, betraying submarine positions.

Other Devices -- electro-magnetic lifts, detachable chambers and keels, divers' suits for escape through torpedo tubes or conning tower--were all said by the Navy Department to have been studied, tested and found impracticable. The Navy Department's memorandum of last week on safety devices was prepared last year to answer constructive criticism of the S-51 disaster off Block Island in 1925.

Submarine Life. Wallowing in the icy swells above the S-4's grave,* her siren wailing signals of horrible sound which the S-4 survivors answered with weak taps from below while they lived, the submarine S-8 stood by, day in & day out, but could not help her sistership.

Out of New London, Conn., into the grey depths of Long Island Sound, went another sistership, the S-19. Navy discipline required the 519 to make a practice run, similar to the S-4's schedule. The S-19's crew took their posts, made the run and no mishap occurred.

Ashore, newspapers published verses written some time ago by Walter Bishop, the S-4's drowned radioman:

THE SUBMARINE

In the cankerous mind of the devil There festered a fiendish scheme;

He called his cohorts around him And designed the submarine. . . .

The engine room when under way Is a place of torture, for the brain,

With the two big Diesel engines Roaring and shaking as though in pain.

The after battery is where we eat; That is, when we roll the least;

While hanging on to keep our place Like some prehensile beast. . . .

We're bottled up, just like a trap. With nothing in between

The sea and death but a metal cap Like the lid on a soup tureen. . . .

The best blood in the service You'll find on the old pig boat.

For it takes more than a common mind To sink and still to float.

There's a sort of fascination Attends this job of ours

That could only be duplicated By a rocket trip to Mars.

We all come back, come back for mare, And there, friends, is the rub;

We like the life beneath the sea-- Life in a damned old sub.

In 1910, while the Japanese submarine No. 6 was sinking during maneuvers, the commanding officer, Lieutenant Sakuma, wrote as follows:

"Words of apology fail me for having sunk His Majesty's submarine N. 6. My subordinates are killed by my fault, but it is with pride that I inform you that the crew to a man have discharged their duties as sailors and with the utmost coolness until their dying moments. . . .

"We endeavored to stop the inrush of water with our hands, but too late. . . .

"In a few minutes bad gas was generated, making it difficult for us to breathe. . . .

"The crew is now wet and it is extremely cold. It is my opinion that men embarking in submarines must possess the qualities of coolness and nerve, and must be extremely painstaking. . . .

"My respects and best regards to the following. . . . The air pressure is so great that I feel as if my ear drums will be broken. . . .

"I thought I could blow out the gasoline, but I am intoxicated with it. ...

"It is now 12:40 p. m."

*The muddy bottom water around the S-4 registered 34DEG Fahr.