Evening Star Newspaper, September 6, 1931, Page 55

NGTON, D. C., SEPTEMBER 6, 1931, E for SUBMARINES gL BRI S diving deeply and hitting hard, and equipped with the latest safety devices. reatest Navy Divers Foretold the Devices Which It Is Now Claimed I Prevent Repetition of T -agedies inated in New Submersibles. kubmarine, the U. S. S. 08, shown [preparing to dive, right. As soon as he gog to me he placed his hand on my shoulder and patted it and it sure was a reassuring thump, as I knew that if any- one could clear me it would be Frank Crilley. “After an inspection Crilley decided he was working on the wrong side of me and with a parting wave of the hand sailed upward. It looked so comical to me at the time when he waved his hand ‘bye-bye’ to me that I could do no less than return it. Without taking time for decompression he went right up one side and down on the other and soon I saw him on my left. <'F- watched him working on my line. After working a while he would go upward and in a few minutes he would be down again—in all he made six trips to the topside before he got the line cleared altogether. About the third time he went up I asked through the phone: ‘Where is Crilley?’. I received no answer and then went to sleep. “I was three hours at 250 feet. I was grad- ually pullied up to the bottom rung of the ladder, which was at 120 feet, and placed at the bottom of it. I remember this stage of it, but at 60 feet I again passed out. “For the time I had been down, I should have remained at that depth for about 18 hours. It was finally decided to hoist me up and place me in the re-compression chamber. I heard the command: ‘Let go—come up— regulate valve!’ " S soon as I reached the barge they took my helmet o and I said: ‘I'm all right, Steve.’ “That's the last thing I szid for over three weeks. My suit was cut off me and I was placed in the re-compression chamber along with Crilley and Drs. Garrison and French. I was unconscious, the ear drums of Dr. Gar- rison broke and he bled, Dr. French was nau- seated, so you can see that it was a real cham- ber of horrors to Crilley, who was perfectly conscious at the time, but had to look at us for 14 hours. “The pressure was finally reduced to 35 pounds in the re-compression chamber, but when it was reduced to 30 I was in such pain that it had to be boosted to 35 again. Finally, the doctors said that I was going into pleuro- pneumonia and that they had to take me out of the chamber or I would die, so I had to endure the awful pain while the pressure was decreased and I was taken to the hospital. “A number of times the doctors gave me up and said that I could not possibly live, but I managed to drag by, although I had a severe pain in my hip. and it was not until two years later that § had an X-ray taken which showed a broken bone. Despite the fact that it was fixed I have been limping ever since.” FTER Crilley had come out of the re-com- pression chamber—it had been a terrible ordeal for him with the three sick people in there as his chamber mates—he was anxious to find a place where he could get someé quiet and a little rest. After giving a few answers to his inquisitors, Crilley slipped away and was lost to sight, causing much -anxiety .among those who were solicitous as to his welfare. It was not until afterward that it was found out that he had gone aboard the Maryland and curled up for a long nap behind a generator in the dynamo roem. Diving operations were resumed on the F-4 two days later, and Crilley worked with them until the boat was finally picked up by the pontoons and carried within the shallow waters of the harbor and -placed in dry dock. After a report had been made of the meri- torious work of- Crilley. Congress duly recog- nized his act and President Wilson made a personal presentatton of the Congressional Medal of Honor to him. The letter of presentation said: “Crilley’s descent was undertaken in the face of threatening weather and accomplished at a depth between 225 and 250 feet in an old type of diving suit that was not adapted to diving at such depths; when a heavy swell was run- ning in from seaward; and without any foot- ing whatsoever so that any mechanical failure of his apparatus or a false move on his part would have caused instant death. “Crilley deliberately, knowingly and willingly staked his life in his successful response to the desperate need of his companion diver who had reached the last extremity.” : 2 The Medal "of Honor Book' tontains the Henry Breault. who got a medal of honor for his work on the sunken 0O-5. names of many men that have been awarded the coveted decoration, but there are few cases on record where the regipient had only a sec- ond to decide whether he would take the step to sure safety or the one to almost certain death to save the life of a shipmate. Such was the case of Henry Breault, torpedo- man first class, attached to the U. S. sub- marine O-5. The O-5, on the morning of October 28, 1923, while standing out of the harbor from the submarine base, Coco Solo, Canal Zone, col- lided with the S. S. Abangarez, and sank in less than a minute. When the commanding officer of the sub- marine saw that a collision was inevitable, he passed the word below decks to stand by for a collision and to close all water-tight doors. Henry Breault was in the torpedo room at the time, inspecting the torpedoes that were going to be fired that day. Hearing the warn- ing, he hurried to the hatch leading from the torpedo room to the topside. On arriving there he saw the boat settling fast as a result of the collision and was almost in the act of getting clear of the hatch when he heard some one below trying to close the water-tight door between the torpedo room and the forward battery compartment. He realized immediately that if he were to Lieut. H. F. Gearing. who won a Navy cross after a battery explosion on she Submarine S-49. i leave the deck hatch. open his shipmate would be drowned in another minute. Without & second’s hesitation he pulled down the hatch and closed it, then dropped below and aided Chief Electrician’s Mate Lawrence T. Brown, the man in the compartment, in closing the water-tight door. Immediately after the accident boats from the submarine base rushed to the scene to pick up the survivors, swimming around in the water, but by this time the O-5 was resting on the boltom in 45 fcet of water with appaz ently all compartments fiooded. FTER the fir:t muster of the crew, Breault and Brown were among those reported missing, as-it was not thought that any eme could possibly be alive in the submarine. A message was sont to Breault's relatives o the effect that it was feared that he had beed drowned. A diver was sent down as soon as possible $0 verify the supposition, and when he resched the vicinity of the torpedo room he was yé» warded by distinct taps on the hull from within that compartment and steps were takerf $0 free the inmates. In the torp:do room, Breault, & natural leader of mren, immediately took charge of the situation. He and Brown lay down and relaxed 80 as to conserve the oxygen supply and waited patiently to bs rescued. A couple of hours later tame the diver's taps on the hull and Breault immediately took a wrench and pounded back the answering knock and managed 1o get off a fairly satisfactory message, all qualified subma’ine men being sig- nalmen, to the effect that he and Brown could “stick it out.” Two large cranes, in use in the Canal, were brought over and the diver made a cable fast to the bow of the submarine and after 20 hours the inmates felt the bow finally raise up. This attempt failed, however, the boat settling back in the mud again, and the two sailors waited for 11 more hours before they heard anything more from the outer world. At the 31st hour they again felt the bow of the O-5 go up and it was the fervent wish of both that it stay up this time. as the air was becoming quite foul in the compartment. Also, some water had seeped in. A little later they heard a tap on the torpedo room hatch and both iushed to it. The hatch was cracked, and in a few minutes the air pressure was equalized and willing hands reached down and picked the two survivors up. Due to Breault's bravery and quick thinking, they were safe. When the case of Breault's wholly unsejfish act had been thoroughly investigated, Congress voted him a Medal of Honor, and he was called Continued on Fifteenth Page : B Examining the new “pad-eye” by which a sunken sub ean be brought to the @ surface. At the left is Charles Momsen, inventor of the famous “lung” With him is L. J."Briggs. chief’of the Division of Mechanics of the United States Bureau of Standards.