1937-04-09 — Page 22

∙10

THE HONGKONG :: TELEGRAPH.

FRIDAY, APRIL

1937.

THE SUBMARINE

POSEIDON

Retold by

Guy

S.

Ramsey

KIMMING along the China Seas, 21 miles

surface of the north of Wei- submarine

Poseidon prepared to fire a torpedo. She was carrying out exercises. It was June 9, 1931.

She was a superb craft. The trained skill of shipwrights in Barrow had fashioned her gleaming sides, her blunt nose, her conning tower that cut through the waters. Her 260 feet of length carried eight 21-inch torpedo tubes: six for'ard and two aft. A single 4-inch gun dominated her deck when sho was afloat and was lowered below when she sank. She could make 17% knots on the surface, 10% submerged. She displaced 1,570 tons on the surface, 2,040 submerged.'

She was a One ship. She was a happy ship. One of her seamen had written to his mother, unhappy about her boy who defled the natural boun- daries set to man by travelling in the depths: "These boats are wonderful and much better at sea than most big ships."

But these boats-there were four

of them in the "p" class: Perseus,

und Poseidon Proteus, Pandora authorised in 1927, laid down in 1028, launched in 1929, commissioned In kv. Protrus and 1030 were not lucky.

Pandora, bound for the Ching Station, had come in collision and had to wait in Gibraltar for repairs. Poseldun herself

be named was to -ut sanke names are tradi-

unlucky for the Navy: so she was named for the Greek god of the sea; the cruel, bearded brother Zeus who was jealous, for his

dominion of the deep.

TRAPPED UNDER

THE

SEA

They were walling, waiting in the hope that as the submarine Alled the pressure would be equalised...

mess boy what to do with the "Third' Lung.

Colour Chart for a REDHEAD

MAKE-UP

Powder base: Rachel.

Face powder: Natural tit your skin is very fair); other- wise rachel or rachel fonce.

Rouge: Orange, coral, red- heod.

Lipstick: Geranium, orange, cardinal, redhead.

Nail pollh: To match lip- stick.

Ene-shadow:

Bronze-preen,

shadow blue (for blue eyes),--

Mascara: Brown.

HAIR

Weak henna rinses overjj now and then fo bring out

colour.

CLOTHES

the

Day: All the, greens, ercept ones with a yellow tone, black, navy blue, bird's-egg blue, prey. Night: Sea green, jade, black, white, silver grey, parma violet, copper (if you dare matchi your hair).

would yet get the hutch cover oft again.

SUB

Someone cracked a foke that rang true, noi false. Someone started the song of the day. "I want to be

QUDDENLY the nerves of one happy, but I can't, be happy, ull I

man cracked. He listen- make you happy too." The chorus ed to the oxygen bag about his chest. echoed ng if the men were in a dance it did not bubble. It was empty. hall or the canteen. "I want to be "Oy." he croaked. "Tank empty." gave way to another song, Wills listened to his own tank. It glit, with memories that hallow wo was silent, allent because it was it: "Tipperary."

empty. "Listen to mine, you tool. Mine

But isn't bubbling either. there's plenty left in it yet," said Wills. Splendide mendax in very

THE THE sea came crawling and truth.

creeping in. It was nt The water crept up to the chin. of the China Station to make their breathed, rebreathed air and the their numbed feet. It was round the men stood on thei: locs. Now, reports and to take all steps possible sweat of human bodies,

thelt freezing ankles. It was icy at now or never

was their chance. Stumbling in the darkness, drench- for the saving of ship and crew. The

their calves.

Hands reached for the hatch-cover, Berwick, the Cumberland, the alr- ed in perspiration of fear, the men

Clearly Will's explained that the Straining, tugging, pushing, pulling, carrler DOSEIDON

Hermes another Greek resigned themselves to the inevitable, hatch could be opened only when sliding.

sweating, bending their the des- No hope or only that which lasts

the pressure choppy sea, taking little

inside the submarine shoulders to it, teaming at it with the submarine with the basic fact of life. No rear was equant to the pressure outside; broken nails, thrusting with bursting stock in wind and weather, Normal- troyer Stormcloud,

floating soned hope. No chance even to get otherwis the sea would rush in, hearts and gasping lungs, they ly, exercises were held ten miles parent ship Medway-a further off, out of the main shipping workshop where any repole could be to a gun and put a swift end to the singing back into the hull any man wrought." ways, but this time the locality was carried out, heavy tackle was stored, inevitable slow death,

machinery was in- compressed alr changed.

POSE

ran along the the sloop Marazion,

rino Vitably, a look-out va a Admiral McVay, commanding the treasures on his birthday. Petty

United

who stood on the "frontier" drown-

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choppy sea whose waves rise highes any of his command. He despatched for'ard, took command of his two there by the dead weight, the killing minule and a half to break the sur-

in

of

six

Into

It lifted an inch, a foot. It was A torch gleamed in the darkness, ing him and all others aboard. One A submarine inevitably offers stalled, divers were, maintained

hand torch like that a schoolboy man went to the valve and begun to open. One after another, the four

flood the vessel.

men-Willis the Inst of them-shot mark to a look-out. Also, raced for the position.

The six-men slood by the hatch upwards through-the-con that still set low in the water can e

States Asiatic Fleet, put at Officer Wills, forpedo gunner'y mate,

rating among the six men to force away the cover. It jammed. sirove to claim them; moving ut

It lay stubbo disposal of the British authorities senior

in its place, held eighteen inches a second, taking à not see fur shead, especially in a than himself.

the submarine salvage vessel Pigeon group.

weight of the sea. Again they bent face. He fell on his knees and prayed..

their shoulders. The air was grow- Three hours and a half since the The 1.753-ton steamer Yata, own to the rescue. ed by a Chinese company,

There command-

only 20 fathom

Not a religious man by the normal ing rank and foul. Their strength, crash.

lowered Searchlights were Japanese master, came lum- water 21 miles North of Wel-hai-wel: standard. An ordinary sailor, grey for lack of fresh oxygen-top early ed by a bering down the sen-lane. Only 120 feet. It was little fub cavirs of eye, steady of hand, sure of him yet to ix the "Third Lung" to gleam opaquely through the depths. when separated, by yards did the There was a hole in the submarine self. The familiar words of the position-was abbing. The cold sweat of the sea.. Divers in goggling hel- two ships see each other. There was Surely, surely the men could set oh Lord's Prayer, numbled a thousand of terror mingled with the hot sweat mets and weighted boots clumped

120 feet of water

exert a sudden shrill chalter of Chinese.

times at Church Parade, steadied of effort,

along the ocean floor weaving haw- and Jangling, the racing pulses

Suddenly the hatchway yielded, sers with clumsy hands. Machinery the staccato bark of orders in Eng gigantic pressure. The risk was that Hish. Stren

Two men made ready. "On life revolved to pump air to them and howled, hoarse

and the sea would rush in and drown the cracking nerves of the men.

called Willis. forco mournful.

saving apparatus,"

air into the drowned, sub- A whistle

men in the hull before they could screamed. Lieutenant-Commander

The phrase "Thy will be done, Two bodies racketed to the surface, marine, B. W, fight their way to the hatches or the the Po

that might have fallen like the knell Before the reat could move the hatch the gaping rent in the bows. Poseldon, gave

There was hope. Hope for the 18 -cover jammed down again. ̧ To check it, the order was given: of doom, rose like a challenge. hard hport" the

men silli aboard. Hope even for the rule-of-the sea. The "Close water-light doors Ten As the "Amen" was spoken, Willis Two men rocketed to the surface.

sunken, half-million-pound - ship. officer in the Chinese ship got flus- astern, eight men,

Oxy-acetylene flames cut throughTM strove ta out the got to his feet. He rigged a steel Holt and Levock. They shot through the shell-but the weather grow tered: he was going to hit this Eng- men forord

men astern succeeded. hawser for the men to stand on. He the fathoms of sea, the inches of oil stormy. The divers could stay down Ush boat with her White Ensign. By order. The all the souls of his ancestors, he was But the men in the bows were faced struggled to a cupboard and tugged that still lingered in swirling traces; no longer. It was certain death, to

"Third Lungs"-the new greasing the waves. Bonts put out continue. going to hit her. He flung his hand with a crippled bulkhead, bent and out the

escape apparatus Issued to and picked them up: Holt supporting

were rumours of topping, on the telegraph. Instead of order- twisted by the collision. They pull- Davis

the blue-faced Lovock. Only later Morse signals banged on the Metal ing "Hard sport," he ordered "Hard ed and pushed, sweated and strained, every man aboard a submarine.

did he learn he had been supporting hull with a spanner. When K 13 nstarboard.“

The ship, their own lives, depended

A square rubber "tank" of oxygen a corpse. It was just two hours and sank off the Clyde in 1917 men had on that stubborn door. They tug-

A great goggling a quarter after the crash, Again his hand sought the tele- and tore at it with frantic fin- lies on the chest,

been rescued after 24 hours. graph, to ring down "Reverse ged engines. Hard astern."

Bacic went the ships, braving the Below In the submarine another, Ba gers. At last it closed-all but a hendpiece goes over the face, Clips crinkle that could not be corrected, clutch at the nostrils. A thick tube

Back to the sea-floor, brav- another hour. 60 to death, went

ent the divers. They through which the sen came crawling like an elephant's trunk snakes from hour passed:

nose to chest. The device purifies minutes, 3,000 seconds. The water ing

on the sunken the breath and allows it to be rose to knee, to thigh, to groin, to listened, banging THE engines stopped, then and creeping.

began to revolve in re-

breathed again, the nitrogen-soda navel, to chest, to armpit, to should- vessel. But no answer came,

Within three days the ship was verse, striving to stein the momen-

S the ship sank, the elec- to the whisky of oxygen-preventing er, to throat. The Jungs with which.

the neat gas from producing intoxi- they, breathed were now only the buried in 12 feet of mud and sal- tum, to check the way under which

A tric light plant falled. cation.

artificial lungs of the Davis appara- vage operations and the eighteen she was still travelling relentlessly

men-ten astern, eight amidships Pitch darkness, darkness dank and towards the veering submarine.

Patiently he explained to the crew

whose epic is written only in the

the But the rudder drove her at right- damp with the condensing breath of

They were waiting, waiting in the Book of All-Knowing-were with their half-million- angles towards, instead of away from the crew, wet with the infiltration of how to put them on, rehearsing the

orders. One scaman hope that as the submarine Alled the abandoned Bow met bow: heavy the sea, acrid with the scent of brine. well-known against slender sub- Darkness soon to grow brackish with began instructing the little Chiricse pressure would be equalised and they pound death-trap of steel forever. Merciseido marine. The plates of the Poseidon ripped asunder. The great tank of

oil was pierced. The oil gushed out. The sea

conted; shed in. The boat tited,

fted her perfect balance, and began to sinit.

Tedashi Iyelshi, the Japanese cap- Lain, ran to the bridge. The engines were stopped, Boats were ordered away: boats filled with lifebelts for the submarine's stricken crew. The boats were lowered and the Chin ese sallora clapped the lifebelts, round their own bodies, chattering

To

tus.

Russia Springs

Surprise

10 the astonishment of the whole world, Rus-

In their light, shrill dialect that has sian warplanes and pilots

given its name to the Chinese game have won the superiority of

Mah Jongg the Twittering of Spar-

TOWS

the air from German and

Galpin, five of his officers, 20 of Italian aircraft in the

his crew, performing miracles

speed and address, got through the Spanish war. canning-tower hatch even

ship was

as the

the sinking. Between This has been the first neid test order "Engines patern" and the crash of the new Russlan air force. Young there elapsed just 15 seconds. Be Russians have always boasted that tween the crash and the vanishing they have the finest air force. So of the Poseidon there passed Just have the Germana. Spain seems to two minutes. -

prove the Russians right..

hatch.

is the What

reason for this

bombers,

There

A

the most efficient fighter in the worldL

And Russia is building thousands of fighters like this. Like the other types, it is simple to construct and easy to maintain.

WHAT

These 9,000 warplanes are split force even to the most efficiently

THAT about the personnel Into four separate sections-night equipped opponent.

bombers. These bombers, Tecon- Then the day day.

this remarkable air again seem to be copies of those built force, and the milliary tactics em- naissance machines,, and fighters,

by other nations. But, in contrast, they look extremely calcient, and I played in operating it? have been told that they are. Again, STAKE, first of all, the night a gigantic force can take the air.

bombers. Examples that

Two minutes and 31 men got through the narrow

They superiority? Have the Soviets betI have seen are definitely inferior to Germans and Italians. The kicked their way to the surface and ter warplanes and better fighting the

general design is not so arrived lite negroes. They had to pilota than other nations?"

efficient, they are slower, and the motors are break not only the surface of the

not of the same quality. water, but to get through a solid foot

of oil that lay, a solid, glutinous,

BUmy layer on the brine, oil lighter than water, constricting to the limbs, impossible to swim in.

THE boats came alongside Their crews hauled the cruised about, men aboard. Then picking up a man here, a man there. But when the roll was called on the Yuto's deck 24 names, were call- ed in vain.

Iyeishi and Galpin went to the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief

In the first place, the Russians are paring a new idea in tactics. Their commanders belleve that an over- whelming number of moderately off- cient machines can beat a smaller number of highly efficient battle- DECENTLY I saw the latest planes. That Is the reason for the I example of the Russian immense size of the force. Aghter. It was a amall monoplane, Secondly, they are convinced that As a unit the machines seem to carrying four guns and said to have dogged tenacity on the part of the FIRST, the aircraft. So far, be copies of the night bombers in was meal and nit plots will always beat a man with the Soviet Air Force has service with other nations, and not was constructed of metal and wood, less tenacity in a better maching.

a single-seater. It was well been an experiment in military avia- good coples at that. Most of them was tion, built up on enthusiasm and not are monoplanes.. Average speed la streamlined.

in the region of 120 mph. superiority of material.

The U.S.S.1. has about 0,000 machines, equalling the total of all the European air forces together.

Competent observers say that' only about 2,000. of these machines Drst- are equal in quality to the

fine machines of: "other" nations The odd 7,000 are obsolescent,

It's

Workmanship was not as polished as that seer on the German machines, Balanced against this inferiority But it looked capable of doing in the fact that they are cheap, work chiciently. Craft of this type quick and easy to build and main are in service in Spain. tain: so that they can be replaced without great coşi,

Secondly, the Russians can put several thousand of them into the air at once, if need be—an overwhelming

One of the extraordinary aspects

Russia has an astonishing num- ber of pilot Feople competent to Judge put it at 150,000 at least:

This number, is increasing every day. More than 5,000 of the 150,- 000 are women.

The reserve of plots is continually

in this machine was that, in looks being reinforced. It is kept up by it appeared to be close teaching any one to dy who is it to ANYWAY, copy of the British Spitäre fighter, destined for the R.A.F., said to be

-Tearn.

Victor Burnett

OUR BRITISH crosswORDS

16.

ACROSB

4 Go, in real change.

8 Might describe rubber, but has

no rigid application.

9 Thle disease is not uncommon

In Africa. 10 Have shot at giving the

favourite about a length. 11 Thus the instrument is cleverly

enclosed, without doubt,

16 Pacific Islanda.

18 Many a man has made his name

with this.

19 Disorder mostly due to S.

American metal.

21 Byron wrote this.

22 A measure is used in U.S.A., to

detain immigrants,

23 Damaged through being teased? 20 This in men is of the other sex. 28 A plant.

29 Fruit.

33 A striking episode that will stick

a boy's memory. 35 Nonsensical talk.

in a

36 Put in a fold to enlarge.

37 Carte blanche method for the

artist?

DOWN

1 This may help the tired cabinet

maker to stick it.

2 A feat.

3 Advice for an inebriate sailor on

his bad mark.

4 A puzzle.

A cold remedy.

6 The way of the world.

7. March before this,

10 The House of Lords is, of

course, unrivalled, but not in

this way

12 Are you straining this nerve just

now?

13 Disclose. -

14 A scene from amateur opera,·

18 Giving, but not necessarily in

generous fashion.

10 He hopes to get the bird..

∙17 A filing puzzle for the patient.

20 A woodland breakage

24 This will go to the rick:

25 Epithet for a sharp hint.

27 What was once Spain. includes

half

30

A

0

across. ́. noted English rebel,

31 Quite enough from a tree.

32 One might shoot this in a canoe. 34 A leading feature of humanity.

Yesterday's Solution.

FORBEAEB BAOBAB

TIMEFUSE OPIAT E

TOW BALIBTZ

|B|_L" BANDBOX

CRAVENH O UBA KTOR

FOUVRE GEBIRUDE PRI ΙΟ ΑΠΟΠΟ TUNING BEABJKIN

IDEVO

REKTUS HEREFORD