Commander HOOVER. Yes. The orders were from the Navy Department and were specific.

Senator STEIWER. And were there special orders in addition that had been prescribed for these particular tests at this particular location?

Commander HOOVER. The orders under which the S-4 was operating are included as an exhibit in the record of the court of inquiry. Senator ODDIE. Who issued that order?

Senator STEIWER. Can you refer to it while we are on the subject? Commander HOOVER. I will try to find it.

Senator ODDIE. May I suggest that we let Commander Hoover proceed with his story at this time and look it up later?

Senator GERRY. I think it should be inserted in the record. It will make the record very useful.

Senator STEIWER. I should say we could tell better later.

Commander HOOVER. It is Exhibit No. 9; and I think the exhibits are in that big box I sent you.

Senator ODDIE. It must be. I would suggest that you make a memorandum of the things that are wanted and then we can determine later whether they will go in the record or not.

Senator STEIWER. Do not let me interrupt; just go ahead with your story and we can get this later.

Commander HOOVER. As I said before, the Paulding sent out radio messages to the authorities which were received within a very few minutes. The Coast Guard headquarters sent for all their vessels in the vicinity, which vessels arrived within a few hours, or during the early part of the evening.

The commandant of the navy yard at Boston communicated by telephone with the Navy Department, the Portsmouth Navy Yard where the tender or mother ship of the S-4 was, and the New London submarine base where Admiral Brumby was then situated on the Camden; and within an hour I should say, things were in pretty good shape toward sending everything that we had in the Navy or could make use of, to the scene of the accident.

Senator ODDIE. I asked Admiral Hughes, Chief of Naval Operation, to make a chronological statement of the actions of the Navy Department showing just the time the various actions relating to this disaster were taken.

Commander HOOVER. I have that here.

Senator ODDIE. I think it would be proper to have that in the record at this place.

Commander HOOVER. All right. Does the stenographer, then, want to take this and copy it?

Senator ODDIE. Would you like to have him read it now?

Senator STEIWER. It seems quite long. I would like to read it but I imagine it can be put in the record.

Senator GERRY. I would suggest that you put it in the record. Commander HOOVER. I will not need to read it all.

Senator STEIWER. I suggest that the stenographer copy it in the record and we can all read it later.

Senator ODDIE. Yes; I think it is better. That can be put in the record.

Senator GERRY. Is Commander Hoover going to refer to any special passages in it now?

Commander HOOVER. I could if I wanted to get the exact time for things, which I may want to show. I know a lot of them myself. Senator ODDIE. I think it might be well to comment on the particular time that this happened. It was Saturday afternoon, was it not, when some of the men had gone away for the week end? Commander HOOVER. Yes; I can tell you about that.

Senator ODDIE. If you will comment on it; I think that is very important in showing the promptness shown.

Commander HOOVER. The accident happened at a very unfortunate time in regard to the obtaining of personnel and ships, etc., because being Saturday afternoon it is a Navy custom that the men, as a rule, go on shore liberty; and, as we know, the navy yards usually stop work at half-past 4.

Admiral Brumby left New London within two hours' time. He, of course, had to send for the crew that was needed to run the Falcon, send for the various officers, and get up steam.

Senator ODDIE. State what ship the Falcon is.

Commander HOOVER. The Falcon is the submarine rescue vessel. Senator GERRY. How far is New London from that point on Cape Cod where the accident ocurred?

Commander HOOVER. I do not know exactly, but he left at 6 o'clock in the evening and got in the next morning about 7. He made about 12 knots. It was an all-night run at 12 knots-probably about 125 miles.

At the Portsmouth Navy Yard the Bushnell, submarine tender, was immediately manned by the commander of the submarine division, of which the S-4 was a unit, and the expert naval constructors and technical help of the Portsmouth Navy Yard, and proceeded at once to Provincetown, where she arrived at about 1.15 in the morning.

By this time the wind had come up considerably; it was blowing about force 6; and, although the Coast Guard boat was still there and had buoyed the bubbles, nothing could be done until daylight. In. fact, the exact location of the wreck was not known because there was no line actually made fast to it at that time.

The Bushnell got in touch with the Paulding and the Coast Guard people on the beach to find out what had taken place, and just about what conditions would have to be met, and waited, knowing that the Falcon was en route with Admiral Brumby, to get in touch with him and make plans for rescue.

Admiral Brumby arrived on the Falcon about 7 o'clock in the morning, and an hour or two later, by means of dragging, the wreck, or what they thought was the wreck, was caught by a grapnel. Preparations had already been made and divers were sent down as soon as possible. The first diver reported over his telephone that he was on the submarine and that there were signs of life in the forward part of her.

Senator ODDIE. How deep was the submarine below the surface? Commander HOOVER. She was in 102 feet of water.

Senator STEIWER. What is the over-all length of the S-4?

Commander HOOVER. Two hundred and thirty-one feet.

Senator GERRY. And about 25 feet beam? Or would it be a little less?

Commander HOOVER. It would be about 22 feet. The diver found the upper works badly encumbered with radio antenna wires and wreckage, and the bow covered with mud, indicating that the submarine had gone down bow first and plowed into the mud to a certain extent. This covered up the torpedo tubes. He rapped on the hatch leading into the torpedo room and received replies in the way of taps from the interior. He walked aft a certain distance, as far as he could, but he heard nothing from the after part of the vessel. Senator STEIWER. Did he walk past the point of collision? Commander HOOVER. Yes, he saw that saw it roughly. Upon the return of the diver to the surface it was decided by those in charge to try to supply high-pressure air to the ballast tanks of the submarine from an outside connection which is fitted on each submarine, and blow the water out of the ballast tanks. They hoped by this means to float the boat immediately. This operation was based on the fact that submarines are designed to float with any one compartment flooded, provided all other compartments are dry and the ballast tanks empty.

Not knowing the extent of the damage, or whether or not the inner hull had been punctured, this was the correct procedure in order to raise the boat as quickly as possible.

The next diver went down with an air hose and connected on to the ballast tank blowing line on the side of the conning tower. High pressure air was sent down for a considerable period of time, until large clouds of bubbles came to the surface, indicating that all the blowing had been done which could be done; in other words, that the air was escaping as fast as it was being sent down.

In the meantime while blowing, considering the possibility that the submarine might come to the surface, the Falcon had to be moved to one side so she would not be struck.

Senator ODDIE. If she had risen directly under the Falcon it would have resulted in sinking both of them, would it not, because of the roughness of the sea?

Commander HOOVER. It would have sunk the Falcon too.

Senator ODDIE. I think at this point you should state what the condition of the sea was at that time.

Commander HOOVER. Yes.

Senator GERRY. And also the time of day.

Commander HOOVER. It was about 8 o'clock on Sunday evening. When the blowing of the main ballast tanks had failed to raise the boat, it was decided to send down another air line and make fast to what is called the compartment air salvage line. This is a line which runs along inside of the submarine, and can be used to supply air to the living compartments from outside by a similar connection to the one referred to just previously.

Senator STEIWER. What was the object of this maneuver?

Commander HOOVER. The object of this was, if possible, to get air to the men imprisoned in the torpedo room. The number of trained divers on hand at this time was only three or four.

Senator STEIWER. Were they enlisted men in the Navy?

Commander HOOVER. Yes. The weather was getting very boisterous at this time, the wind was blowing at force 7 or 8. The most experienced diver was sent down then, although it was considered to be a very hazardous undertaking. His name was Michaels. He

went down at 7.49 o'clock p. m., Sunday. The Falcon was yawing back and forth, and rolling and pitching, making it very difficult to carry out any diving, or even to land the diver on the deck of the submarine. The stern of the Falcon was then being held in position by two mine sweepers, one on each quarter, with their anchors down, and lines between; the Falcon's own anchors laid out ahead.

The diver had great difficulty in getting on the submarine, and before he was able to make the connection to this compartment salvage line, his air hose and life line became entangled and fouled in the wreckage. The heavy current, and the yawing and pitching of the Falcon, and the consequent necessity of paying out a considerable slack in these lines to the diver, looped them back and forth over the wreckage and over his body to such an extent that he was pinned down on the deck in a prone position. He telephoned up that he was fouled, and to send some one down to clear him.

Senator ODDIE. What was the temperature of the water?

Commander HOOVER. The temperature of the water was about freezing-34°, I think. The diver Eadie, who had previously gone down and made the other air connection, and was at this time exhausted and in his berth, was called upon to put on his suit and go down and clear Michaels, the weather getting worse all the time. This he proceeded to do; and after Michaels had been submerged for something over three hours, he was gotten to the surface.

Michaels was, of course, unconscious for the most of the night, and this occasioned the trip of the Falcon early Monday morning to Boston, to put him in the hospital. The weather was so bad at this time that it would have been an impossibility to carry out any more diving. I think the testimony will bear this out in every particular; and, as I say, the life of Diver Michaels was considered to be of the most importance at that time, since no more diving could be done.

He was kept in what is called a recompression chamber, which is part of the apparatus on the rescue ship Falcon, until he got to Boston. It would have been practically certain that he would have contracted pneumonia had he been taken out of this chamber and sent in an open boat to some other ship and carried to Boston.

Senator STEIWER. What time did the Falcon leave the scene of the wreck and proceed to Boston?

Commander HOOVER. The Falcon proceeded to Boston Monday morning at 6.30, and arrived there shortly after noon. She got back to the wreck again that evening about dark.

In the meantime the submarine S-8 was standing by close to the wreck, and communicating with it by means of her underwater signaling devices, and by tapping from the submarine S-4 she established the fact that there were five men and one officer alive in the torpedo room, and that the torpedo room was comparatively free of

water

They asked the men in the S-4 whether or not they had opened the valve to the compartment salvage line, previously referred to. The reply was that they had tried it but that water came out, which indicated to the rescue party that this line was open somewhere in the boat, or had been damaged in the collision, and therefore would probably be of doubtful utility later on when diving could be resumed. Senator STEIWER. Let me interrupt a minute. The subsequent examination of the boat verified that conclusion as being correct?

Commander HOOVER. It did not. The line was intact.

Senator STEIWER. What was the explanation of the failure to get air through the line?

Commander HOOVER. The connection to this line was never made because the diver that went down to do it was caught in the wreckage. Senator STEIWER. And they did not attempt it again after he was taken up?

Commander HOOVER. No, they could not make another attempt until diving was again possible, and that was three days later. By that time the men had died.

Senator STEIWER. Did they ultimately connect with it?

Commander HOOVER. They could have, but they did not. It was no use to, later on. Their best knowledge at that time was that the line was inoperative.

Senator ODDIE. Did they at that time have knowledge of the fact that the compartment salvage line was broken?

Commander HOOVER. That was the inference from the fact that the people in the submarine said, by signal, that upon opening the valve to this line the water came out of it.

Senator STEIWER. How is that accounted for if the line is intact? Commander HOOVER. I do not know.

Senator ODDIE. Was there not a break in the line, which allowed the water to come in from the compartment that was flooded?

Commander HOOVER. There may have been leaks into the line from some other part, enough to fill the pipe, and allow enough water to come out to make them think it was full and would continue to flow out. There are a lot of openings to this line in other places.

Senator STEIWER. That line is just a single installation on one side of the vessel only, is it?

Commander HOOVER. Yes. If you would like to know about the details of that line, I can make you a sketch and explain it.

Senator STEIWER. It might be well to have something like that in the record, if you can make a little detailed sketch.

Senator GERRY. I think so too.

Senator ODDIE. It will be instructive.

Commander HOOVER. It is something that is a little hard to understand unless you have a diagram to help you visualize it.

Senator ODDIE. Have you any more questions on that line, Senator Steiwer?

Senator STEIWER. NO.

Senator ODDIE. Then, Commander Hoover, go ahead with your narrative.

Commander HOOVER. Diving was not resumed until Wednesday, at which time the wind and sea had gone down somewhat, enabling the Falcon to be moored and held in position over the wreck.

There is some criticism of the Navy about losing the exact position of the wreck during the storm. It seems that upon leaving the wreck Monday they had a new 4-inch manila line made fast, with a number of buoys on it, and also an air hose which was connected to the submarine, and was also buoyed. Wednesday morning these buoys were found to have been cut adrift; and it was later found that they had been cut by the sharp edges of the wreckage-both the manila cable and the air hose.