The "official narrative -of the Jescape of the naval ratings who twere entombed for hours sin the Hforepart of the submarine' Poseidon fin the recent disaster near Welhalwei, a3 compiled by' Lieut-Com. BW, Galpin who was in command Jof. the vessel at the time. of its collision Wwith the str. Vu Tab, has been Tssued, 'The successful' use jot the Davis Submarine" Escape Apparatus, which was for the first ime tested. in a Teal accident, is wih i the method and survive, were Petty ratings who escaped by this
Oficer Willis, Leading Seaman Clarke, Able Seaman Nagle, Able Seaman Holt, and Chinese" Mess Boy Ah Hai Able Seaman. Lovock also escaped, but died shortly after reaching the surface, Able Seaman Hews and Chinese Sess Boy Miao IChi-tai also attempted to escape, but failed and were drowned, 2873 the report.
The Poseidon was rammed at the latter end of the wardroom "com partment. "Petty Officer Willis, Nagle, Clarke and Hole were in the forward torpedo compartment at this. time. "Lovoek; Hews and the two Chinese Sess Boys. were the Wardroom and went into the ard torpedo compartment' before the water-tight door was closed. Willis and Nagle then felosed the door between the Wardroom and the Torpedo Compartment, and shut off the ventilation, valves. This isolated the "Torpedo Compartment from the Wardroom, ment for tse in emergency was twitched. any The ship. took gle down ty the bow, and. was felt to sotie on the bottom.
Willis' first fell the men in. and said a thort prayer, and told them they had to do mand carry out th if they were in the tank at. Ports: mouth, which training in the use Jot the escape apparatus is carried Jout. "They then' put on the scape Spparats, and prepared fo Soed torpedo" compartment. The Torpedo hatch through which the escape was made opens "outwards, fand 20 it was necessary to "flood the compartment until the air Pressure Inside was equal. to. the frater pressure outside. The hatch could then be pushed open.
Escape drill had frequently been practised, and so it was known at fence which valves to open in order {flood the compartment. "At edo tube was. first flooded, and From "ihe water was alleed pave into the compartment cine by which the "Row coal be" "controlled. Before opening the final flooding. valve, a platform of fare was constructed between che {form enabled all the men to stand oro spare torpedoes, This 9
close tothe hatch, some on the ladder and some on the platform. 'The flooding valve. was then open: fed, and the compartment. slowly coded, 'The men had their escape apparatus on, but were not using them as there was plenty. of ain The oxygen carried in' the apatate fats for something over alf an hour, and itis necessary to conserve it az_much og possible.
The first attempt to open the Match was made when the water was still below the ire platform, Hour the pressure ry in. Bot a certain amount of air feseaped while the hatch was open-Jed, and so considerably more flood-Was necessary inside the com-Jpartment. Before attempting to pen the batch the frst, time, each finan put his escape apparatus tui mouth and started to breathe it Holt and Lovock were close up against the hatch, with the others behind them. Four of five attempts were made to open the hatch with-Jout success and with loss of a from the compartment. At the next attempt, however, the hatch Jopened! and Holt and Loveck were blown out by the air in the compartment. But the hatch slammed back again too quickly to allow Jany others to escape. Holt remem-hers hitting the submerged receit~
righters "On arsiva) at the sur is goggles, saw the light getting acral and looking up through
face, he saw that Lovock was wn-
Jeoncious, swam to him and supported, him until the boats reached them. These two men came up hours after the submarine sank. }Lovock died shortly after getting on board M.S, Marazion where
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.