Crash Dive [Illustration: The men in gas-masks working on a ship almost on its head, was a sight to haunt one.] Crash Dive by Claude C. Vickrey Illustrated by L. R. Gustavson An American submarine officer tells a vivid story of his dangerous service. “Rig ship for diving!” Having just come from the submarine school at New London, I had yet to make my first “crash” dive, as the old-timers so aptly call it when you slam a submarine down and out of sight with full diving rudder, as if the enemy had suddenly come upon you in a fog. The other officers on the ship, who had been “in the boats” for years, didn’t seem to be much excited. Bud Tyler the executive, and Jack Lansing the engineering officer, were arguing away just as if they were discussing something important. Their arguments usually had three stages—an extravagant statement by Bud, a flat contradiction by Jack, and a bet. Apparently, they had reached the third stage, so I joined them to act as judge. “Any bet yet?” I asked. “Yes, and I want you to bear witness that Bud bets me the first day’s duty at Pensacola that the division commander will pester us with more, ‘_Why did you not do so and so?_’ messages on this trip south than, ‘_Cannot understand why you did so and so’s._’” “Does that include semaphore signals as well as radio?” I wanted to get the bet straight. “For we join the division commander and the other submarines after we finish our engineering runs, don’t we?” “Yes,” said Jack, “it means all messages from the time we left New London until we arrive in Pensacola.” That afternoon we “rigged ship for diving.” As I wanted to learn all I could, I decided to make the rounds with the “chief-of-the-boat” to acquaint myself with the details—and there were a surprising lot of them. The chief-of-the-boat is, more or less, a sea-going top-sergeant. The diving-log was consulted to check up on the weights that had been added to, or taken aboard since the last dive. Any change of weight was compensated for by blowing out of, or flooding water into, special tanks designed for this purpose. The trim or balance, fore and aft, was also inspected and adjusted. All hatches and outboard openings, except those necessary for ventilation purposes, were closed and secured; batteries were charged, and air-tanks filled with compressed air for blowing water out of tanks. “Ship rigged for diving, sir,” reported the chief-of-the-boat. The Captain decided on a “slow dive,” as he wanted to accustom all hands to their stations, since the ship had been in the Navy Yard for some time being overhauled. Moreover he wanted to check the diving trim under actual diving conditions before making a crash dive.