WEBSTER COUNTY, KY - On December 17, 1927, the crew of a
Navy submarine was trolling beneath the waters of Cape Cod Bay.
They were engaged in routine testing of their vessel. A
Coast Guard ship was traveling across the surface doing the same.
The submarine broke the surface just in time to receive a deathblow from
the Coast Guard vessel. The submarine, with its crew of forty, sank in
less than five minutes. It came to rest more than one hundred feet below
on the ocean floor.
Rescue attempts began at once. But due to impossible weather, it took
twenty-four hours for the first diver to descend to the wreckage. As soon
as the diver’s feet hit the hull, he immediately heard tapping. There were
survivors, alive, trapped inside.
Pounding out Morse code on the hull with a hammer, the diver discovered
that six crewmen had survived the collision. Efforts were renewed to reach
these men before it was too late. But again, the weather would not
cooperate. Every attempt at salvation failed.
With their air supply dwindling, the six survivors tapped out in Morse
code a final haunting question, “Is there any hope?” For the crew of the
submarine hope would not come soon enough. It was three months before the
Navy sent the necessary pontoons to raise the vessel.
Written by Ronnie McBrayer 12/5/2010
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