Shipbucket

Found this interview with an eye witness to the first ever submarine rescue operation.
The original is in Danish, but the pdf file seems to have a trojan lodge in it so I won't link to it.
Anyway, this guy was seriously hardcore, and I think any modern journalist would hate to work with him. Throughout the interview he stolidly refuses to make anything seem sramatic in the least.

Dykkeren'S Wreck. An unprecedented eyewitness account [/ b]
At the DR site can currently - via the link http://www.dr.dk/p1/radioklassikeren/index.asp - listen
Radio Classics series. One of the classics is titled "Sailors in the corner says," and here you can include hear a
unique eyewitness report from the diver's submarine sinking in 1916.
The interview brought here in its entirety. Transcribed and annotated by Søren Nørby, cand. mag.
Speak The questions are written in italics, while N. Christian Andersen answers are in normal type. Interviews
is attempted transcribed word-for-word, but personal names are spelled out from a rough phonetic transcription.
The submarine diver photographed in Søminegraven at Holmen before the First World War. (Orlogsmuseet).

Introduction [/ b]
It is a show that has a half-century old. On 8 April 1955 spoke the radio
Svend Alkjærsig with former engineer N. Christian Andersen about the time
in 1916, when the submarine diver sank in the Sound.
...
Mr. Andersen. Here in this little square cardboard box there are four honors characters. For
me to see so they must mark the highlights of your life. It must be said that
be getting together, right?
Jo ...
If we start right. So here we have strangely enough, the Italian colors?
It is from the earthquake in Messina. In 1908. There we lay down at Piraeus with the cruiser Heimdall.
So we were sent to Messina with doctors, medicines - analgesics and blankets.
And it lacked all of them up there.
See, now you must not forget the earthquake in Messina is an historical event now. Can
You do not tell us what happened.
Jo ... It died as I recall, it was 222,000 people. We were only in the country somewhere. In
a small town on a 3000, I think it was. But there were only a few hundred remain. They went and
looked confused. We saw some operations that were carried out in the open. On
a few bucks with a wooden board over. Without anesthesia or ... And the doctors went with cigarette
mouth. It was the need to in order to stimulate it.
But we were only in the country once, because the ruins continued to plummet. Down there.
Several times. We felt especially a big jolt one night. It was as if there was a
husband and took a hand at each end of the ship. So a man - a giant. And tugged.
In Heimdall?
And so we could hear the rattle inside the ruins on land.
Cruiser Heimdall. Here, photographed in the fleet leasing.
(Orlogsmuseet)
But the ribbon and the silver medal, which
is there?
They got us a couple of years later. Since it was sent to
all those who had been on Heimdall.
We got it in 1911. It is merely a commemorative medal.
It is King Victor Emmanuel the Third.
Yes ...
And on the other hand, there Commemorative Medal.
Yes ...
So we will go to the next - the next small sign honors in the small cardboard box. And there
the Danish colors.
Yes.
There are just deserved.
The Holmen Medal.
The Holmen Medal
Yes, it's for 25 years service. In the Navy.
3
And so we move on. Number three from the right. It is again the Danish colors. And ... uh ... a
very large medal. And you turn it you see that it says "For Precious deed." It has
I've never seen before.
Nope, there is not terribly many of them.
They have been given by King Christian X.
Yes. I think it was number 37 that was issued. They were characterized in each case.
They have them in stock as others. So we all went for a while before I got it. But
we were up - it was under water after the boat's demise - ie diver - I got it
assigned.
Now you mention just the submarine diver, and that's the one we should talk about.
It was Denmark's first submarine.
Yes. It was made in Italy and we got it in 1910. As I recall it was in August, the
came. [Here remembers Andersen not quite correct. The diver was part of the Navy, 29 September
1909 and hoisted the command the first time fifth October 1909. SN.]
The diver photographed by Dokøen. The photograph is probably
taken by underwater boat's arrival in Denmark in
The 1909th (Orlogsmuseet).
What did it look?
Yes ... It looked like ... like a cigar. Pointed at both
ends. And so with arched deck. But the deck
up there it's only to go on. It was only
to give the ship shape. For the actual hull was
flat top - so roughly. There are tanks,
but it is a much heavier album. So it's a thinner plate, which makes ship shape
above.
So it is divided into several watertight compartments with watertight doors between. The front, which
We had torpedoes and firing tubes. And in the next room was the command tower
or control room. And then came the engine compartment. And so a luftakkumulatorrum where we
had all our air bottles.
4
Drawing of diver. (Naval Underwater and Far Distinctive School / UFS)
What were you on board diver?
I was chief engineer there.
It was something completely new?
Yes it was, but we learned it's thoroughly first before we went out sailing with it.
What was the machines?
It was just electric machinery. A very large an accumulator.
It was as big as Gothersgade
EMPR. [What exactly this is, I do not know, SN]
There you can see. So your old theories of steam engines
and the kinds of things they might not be swept aside?
The diver engine. Behind this luftakkumulatorrummet. (Orlogsmuseet).
Yes, yes, also complete. But the submarine's
almost a machine entirely, so it - the engines -
it was really the least of it.
They were, in other words a member of the first submarine crew
in Denmark?
Nope, this was not me. This was in 1916. That we sailed
down. But from 1912 I sailed with them.
5
The diver's crew photographed before the First World War.
Far right big time lieutenant Rechnitzer.
(5th Squadron)
There is something special about the atmosphere on board
a submarine. All's literally
sense there in the same boat.
Yes. There, we are equals. Because when you sail
as a machine man sailed into a torpedo boat, so
was just as well underneath the deck, as in
a submarine, and it is locked and we can
not come up and we must sail with blinding lights, it's not so funny.
So I'd rather be in a submarine where we all are on equal footing.
There is no officer, department, and there is no department for ratings?
No, hardly. We must stay between us apart, but it also offers the best conditions.
Yes. But it was the direct cause for the large medal are available? Medal
Precious for baptism.
Yes. The boat was out at practice one day. And was just submerged. We dived at one o'clock and ten
minutes past, so we were rammed by a Norwegian steamer. [According to the subsequent Accident Report
collision occurred at. 14.00].
In submerged condition?
Yes. We lay down on the bottom, but there is only 9 ½ feet of water, so we were not so far down
but we were down at the bottom. And so sailed steamers - we stood in the fairway - and then the steamer
[Steam ship was the Norwegian S / S VESLA] got there, so it hit us at the door aft of
tower. The general decline swallow.
Does this mean that I inside the boat to see the Norwegian boat's bow cutting through?
No, no. It did not come so far. There was no direct hole in the boat itself otherwise
than the hinges broke off, so the entire hatch took water. The boat would run full during
between 1 ½ and two minutes.
6
The diver's quarterdeck photographed at the Naval Base after the collision. The
empty hatch coaming is evident. In the background board ship Hekla and
British submarine E.13. (5th Squadron).
Yes, it happened there is the question that we had to close the waterproof
possible for the water poured in to us at the moment
we felt the collision. And the boat was lying
with a 25 degree list. It was a good proof
that it lay at the bottom. It could not even stand up again.
So we tried - I tried to escape so the keel. It is
two halves of a lead keel, which sit on opposite sides of a
stålkøl underneath the bottom of the boat. And they can be triggered by a lever up from the engine compartment.
But it could not be done this time because the boat was in case the keel down
in the sandy bottom. On one side - the side facing downward. And the side that turned
upwards who could half'm not falling away. So it could not be done. So tried
we have to close watertight. There was a stoker, with me inside the engine compartment
and he tried to close the door to luftakkumulatorrummet, but he could not get
it closed. It sailed a wire from a hand lamp - an electric wire - between ...
In the clip?
Yes, and when he got it away with one hand, then came the corner of the sleeve of a great shirt
with pockets all over the place in the terminal, and when he had only two hands, we could not
get it away, everything. There was no place for one to come to the door.
So I said that "I can not get it here" - it was so keel as I stood and
worked with, "then go into the control room," I said to him. So he went in there and
I broke the power at the switchboard, and then I took a akkumulatorlygte who was there, and
went in there too. There I stood in water up to the middle of life, at the time.
So run there's no water in, when I went in there, but we closed the course as quickly as
possible, but equally good was the load - the load was just over a half feet tall - it was full of water. So
what we call the on-board floor - ie the floor - it had wooden panels, they sailed there, so you went
down on the battery. When I had boots full of water, it was an unpleasant electric
sensation, but it did not so much at the moment.
No, there was greater interest in waste.
Then came the head - they had all taken up their rescue equipment - those who
had been able to get any, but the two stoker and I, we could not - we knew that we could not
get any because they were damaged by water immediately. We had twelve sets with and
we had nine people on board, so it should be enough, but six of the units were
been damaged by water that had come in the Kali-cartridges. So the two stoker and I, we
had no telephone.
7
Ubådseskadren began in 1912 to equip
submarine crews with Draeger vests. They contained
oxygen for between 30 and 60 minutes, and served in that
I breathed in and out through a nozzle where
the dangerous carbon dioxide was removed from the breath
through a kalipatron. Behind the cartridge was an oxygen tank, which
contained oxygen during approx. 180 atmospheres pressure. Submarine Gasten
should make sure you close the oxygen out of the tank,
and they came to give too much pressure, it happened that the mouthpiece
simply flew out of gas mouth. Come saline
thereby in connection with kalipatronen were Draeger
West toxic, and could not be used again until the
had been purified. Here is the crew from
Bellona wearing the important vests around 1920.
Does that mean nothing hoping to be rescued?
Najh it's so much to say because we wondered not so early. It was just the beginning of ...
There was a stoker - Frederiksen was his name - and would have a west - a rescue device.
So I said "find one, then they get it."
"I want a vest," he said.
"Yes, but go ahead, they'll get a vest." So he went.
There was boss by tightening its appliance on.
So he says. "Tighten the buckle here."
"Yes," I say. So excited I am.
So I say, "How much water do we have?"
Yes, then went under the boatman [Janus Sørensen] up the tower and looked, and he thought there
was one meter of water over the tower.
So I say "I want to see it." So I went up and looked - there was such windows in the tower
so you could see diagonally up to the surface.
So I say "I think now enough that there are more, but it does not matter. It can be done. "
After the diver's wreck, there has been some debate about whether the boss, SA
Christensen, had planned to leave the submarine along with the first team, or
whether he would have been in the tower and emptied it of water, so the rest of the crew
could come out that way. While N. Christensen here recounts that SA Christensen
would up with the first team, retained underbaadsmand Janus Sørensen until
his dying day that it was the boss intends to stay in the tower and help the rest of the diver's
crew out. (5th Squadron)
"What?" He says, the boss.
So I say: "Going the way up."
Yes, so he started walking the way up. So I say "will head up now?"
"Yes"
"Now with the first team?" I say. It was understood we were divided into teams.
8
"Yes"
"But those who had no rescue equipment, they would like up first."
So says the boatman: "So I make my device". He stood up there at that time.
So I accepted it and then I say "So I take it, but wait a little for the two stoker,
they have none. "
Then ... there I went into the torpedo room where the rest was, so he came rushing and took
appliance from me. So I said: "They may well have it, but you can also get up now".
Yes, he wanted it.
"Yes, but it is free device", I said, and then I take the unit again.
So he went and saw the other fireman also up there. In the tower. So just before I closed the lower
hatch, so I say to them.
"I will tell you now again that those who have no rescue equipment, they must be addressed first."
Then the chief standing beneath the bottom and the others went higher up the tower.
So I disappeared into the torpedo room also. For the four who were there. Then there's no
time, then we saw the water fall down through the bottom of the tower. It was the pack who have not
been quite close, so it could drive through. But we could also understand that they had closed
tower hatch up, but they had not closed again. And I had told the chief that he
should close the door again, and signal down to us.
They did so not so bad we might go the same way. Because we did not know and who
had happened. So we talked a little about it and they would really like up that we should go the same way up
tower, then I say: "They may we also good, but then either machinist Mejldahl or
I take the lead and the other go back. "
For if one should take the lead - as it may well be that there are any of the other top
the tower and is hurt and not come away. You should we have to have to side first.
Yes, so they asked me to go first.
"I'll", I said, "but if I must determine the time, so we wait a little longer."
And then they said that I had of course to decide when we should go.
So I said, "but we'll bring us back to sleep, and talk a little about it."
Tunddykker in costume of about the same appearance as the Juel-Brockdorff used in
The 1916th Dragon weighed approx. 70 kg. (Orlogsmuseet).
Now there was only gone for half an hour after the collision. Since we could
hear that there was a dive. It was Captain Juel-Brockdorff. He
was out in a guard ship there right near where we had been rammed.
And sailing companion boat away and reported it. So he took a
diving apparatus on and went down and signaled to us. We could hear the
he asked about the command room. So we said torpedo room. We
assumed he would know where we were. And there was one of the sailors. It
was he who was the first time. He had been a signal in the gas
9
Herluf Trolle, and I did a bit of nonsense to begin with, then the boss and the boatman,
they would go up. It was the only one who had learned to signal. I could probably,
but I had learned it by volunteering to go to radio school.
So I got him to give signals because he was upset. He should try his old
mother, and now when he drowned, she had none. So I say: "Who says they do it?"
"Yes, here we come as no good"
"We do well enough" I replied. So I took a chewing tobacco up, and then we got a chewing tobacco, and so
did it again. We had our water containers there. In that room. It was also very nice.
Yes, there was certainly no other than me, which was especially thirsty, but I had spent the mouth so
much, and so that chlorine gas had damaged vocal cords, in part, the doctor said afterwards.
But there could not be done about it. It was every time when I talk a lot, so
I become hoarse. But it bothers otherwise not. Well, so we sat down to rest, and so did the
Not long before we could hear that they signaled from another boat. It was the companion boat.
There was a boatswain Boil [the name is spelled out by its phonetic sound] at the bottom of
it with a hammer on the side and asked us. "How many we had?" We said "we
is five. In the torpedo room. " "How many are alive," they said. "Five." "Who is not alive"
they said so.
So we answered the boss, the boatswain and two fireman had gone up through the tower,
saw them we knew nothing about. But when they had received word
manager, and the other three came up and rescued by
a lifeboat there. So starting the course with the boss
was dead. It was he, too, but we knew it just did not.
Well, we beat ourselves to sleep again and talked together sometime in between.
A view from Space Command into the torpedo room. (Orlogsmuseet).
About what?
We asked how long it would last, and we never got
answers. And then they asked about how we had it and we
was still good, of course. But it was equally well
six hours before we got fresh air. There is in any room in such a
submarines - there is a pipe - you can get
to the top of the deck and tighten an air hose and pump
air down. But that lasted six hours before the diver could get hold of this one piece. It was
carpenter. Now it blew something and there was no power so it was not easy to find.
The third time when he went down, said Captain Rechnitzer - he was the commander of submarines
- He said that "now they must look to find it, because they can not continue to keep
it out. " So he found it and then came the air, and it did well. But it was a little cold. Now
I was the only one who was wet, but - and I was wet up to the waist - but I sat
with legs in the water and the water was lukewarm by now the battery short circuit, then come
while a toxic smoke, so we had to take our breathing apparatus in the mouth and breath
little to clear the air. We could see when we had had these here iltåndingsapparater in.
10
Could we look at each other that we were kortåndede. We felt really nothing themselves, but
they were kortåndede and sleepy. But it was over when we got fresh air down. But the cold was
it.
So we said again, yes we talked about as one, then another and till it was half past eleven
in the evening, they got the door opened. When they had got the boat was raised to half a meter near
water surface, and higher, they could not lift it. Yes, Svitzer lifted it up with their
steam games, but they could not get it up higher. So they closed the hatch up and had put some
barrier around - fenders ropes - so water does not - so there was a hole though which ran
water down and then we went up there and came on board in the Kattegat.
And they were rescued ...
Well, so says Captain Rechnitzer the first "Thank God there are the Anderson". I was the
last thing that came up. So here we are all together.
"How did they know that the boss was dead?"
"Is he dead?"
"Yes, they said, even to us."
Well, then you have not waited until we were given real message. They had not.
Now look sat the five men down there in the sunken boat ...
Yes ...
And at some point during the many hours they did not know whether they would survive ...
Nah ...
How do men react so in such a situation?
Yes, I remember that I was irked me that I had bought a new uniform for
summer. It had cost 160 million and they could have been saved ...
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