GRADY RAPS CRITICS OF NAVY IN S-4 DISASTER

"Having witnessed the rescue work on the submarine S-51, which was sunk last year off the coast of Virginia, I feel that the navy did everything possible to save the lives of the six men who were trapped in a compartment on the S-4, which sank recently off the coast of Massachusetts, and people who criticized the Navy Department have done so unfairly," said Commander R. C. Grady, Professor of Naval Science in an interview with the CRIMSON last night. Commander Grady further stated that if only those people who have made such a fuss over the rescue attempts had seen and understood the difficulties involved in raising the submarine from a depth of 100 feet they would have had no criticism to offer.

"There was only one possible thing to do," he continued, "in order to save the men, and that was to raise the boat. Many suggestions were sent in to the rescue party, asking them to cut a hole in the side of the submarine, and give the men diving suits in which to rise to the surface. Little did they know that at least three hours is required to put a man in a diving suit and instruct him in the use of it. By this time enough water would have poured through the hole to fill the entire ship. Another suggestion was to have the men shoot themselves out of the torpedo tubes. One doesn't shoot himself out a tube, he merely crawls to the end, opens the door and then tries to get out. The pressure of the water at this depth would make it impossible for any of the entombed men to escape by this method.

"It is true that the salvaging party had no derricks with a lifting capacity equal to the weight of the submarine but the largest ones obtainable were in use. The derrick that was in use could have raised a vessel of 200 tons, but the S-4 weighed 800 tons, and if the water had filled the compartments it would have weighed an additional 500 tons."

When questioned as to the future possibilities of safety devices, he said. "The Navy Department now uses every modern safety appliance possible and the most likely thing that could be done would be to build larger derricks, but when one considers the descents made each year by thousands of submarines, the small number of accidents, and the wide area which the submarines cover this plan seems almost a physical impossibility."