Forty good men sent to untimely graves because someone failed to observe proper care.
“Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do or die,
Somebody blundered.”
What a miscarriage of justice this building of this type of vessel is. If these vessels are built for fighting purposes, it is an uncivilized method of warfare and every nation on the earth should be barred from building another submarine. Already we have sent the battleships to the scrapheap. By all means send the submarine to join them.
In regard to the wretched lack of proper appliances for handling such a terrible disaster, we see one more tragedy. Men familiar with submarines, their building and handling, declare that it was a case of criminal carelessness on the part of the Government and the Navy Department in particular.
Secretary Wilbur, of the United States Navy, visited the locality of the disaster and ordered that the work of salvaging the submarine and bringing out the bodies must proceed until every one is brought to shore.
On the 4th day of January three bodies were recovered from the engine room of the under-sea boat and in time the others in the after compartments will be brought to the surface.
Representative Gifford came on from Washington to learn from personal observation if everything possible had been done to save the men from their coffin.
Among the crew of the S-4 when she went down was a seaman by the name of Walter Bishop. He had previously been on a submarine when an accident happened, and among his effects, left with relatives, was found a poem of thirteen verses, in which he described the situation and conditions on these ships in full detail. We have room for only the first verse, which certainly hits the mark.