"At first when she first turned over I took the flashlight and looked down the hatch to the carpenter shop, which was normally overhead, but was on the bottom. I thought about diving out, but it was three or four decks down. The door above us was closed and knew it was a dead end. There were eight of us all together, seven quartermasters and one First Class Electrician.

 

"We had a dog wrench and we began beating out s-o-s on the bulkhead"

 

It filled with water, but it was darned near full. The compressed air was all that was holding it back."

 

 

 

 

"I was 19 and didn't have a steady girlfriend. The only thing I worried about was my mother crying. Just when life was starting and life was going to be fun and to see it cut short. But I didn't want my mother crying."

Seaman Second Class

George Delong

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