On the FALCON the men took a cautious hold on the half-broken preventer wire. A gentle pull; another gentle pull. McCann said, "It's still too heavy" and told the men in the bell "Blow for another 15 seconds. Remember, I will give you the time. Mark to start and then a second Mark to stop." The roar of the air forced more water out of the ballast tanks. Another slow but cautious pull on the wire indicated that the bell was still too heavy for six men to raise. A second order from McCann to the bell, "Blow again for 15 seconds." By this time all hands on the FALCON were quiet - not a sound as the 15 second blow was repeated. McCann gave the order again, "Give it another try, boys. Easy now. Take a strain on that cable and see if you can lift the bell." The six men gripped the cable and miraculously they felt the movement of the bell. Admiral Cole leaned over the rail and gave the word back that the cable was moving. They gave another light pull, hardly believing their good fortune, they pulled a little more. Again, the cable moved across the rail. The chamber was light enough to be handled by hand. "Slowly now, men," McCann warned. "Remember that wire is almost broken in two. Easy now.”
Soon the frayed part of the cable cleared the rail. From then on it was simple enough. The wire could be pulled hand over hand without so much worry. We could hear the men inside of the bell cheerfully reading off the depth gauge. "One hundred and eighty feet"; then pretty soon someone said, “a hundred feet." And when they reached the fifty foot level you could hear the change in their voices as they joyfully shouted, "Fifty feet." As a matter of fact, they began to joke again about that steak they would soon be eating.
Clayton told me afterwards that as miserable as he was, because of failure to attach the cable and because of the physical discomfort from being almost frozen to death, he practically jumped with joy when he saw the light from the bell go past while he was at the 40 foot level of decompression. As a matter of fact, he no longer felt the cold - a glow of warmth flowed through his whole body as he realized that the men were on their way to safety. When the bell broke the surface of the water two men jumped on its top and attached the heavy lifting cable and the bell was lifted another foot or two out of the water. The men joyfully opened the upper hatch on the top of the bell and helped the survivors out. We had a hard time getting to the group because of the crowd around them patting them on the back and welcoming them aboard. But it wasn't long until we had them relaxed with hot coffee, hot towels, and a rub down and they dropped into a profound sleep.
It is really hard to imagine the strain on these men. They had been in the submarine for many hours, and then had spent five hours and forty-two minutes in a bell so crowded they couldn't move and under such desperately trying and dangerous circumstances. Yet not one word of complaint was heard from anyone; nothing but praise for the action of the rescue group. They had been under the water for forty hours from the time the SQUALUS sank until they reached the FALCON. A long and trying time for anyone to spend. I was personally quite surprised at the lack of any real physical difficulty. True, there was some shock; definitely they were cold; but there was no hysteria; there was no evidence of an emotional break of any kind.