The only man to come to my personal attention who had emotional difficulties after the disaster was Maneff who had had the horrible job of closing the watertight door in the bulkhead between the central operating compartment and the after battery. It was his job to close that door and secure it without any regard for the people on the other side of the door. He had held it open, shouting "Hurry up, hurry up," as eight of his shipmates clawed their way uphill and past the roaring water to safety. He could see no one else coming, but what about his friends? He had left many of them on the other side of that door but since no one was in sight and he had already waited almost too long, he had to close the door. With a superhuman effort and with straining muscles, he pulled with all of his might to close the door. He dogged it tight with a quick twirl of the handle. What about the men on the other side? Maneff wondered particularly about his chum Sherman Shirley. He was to be best man at Shirley's wedding only next Sunday. But there was nothing else he could do. He told himself this over and over. We were able in time to convince him that his action saved 33 lives, which it actually did. If he hadn't done this all would have drowned. This is the training that pays off in time of disaster. None of the other men, as far as I know, had any serious break or any emotional difficulties. I am sure, however, they all remembered vividly their experiences, and undoubtedly there were many nightmares before the keen edge of memory began to dull with time.
The fifth trip to the after-torpedo room was a desperate one. A diver was once again sent down and the downhaul cable attached to the after-torpedo room hatch. But seating the bell this time entailed a great deal more danger than any of the other trips because there was every reason to believe that the after-torpedo room was flooded and therefore under the pressure of the sea on the bottom. This meant that the men in the bell would have to equalize the pressure with air on their side before the hatch could be opened. They would have to do their work under high-pressure air rather than under almost atmospheric conditions as they had on the other trips. But this trip to the after torpedo room was necessary to make certain that there was no one alive there. Fastening the downhaul cable to the after-torpedo room hatch had been a rather difficult and time-consuming task for the ship had to be remoored to be in a better position and LT Morrison, our skipper at the lung training tank at New London, had tried and failed to make the attachment. The second diver, Gunner Baron, had messed up his gear and couldn't finish the dive and finally Baker from the FALCON's diving crew successfully made the attachment. Baker had been one of the S-4 divers so he was an old hand at this sort of thing.