For the chamber operators, Mihalowski was again chosen, and this time Badders went with him. The same procedure was used except that the problem of equalizing the pressure when the chamber was seated on the after-torpedo room gasket had to be vastly different. This time they built up air pressure in the chamber until the petcock between the chamber outside indicated that the pressure had apparently become equalized. They gave a slight twist to the lower hatch and a stream of water came rushing in on them. Obviously they needed more pressure, but just a little more so as to equalize the pressure. Finally they had it so that the water was not coming in and the air was just flowing out. No seal on the submarine could be made and it was a very risky matter to climb down into the lower hatch at such a depth and open the door leading into the after-torpedo room. Badders climbed down into the water in the central lower compartment and with nothing holding the chamber to the submarine except the downhaul cable, attached the first holding-down bolt. Skee told me the whole story afterwards, but it was a touch-and-go, perilous situation. After the holding bolts had been fastened, Mihalowski gave a little slack to the downhaul cable and Badders swung the drum out of the way. The boys were glad of the new downhaul cable that the FALCON crew had worked the rest of the night putting in. It was a nice new heavy one and with it they felt reasonably safe. But as they cracked the hatch of the submarine they got a real shock, for a blast of air poured up around the rubber gasket and into the bell. They knew then what had happened; there was no pressure inside the submarine as there was in the bell and, of course, this meant that the after three compartments were under sea pressure. No one could be alive in there!
But Badders got a real scare. As the air blasted out from the submarine hatch it caused the pressure to rise rapidly and a spurt of water came from around the gasket. The water rose suddenly almost to his waist, but Mihalowski was equal to the occasion and acting with instinctive speed, he blasted more pressure into the chamber. This forced the sea back and everything was well. Badders mumbled a heartfelt thanks for the FALCON air compressor. In spite of the danger entailed, they were instructed from topside to look down inside the submarine, which they proceeded to do. They now were sure they had enough air pressure in the bell to be greater than the pressure in the submarine, so they undogged the hatch, opened it and looked down. They saw only the black water. The torpedo room was flooded to the top of the hatch. Obviously, no one could be alive in that compartment.
Both men were groggy from the pressure they were under but realized without question that there were 26 dead men under their feet in the after three compartments of that submarine. They had to work fast or else they would be decompressing for an unduly long time. They quickly reversed the procedures but had quite a time handling the wrench to release the holding-down bolts. Although they tightened the downhaul cable as much as possible, the bolts were very tight. Both of them were tired and the carbon dioxide was building up, so they quickly ventilated the chamber and with superhuman effort completed the task of removing the hold-down bolts. They both told me afterwards that the thought went through their minds that unless they worked fast there would be 28 men down there (26 in the submarine and two attached to the submarine with no way to get out). When they had finally closed the hatch leading from the upper compartment of the bell to the lower or central compartment, they heaved a sigh of relief and were delighted to find that they were both there and in good shape.