A PERILOUS TASK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 22, 22 December 1932, Page 7

A PERILOUS TASK.

SALVAGING THE M2. The 10 months’ salvage operations in an unsuccessful attempt to raise the submarine M2 have resulted, declares the News-Chronicle, in the birth of n new naval arm, the M2 divers using their experience to train a new corps. The divers made 1300 separate descents during the operations, usually remaining 90 minutes under water, and taking a further 72 to rise to the surface, thus avoiding too sudden change of pressure. The longest dive lasted 340 minutes. The lives of the men were in constant peril, divers being trapped on the seabed when the gear fouled.

One was held a prisoner upside down until comrades dived to release him. Others were carried by dangerous tides under the ship, and one was using a new oxy-hydro flame cutter when it exploded. He had a miraculous escape, although liis diving suit bad to be cut off him.

The hull of the M2 was sealed with tons of cement. A diver who bad been instructed, to make his way to another part of the long hull heard through the telephone someone singing “I’m Happy When I’m Hiking” as he plodded in his leaden shoes along the ocean bed.