_89th Division, 314th Field Signal Battalion, Company C_
On November 5th Moore aided in extending and maintaining a line of
communication to the assaulting battalion of the 355th Infantry between
Beauclair and Lauencille. On the night of November 10th he rendered
invaluable aid to the 356th Infantry in Pouilly, extending a telephone
line to them, and thence to La Pignepp Farm.]
“ONE MORE DIVE”—THEN SUNK
“Then it was that the unexpected happened, as it always does at sea.
Herbert decided to take one more dive—perhaps just for luck, perhaps to
satisfy himself upon some nicety of trim. He gave the order to close
down and dive and the _K-13_ dived. Though the order had been given to
close down, and the reply received that the order had been carried out,
the ventilators had been left open. Instantly the water poured into the
engine and boiler rooms, drowning those within, and _K-13_ sank by the
stern. The water flowing towards the control room bulkhead compressed
the air in the room and indicated immediately what had happened to the
alert senses of Commander Herbert. ‘Our ears began to sing’ say those
who were within the belly of the ship.
“All this occupied a space of time measured in seconds. In a few more
seconds Herbert had all compartments closed tight and the forward tanks
blown. The hydroplanes, too, were set to rise, but the resources of
seamanship could not overcome the loss of buoyancy. Overweighted by her
flooded boiler and engine rooms _K-13_ sank to the bottom, grounding
upright on the mud in twelve fathoms of water. No blowing of ballast
tanks could bring her up, for the calculations of her builders showed
that with all tanks empty she would still be too heavy by four hundred
tons to float. There is very little reserve of buoyancy about even the
biggest of submarines.
“While Herbert in _K-13_ had been struggling to rise, his efforts
were detected and understood by skilled seamen above. An E submarine
had been attending the trials, and her officers saw at once from the
surging mass of air-bubbles that Herbert was blowing his tanks and was
in grave difficulties. Submarines dive when trimmed to float awash,
and descend or ascend by delicate movements of the horizontal rudders
(hydroplanes). In this trim when diving they are lighter than the water
displaced, and do not need to blow tanks in order to rise. Much time
was saved by the presence of the E-boat, for, when _K-13_ did not rise,
and quite evidently could not rise, she dashed off at once to gather
assistance. Had Herbert and Goodheart down below known how quickly
help was being summoned above they might not have made that fatal
though most gallant effort to pass out through the conning-tower hatch.