“In the afternoon she came, and Barttelot, though he remained
responsible, gladly handed over the entire direction of the critical
operations to Captain Young. They could not have passed into better
hands. No experience in salvage in any part of the world counts beside
that of Young and his _Ranger_. Sunset was approaching, and night would
soon overshadow the Gareloch. But this mattered little. The _Ranger_,
accustomed to work at all hours of the night and day, was equipped
with arc lights which could shatter any darkness. It was easy now to
communicate with _K-13_ through the tube and to make clear how she was
to help herself. She was over three hundred feet long—three hundred and
forty feet, to be precise—and did not need to be tilted very steeply to
bring her nose and upper bow plates clear of the surface. But to be got
up into a working position she must be lightened forward. This was done
by blowing all the forward oil tanks. The heavily loaded stern held
tight in the Gareloch mud, but the bows were free and, as the tanks
were blown, they lifted rapidly. They heaved up through ten degrees,
and the salvors who were watching for the movement instantly whipped
steel hawsers under the fore-part of the submarine and secured the ends
to bollards on tugs alongside. _K-13_ was up, but would she remain up?
It seemed most unlikely, and remained most unlikely until the end.
[Illustration:
_Drawn by Joseph Cummings Chase._