Some Books of the Week
COMMANDER ELLSBERG tells the story, covering some nine months, of the salving of the Submarine ' S. 51,' of the U.S. Navy, in On the Bottom (Constable. 10s.). She was run down by the S.S. ' City of Rome ' on September 25th, 1925, and reached dry-dock in the navy yard in July, 1926. During this time, Commander Ellsberg and the salvage crews and divers who assisted him had faced difficulties and disappoint- ments as great as any in the history of seafaring ; and indeed the modern developments of salvage work seem to have provided one new field of adventure for the many lost since the advent of steam. Deep sea diving—and the ' S.51' sank in 120 feet—needs as much courage, skill and, that much decried quality, strength, as any feat undertaken in sailing ship days. It is an interesting comment on our modern civilization that these feats were undertaken, as far as the authorities are concerned, to save the face of the Navy after an overwhelming outbreak of opinion, roused by a succession of disasters which had caught the eye of the reporters. The men themselves, it is obvious, worked firstly out of a desire to give back to the Navy a ship and, to the many bereaved, the bodies of the men who had died, and secondly, after they had fairly begun, for the sake of the job itself. So great was their spirit that one, who was not allowed to rejoin them in the second season, left the service in order to join up again secretly on this job. What they accomplished may be best read in the book.
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