As soon as they could see fog as they looked through the eye port into the lower compartment, they knew that the air pressure had equalized with the surface, and they opened the hatch. Mihalowski climbed down into the area and Harman picked up one of the four steel bars which had hooks on one end and were threaded to accommodate a large nut on the other end, and handed it down to Mihalowski who attached the hook to one of the cat eyes that was permanently attached to the submarine, then the threaded end was slipped into a slot in the lower compartment of the bell and the nut was tightened down. Three times he repeated this process until all four hold-down bolts were secured, and there was no question that the bell was firmly attached to the submarine. Next came the maneuver of reversing the motor and allowing slack on the downhaul wire. Then the bracket that held the reel and the wire was swung out of the way and Mihalowski went on down and unshackled the wire from the escape-hatch spindle of the submarine. All the many maneuvers had been properly performed and all that remained was to equalize the pressure in the chamber to the pressure inside the submarine and open the hatch into the SQUALUS. Many times such a rescue drill had been per formed in practice but this time when the hatch was opened they were to see men whose only hope for life lay in the successful accomplishment of this oft repeated performance.
The Commanding Officer of the SQUALUS, Lieutenant Naquin, had already drawn up plans for evacuating the first load of men. One of the group would be Preble, the civilian from the Navy Yard who was on this trial run, and another would be Lieutenant Nichols for he wanted one officer topside to give a report on the situation in the submarine. The other men were to be picked as those who appeared most to need good clean air as soon as possible.
The conditions inside the submarine were not good, It was very cold -- about 45 degrees Fahrenheit, the air was heavily saturated with moisture, and the carbon dioxide concentration had reached about three percent. In addition to this, there were thirteen pounds of extra pressure that these men had had to live with. The bell operators vented the excess air pressure and did their best to ventilate the forward compartment by a flow of air from the bell. We had sent down extra blankets, extra carbon dioxide absorbent and coffee which the boys complained was too weak. I knew that the men were still normal when they could complain about the strength of the coffee during such an experience!
No time was lost in getting Mr. Preble, Lieutenant Nichols, and five men into the bell, and in reversing the process for ascent. Before long the bell was on its way to the surface. It took half an hour to make a cautious approach to the surface but they made it, and in good form.
All of us leaning over the rail or looking from the vantage point of the boat deck strained our eyes to see the bell come into view. There was absolute quiet as we watched in fascination for the first glimpse of the bell in its first successful trip bringing actual survivors to the surface. Soon we saw the gray top nearing the surface as it reflected the rays of the sun. The gray top grew larger; the seas began to break across it; on the FALCON, McCann ordered the tenders to take up the slack on the lines and to hold the bell steady. He then telephoned Harman that they were on the surface and to stop the motor and set the brake. It was 1333 on that sunny afternoon of May 24th.