The submarine S-5 had sunk off the Jersey coast on September 1, 1920. Her captain, Charles M. Cooke, had been able to raise the stern so that it was above the water’s surface.

As seawater entered the battery compartment, creating deadly chlorine gas, her crew desperately drilled a small hole through the hull and with a T-shirt on a pole frantically waved for help. The signal was first sighted by a small coastal steamer, the Alanthus, on its way to be scrapped.