Historic Submariners’ Water Tower Set to Fall

Film star Esther Williams swam in it and, for the last 50 years, thousands of submariners trained in it, but the U.S. Navy is replacing a 135-foot-tall water tower that is an area landmark.

The Navy has broken ground for construction of a $2.6-million training center, which will render the deteriorating but historic tower obsolete. Some historic groups want the tower preserved, but the Navy has scheduled demolition of the structure for April, 1987, when the new building is completed.

From 1930 to 1982, tens of thousands of students at the Naval Submarine Base learned how to escape from their boats in the tower by taking a fast and frightening ascent to the top.

They entered near the bottom of the tower’s 112-foot column of water without the aid of air tanks. As the sailors rose to the top, water pressure around them decreased and caused gases in the lungs to expand.

To survive without injury or death, the swimmers had to exhale constantly, using a “ho-ho-ho” technique to rid the lungs of gasses. It was dangerous, just as a real-life submarine escape would be, Chief Warrant Officer William Kenney said. In 52 years, there were “a couple of deaths” and about 50 injuries caused by embolisms--the obstruction of blood vessels due to air bubbles that form in the body during the expansion of the gasses, he said.

About 5,000 to 8,000 students each year completed training in the tower, which was featured in a 1958 television documentary about the submarine school, with Esther Williams, a former Olympic athlete and film actress, as host.

By 1982, the tower was becoming difficult and expensive to maintain. Since then, submariners have trained for escapes through classroom lectures and exercises aboard submarines. Sailors also use a swimming pool outfitted with special chambers and taped noises simulating the escape area in submarines. Students ascend through only 4 or 5 feet of water, teaching the same principles as the old system without as much risk.