Escapes from Auto at River's Bottom

1920

Says He Owes His Life to Training on U.S. Submarine

DETROIT, Mich., March 25. -- Travis Field Beal of Detroit is now thanking the gods of the Navy for assigning him to navigation duty on a submarine during the war.

His experience as the pilot of the United States submarine K-8 saved Beal's life a night or two ago when the closed sedan in which he was driving along Woodward avenue crashed through a railing and into the Detroit River.

Though the sedan doors were closed tight and the river is thirty feet deep, Beals managed to free himself and rose to the surface.

"It wasn't hard for a sub pilot," he said, "though I did spend some precious seconds fumbling for the lifting lever."

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.