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The Southern Israelite
‘Down l o The Sen—And Up Again
Commander Ellsberg—Battleship Builder, Diver, Inventor
An Exclusive Interview
By MEYER J. STEINGLASS
America's foremost rescue officer, Edward Ellsberg, who for
his salvaging of the submarine United States Steamship 5-51 was
the first peace-time recipient of the Distinguished Service Medal,
is the son of a Russian Jewish immigrant. At the time his great
engineering feat thrilled the world. Now Commander Ellsberg
generally regarded as the outstanding expert on deep-sea rescue
work—has turned novelist. His first novel, “Pigboats , pub
lished recently, marks the debut as a fiction writer of a man whose
life reads like a romance.—The Editor.
Parallels. The world is full of paral
lels or, what might he more consistent
with Einstein’s beliefs, of the eternal
cycle, recurrence. Edward, a child of
seven, is not greatly perturbed by the
news that the United States has de
clared war against Spain. He is far
more deeply concerned with the eco
nomic troubles of his father, a dairy
man. He hears loose talk about battle
ships and naval warfare. But lie has
never seen a battleship, lie has not
even seen the open sea. Only the
mountains in and around Colorado. So
he builds toy boats and sends them
cruising in his mother's largest wash
basin. It is great fun. All goes as he
desires. If the “sea” is too rough and
the boat capsizes, little Edward secs to
it that catastrophe is averted. He
rights his ship and, to avoid a recur
rence of disaster, stays the violence of
the “waves”.
Sixteen years pass. Ilis father is
no longer a dairyman. lie is now in
the real estate busines. lie had been
a jeweler before that. It has been an
uphill struggle for this poor immigrant
from Russia to send his three sons to
college. But now as he sits in Dahl-
gren Hall at the Naval Academy in
Annapolis, he feels he has been amply
repaid for everything he has done for
them, lie regrets but one thing—that
Edward did not become a lawyer. The
commencement exercises arc about to
come to a close. The Secretary of the
Navy utters the last words of a talk
on duty and character. Then 156 lads,
a mass of starched, immaculate white,
hurl their caps into the air, cheering.
And Edward’s cap leads all the rest,
for he has been graduated at the head
of the class. It is indeed significant.
Edward Ellsberg, a Jewish youth, son
of an obscure immigrant, honor man
at Annapolis.
As Ensign Ellsberg is preparing to
join the crew of the U. S. S. Texas, bis
first assignment after graduation, cable
dispatches from abroad report the be
ginning of war in Europe. Americans
are only politely interested. Russia,
Germany, Serbia, Austria—entangling
alliances. Just a family squabble. The
squabble spreads and, when young Ells
berg, two years later, is notified to
join the Construction Corps of the
Navy, a post awarded to graduates of
high scholastic and character standing,
the world proportions of the war are
unmistakable. As part of his new posi
tion Edward is studying naval archi
tecture at the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology. He is, therefore, quali
fied, when the United States enters the
war, to rebuild and refit ex-German
passenger ships as army transports.
For his efficiency in carrying into swift
execution the requirements of this job
he was later officially commended.
Once again Edward turns to shipbuild
ing. But this time it is not a toy ship
that would cruise a wash basin. It is
the battleship Tennessee, one of the
largest ever built, and it takes more
than 1,200 men to put it together.
Commander Ellsberg, who several
years ago brought the sunken subma
rine, S-51, from the bottom of the
ocean, is not altogether an interviewer’s
delight. He answers questions about
himself reluctantly. His soft tenor
voice speaks in the “I refuse to answer
on the ground that it may incriminate
me” tone. In short, the immodesty,
self-esteem necessary to a fluent stream
of self-revealing facts and anecdotes
find no harbor in his retiring personal
ity. It is a personality which seems to
have its points and directions as care
fully plotted as a compass. An engi
neer, a mathematician by profession,
his actions, his words, invariably appear
to be under full control of the inner
censor or helmsman.
Yet to pigeon-hole him as a one-
track, colorless person would be to
ignore his varied interests. To illus
trate: We are sitting in the office of
the commander’s publisher. He has
written a novel. True, “Pigboats” does
revolve about the subject of submarines
and naval fighting. But it is fiction,
nevertheless. For this book, at lea-t
has abandoned the sextant and
tractor for the uncharted seas of
imagination.
But, at bottom, he is as pur
empiricist as any man can be. “1
like to theorize,” he said at one |
in our conversation. “There are a
many people who can do a much b
job of it than I can. I’m an engin
and I am primarily interested in fa
Facts and figures are his creed,
well has he mastered them that
problem he has had to face in his
usual career has baffled him. Win
the first report of the S-51 disa-ttr
reached the Navy Department, and ti
fortunate circumstances preceding it
made a redeeming move by the Navy
imperative, Ellsberg set to work a
within a few days perpared a plan to
retrieve the lost submarine, 130 i
below the water.
He is as much a fighter (not in the
narrow pugilistic sense). He looks like
a fighter. He is not tall, about five feet
six. But his head is rather large, and
his shoulders are square and broad. His
nose is soft. His jaw is of steel lie
declares he inherited his fighting spirit
from his father. “He was a fighter.
He worked damn hard. My mother,
too, was that type. Both were excep
tionally gifted with courage and deter
mination.” Although Salvage Officer
in raising the sunken submarine, Ells
berg trained himself to dive so that h
might descend to the bottom to put to
the test a torch which he had designed
for cutting steel under water. Rather
incongruous to see the man who now
sits at the desk of the Chief Engineer
of the Tide Water Oil Company get
into three suits of blue woolen under
wear, a copper helmet, a canvas Mnt
with a copper breastplate and a lead
belt, and lead shoes—the divers "iittit
weighs about 200 pounds—and have
himself let down to the bottom of the
ocean.
Small wonder, then, that Commander
Ellsberg asked the government to re
tire him immediately after he had suc
ceeded in bringing the gray, weed-
covered S-51 to the surface. “1 i
had had enough excitement to last
for a lifetime. Besides, I was getting
older and I wanted to go back to n
family,” he explained. After the Na\>
had publicly expressed its sincere
gret in granting his request, t
mander Ellsberg hung his uniform
and in the garb of a civilian acccp
the position he now holds with the
aforementioned organization. But not
before he was awarded the Disti
guished Service Medal by the NaH
(the first time that it had been t
ferred in peace time.)
Looking back over the twelve V 3 , 1 '
that he was in active service in '| u
United States Navy, one cannot
stirred by the commander s ’•
achievements. Shortly after hi re '
ceived the degree of Master of Sc nu
from the Massachusetts Institute of
nology, Ellsberg invented a new
of evaporator for the distillatic
fresh water aboard warships.
Shipping Board in 1924, asked the > lV -
to lend it Commander Ellsberg
crease the speed of the Leviathan
improve its ventilating system.
(Continued on Page 14)
Haym Salomon Monument
This is how the Haym Salomon Monument, to be erected by the Haym Salomon Monu
ment Committee, will look in a small public square at Broadway and 66th St., New York.
Anton Schaaf is the sculptor of the monument, acknowledged a piece of art that will
immortalize the American Revolutionary patriot in worthy style. President Hoover
greeted the decision to erect the monument with the following words: “It is indeed fit
ting that these services (of Haym Salomon) should be commemorated with an enduring
monument that will remind us ever of his patriotism and self sarcifice”.