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How did Wilhelm Bauer and his assistants escape from the sunken Le Plongeur-Marin?
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The former USS Nautilus, launched in 1954, being towed to Groton, Connecticut, to become a museum, May 1985.
Wilhelm Bauer and his two assistants escaped from the sunken Le Plongeur-Marin by waiting for the air pressure inside the hull to equalize with the water pressure outside.
As water leaked into the submarine, it compressed the air trapped within the vessel. Bauer recognized that once the internal air pressure matched the external water pressure, the hatch could be opened. Despite the difficulty of keeping his crew calm during the ordeal, Bauer successfully waited for the pressure to equalize. After spending 7 1/2 hours underwater, they opened the hatch and swam to the surface, emerging unexpectedly during their own funeral services.1