On the night of December 6, 1941, the British submarine HMS Perseus struck a mine off the coast of Kefalonia, Greece during a patrol. The stern poked above the water before joining the rest of the sub and its crew of 61 on the ocean floor.
John H. Capes was lying in his rack (a makeshift bunk inside an empty torpedo tube), drinking rum when he felt the explosion. As the stern shot up over the water, he was thrown out of his bunk just as the lights conked out and plunged him into darkness.
Using a flashlight, he made his way toward the engine room to look for survivors; where he only found dead bodies.
With water pouring through the rubber seals, he kept looking until he found 3 injured men. He led them out of the room, sealed the door, and gave them liquid courage from what was left of his bottle.
He then took several Davis Submerged Escape Apparatus sets (life vests with oxygen masks and goggles) and distributed them among the men, but there was a problem. They were designed for only up to 100 feet from the surface while the depth gauge said they were 270 feet below.
With no choice left, they decided to open the escape hatch and take their chances.
Capes took a last swig from his rum and led the men out as they tried to swim to the surface. By sheer miracle, he made it to the top without dying from the pressure. But having made the deepest escape yet recorded, his ordeal was not over.
The other 2 men had not made it to the surface with him so he found himself alone in the middle of the cold sea.
In the darkness, he spotted land and swam for 5 miles until he passed out.
The next morning, Capes was found unconscious by two fishermen and for the following 18 months, he evaded capture until he was finally brought back to the UK.
Despite being awarded a medal for his escape, Capes's story was so extraordinary that many people, both within and outside the Navy, doubted it.
But it wasn’t until 1997 that his story was finally verified.
In a series of dives to the wreck of Perseus, divers discovered Capes's empty torpedo tube bunk, the open hatch and compartment exactly as he had described it, and finally, his bottle of rum. #ballsandbuoyauncy #ww2 #zf