Navy Teaches Use Of Oxygen Helmet.

New York Times 100 years ago today, April 27, 1913:
Officers Receiving Instruction Here for Rescue Work in Oil-Burning Ships.
SUBMARINES TO HAVE THEM
For Accidents Under Water — Men from Arkansas and Delaware Now at Navy Yard.
    The officers of the United States Atlantic Fleet below the rank of Lieutenant Commander are being sent to the New York Navy Yard in small detachments for instruction in the use of oxygen safety helmets, such as are now used by the attachés of the Federal Bureau of Mines in their rescue work. The officers are being sent from each of the battleships as well as from the torpedo boat destroyers and submarines. The principal reason behind the new departure is the introduction of oil as a fuel into the navy, although a knowledge of the use and advantages of the oxygen helmet would also come in handy in the event of submarine accidents, bunker fires, and powder explosions in turrets and magazines.
    Oil is now the principal fuel on all of the new torpedo boat destroyers, and the new superdreadnoughts New York, Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada are also being fitted with oil-burning apparatus. Within a few years, it is believed, a majority of the vessels of the United States Navy will be oil burners, and it is for the purpose of having the officers and men ready to handle troubles in which the fumes of oil play an important part that Chief Ryan has been sent to New York to teach the officers how they can use the oxygen helmet.
    Officers of the navy are also confident that the helmet will prove of great use in the event of accidents in submarines when they are under water. In fighting coal-bunker fires and in steam-filled boiler rooms following boiler explosions the helmet will be just as useful, in the opinion of those in charge of the instruction.
    Lieut. Commander Taylor, the senior aid at the navy yard, said yesterday that eventually each ship would have its quota of officers trained in the use of the oxygen helmet.
    The officers of the superdreadnoughts Arkansas and Delaware are now under instruction. When they complete their course officers from the other dreadnoughts will be detailed for the instruction by Rear Admiral C. J. Badger, the new commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet.