I am once again in the process of scanning my Grandmother Harriet's journals. Today while scanning I came across an entry dated May 1939 which said only this: "The submarine Squalus sank." Well, one of the hazards of being a history major in college and having a curious mind is being unable to let something like this just pass. The usual questions came to mind. How? Why? Who? What? Well, Google is a wonderful thing. Google revealed an article from the New England Historical Society titled "The Greatest Submarine Rescue Ever: Saving the Squalus."
The date, May 23, 1939. The location, nine miles off the coast of New Hampshire. The USS Squalus had been launched from the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in September 1937. It was named for a small shark with a big bite. Since the launch the Squalus had successfully completed 18 test dives. No one expected any trouble on this her 19th dive. The sub was commanded that day by Lt. Oliver Naquin. He was in charge of 4 officers, 51 enlisted men and three civilians. At 8:40 in the morning Lt. Naquin gave the order to dive. The submarine began a steep dive but at about 60 feet something went wrong. The Squalus began to level off and the crew in the forward compartments felt a slight flutter. They heard over the battle phone frantic voices in the engine room to take her up. The main air induction valve had either opened or failed to close. The reasons were never discovered. Tons of seawater gushed into the engine room. The crew tried to raise the Squalus. They closed the flooded aft compartments and attempted to close the induction valve. They forced compressed air into the ballast tanks to lift the Squalus to the surface. It was then that torrents of water surged into the forward compartments. The Squalus began to sink to the ocean floor. Chief Electrician's Mate Lawrence Gainor realized water was flowing into the aft battery room. The batteries would short out and explode. He crawled through a narrow opening and turned the first switch to the batteries off. This set off a small lightning storm however he managed to shut the other battery switch off just in time. The submarine went dark. Lt. Naquin ordered the watertight steel door between the operating compartment and the aft battery room closed. Electrician's Mate Lloyd Maness held the door open long enough for eight men to claw their way to safety. The Squalus sat 240 feet below the surface of the ocean. When it failed to surface as scheduled at 9:40 am. Rear Admiral Cyrus Cole was sure the Squalus was in trouble and knew quick action was required. By 11:00 am he had summonded the USS Falcon, a minesweeper stationed in New London, CT and called Washington requesting the Navy's best divers. The situation was dire. No submarine rescue had succeeded in the past at a depth exceeding 20 feet. They were entering uncharted territory.
One of the key figures in this rescue attempt would be Lt. Commander Charles "Swede" Momsen. He was a submarine rescue expert and the head of the Experimental Diving Unit. On the day of the Squalus sinking his unit was completing the final test on the use of mixture of helium and oxygen to prevent decompression sickness or the bends. Momsen had commanded a submarine in 1925 that had made a futile attempt to rescue another submarine that had been struck by a passenger ship. He had vowed to find a way to rescue trapped submarine crews. He had invented an underwater breathing device called the Momsen lung. He had also conceived a diving bell that would be used for the first time to try to rescue the crew of the Squalus.
Inside the Squalus Lt. Naquin ordered the men to stay calm, lie down and not talk. He felt it would do the most to preserve the 48 hours of oxygen he felt they had left. Each man was issued a Momsen lung and reminded how to use it. Soda lime powder was spread on the decks to absorb carbon dioxide. The marker buoy was ordered released from the deck. It was attached by a long cable and had a telephone in it. The letters on the buoy spelled out "Submarine sunk here. Telephone inside." At 12:55 pm the day after she sank the submarine USS Sculpin recovered the marker buoy and made contact with the Squalus. They learned the high induction was open, the crew compartment and forward and aft engine rooms flooded. It was shortly after that the cable connecting them snapped.
Tomorrow, the rest of the story.
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