the submarine U.S.S. Squalus

[franksolich]

Hmmm.

It doesn't seem 1939 was a good year for submarines.

At 7:30 a.m. on May 23, 1939, the Squalus left the Portsmouth Navy Yard located along the Piscataqua River in New Hampshire. It was underway for its 19th test dive under the command of Lieutenant Oliver Naquin. Before a submarine could qualify for the operational fleet, it was required to pass a series of trials. On this day, a crew of 59, five officers, 51 enlisted men and three civilian inspectors, were on board. The point of the day's test was to complete an emergency dive while cruising at 16 knots, diving to 50 feet within 60 seconds in order to avoid enemy attack. Once underwater, it was difficult for enemy aircraft to locate a submarine.

The spot chosen for the dive, just southeast of the Isles of Shoals, averaged a depth of 250 feet. As the submarine neared the designated point, the submarine's location and estimated submersion time were radioed to the Portsmouth Navy Yard. At 8:35 a.m., according to the deck log, Naquin order the crew to rig for dive (prepare to dive) and soon after gave the order to dive

The sinking of the Squalus at about 8:45 a.m. on May 23 had taken only a few minutes. It settled rather gently on the bottom, without a list (tilt) to one side, but with the bow (front) raised by 11 degrees. The depth was 243 feet, and the water temperature was just a few degrees above freezing.

The initial problem was to isolate the separate compartments so one would not flood another. This had been largely accomplished during the sinking. On the bottom, the first problem was sprays of water and oil, which were stopped by quickly shutting many valves. Only the dim light of a few hand lanterns relieved the darkness.

Determining who was alive and each individual's location was the next priority. Of the 59 people who sailed that morning, 23 were in the control room and 10 in the forward torpedo room. It was likely that everyone in the after battery room and both engine rooms had died. No contact was made with the after torpedo room. The possibility of survivors there remained, if only the communications with the control room had failed.

Five people were moved forward, where it was dryer but colder than in the control room. Saltwater was leaking into the forward battery. If it mixed with the battery acid, chlorine gas could form, or it could short the cells and create a fire. This meant that the forward battery compartment, which was located between the two occupied spaces, would have to be left vacant. The control room had a foot of oil and water at its after bulkhead. The pump room beneath it had a slow leak.

A telephone buoy, attached to Squalus by the communication cable, was released and surfaced soon after the sinking. Rockets were fired from time to time, the sixth launched after four hours on the bottom. By chance, a lookout on the sister submarineUSS Sculpin saw its smoke. Once the Sculpin made its way over the sunken Squalus, it found the phone buoy. However, soon after the two-way conversation began, the phone cable broke.

read more at http://www.onr.navy.mil/focus/blowballast/squalus/new2.htm

This is a multi-page web-site, with charts and diagrams and maps and somesuch; to read the whole thing, just keep clicking on the rightward-pointing arrow at the bottom of the site.

I recall reading about U.S.S. Squalus in Time and Life magazines of the period; I wasn't aware it was ultimately salvaged and returned to duty.

[Bob Henneman]

Not a good year, to say the least!

These incidents are not unique though, either in being accidental losses or in being returned to service. In March 1915 the American submarine F-4 and her crew were lost of Hawaii on a test dive. She was savaged later in the year, and examinations of her hull led to the correction of design defects in all existing and future US submarines, saving countless lives over the years. She was not repaired though, as she had been damaged during salvage, but the hull was not disposed of until 1940.

In 1925 the US submarine S-51 was on a training exercise when she was accidently rammed on the surface by the steam ship City of Rome. She sank with only three crew members escaping. She was salvaged the next year, and eventually sold for scrap.

In 1926 the US submarine S-4 surfaced from a training dive and was prompty rammed by a Coast Guard cutter. 6 men survived and were trapped, but efforts to save them failed. the boat was raised 18 months later, repaired, and served for several more years until being retired.

All in all the US Navy has lost 18 submarines over the years (all but 3 before or during WWII) to accidents, claiming 765 lives. But to their credit the US Navy has not lost a submarine in 40 years, after significant changes were made to the submarine construction and testing programs following the loss of nuclear submarines USS Thresher in 1963 to a bad pipe joint, and USS Scorpion in 1968, probably due to a defective torpedo battery. 

The British, French, Germans, Russians, and other suffered many accidentlal losses also before and during WWII, with the USSR having probably the worst safety record. I know Russia and the UK both returned salvaged subs to service also.

[franksolich]

I forgot all about U.S.S. Scorpion, and didn't know U.S.S. Thresher was nuclear-powered.

Wouldn't that have caused a major media uproar, about a nuclear-powered submarine being lost in the ocean, spreading radiation all around?

Of course the loss of U.S.S. Thresher caused a major media uproar, but not in this respect, it seems.

When I was wandering around the socialist paradises of the workers and peasants during the 1990s, I heard many stories about the condition of Soviet submarinery; it wasn't good, and never was good.

[Bob Henneman]

Yeah, the Soviet records are still incomplete, but it seems that there were at least 8 incidents where reactor acidents cause submarine crews to absorb lethal amounts of radiation, and at least 4 and maybe as many as 9 boats completely lost due to accidents between 1968 and the fall of the Soviet Union. The US managed to salvage one conventionally powered missile boat that sank in 1968, and was shocked at how primative and dangerous the boat was compared to western submarines of the time.