A very interesting piece of history........non Valk

[solo1]

                              An interesting WWII history, the Squalus submarine

I did this research because my father told me that he helped overhaul the GE propulsion motors at the General Electric building 19 in Ft. Wayne.  The year, 1939.  Presently, a Ft. Wayne committee is trying to save the GE complex, now empty. Since I worked there during WWII as a teen, I will be giving the committee some history.


1939.  The newly commissioned Squalus submarine did a series of dives off the Eastern coast of the United stated. On her last dive, the board was all 'green' but the main induction valve was open (3 1/2 foot diameter).  She sank in 240 feet of water after the rear engine room flooded. 27 were drowned, about 35 were forward in the unflooded portion of the boat.  

Her sister boat, Sculpin, found her. Using a diving bell, the remaining crew was rescued.  After a series of attempts, the Squalus was raised using pontoons, and was towed to dry dock.  At this point, the GE propulsion motors were sent back to GE in Ft. Wayne for repair and refit.  This is where my dad was involved.. Very interesting piece of history but the story does not end there.

Squalus was completely reconditioned and renamed the Sailfish by President Roosevelt.  The captain of the newly named Sailfish barred the crew from calling it the Squalus or Sqaulfish, as it was considered bad luck to rename a naval vessel.

 She went on 12 successful missions during the War and sank a Japanese aircraft carrier.  Aboard the aircraft carrier was the captured crew of the Sculpin, the submarine that had found the Squalus when she was sunk. The captured crew drowned when the Japanese aircraft carrier went down.

When the Sailfish was decommissioned, her conning tower was saved and every year a remembrance ceremony is carried out in May, the month that the Squalus sank.

A bit of history that my dad was involved in.

Wayne, solo1

[bigguy]

Very cool wayne.Thanks for sharing.
Back in high school I read a book about the Squalus and Charles Momsen. One of the things I remember was that they had do some modification on the diving bell. Momsen checked in with the plant working on it and discovered that, it being a weekend, everybody had gone home and no work was planned until the following Monday. He went ballistic, threatening physical violence on the plant manager if the modified bell wasn't delivered the next day.
I just found it hard to believe that people would take the weekend off, knowing that 35 lives hung in the balance. It's no wonder Momsen was held in such high regard by sailors of the day.

[solo1]

Come to think of it, I do remember that too, except that I saw it in the Newspapers.  The Momsen lung wasn't used although the depth was ok for it.  The captain of the Squalus was afraid that the crew would die of exposure before rescuers could get there.  Momsen, of course, also designed the diving bell, he was a good guy.

[Patrick]

Nice stories. Glad to hear about this.

[Xtracho]

We learned of the Squalus while I was in diving school in Seattle. The McCann Rescue Chamber was a modified diving bell made to secure a water tight seal to the escape hatch of the sub. This was its first use and obviously successful in its rescue. If I remember, the Momsen Lung was on board the sub and at that depth a free ascent by the crew was possible. But it was vetoed by the Commanding Officer of the sub.

[art]

Just read the book about the Squalus, Great story.