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Photo # NH 69229:  USS S-4 sinking during an unsuccessful salvage test, December 1928

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS S-4 (SS-109), 1919-1936 --
As a Test Ship, 1928-1933


This page features all the views we concerning USS S-4 during her service as a test ship in 1928-1933.

For more images concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS S-4 (Submarine # 109, later SS-109), 1919-1936.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

    Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

    Photo #: NH 68837

    USS S-4 (SS-109)


    Photograph dated 14 December 1928, taken in port with USS Falcon (AM-28) alongside.
    The original caption reads: "The submarine S-4 just one year after she sank with a loss of forty lives. The repaired craft will be sent to the bottom without anyone aboard at Block Island, New London, Connecticut, to test out various safety devices developed as a result of the S-4 and S-51 disasters."
    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 103KB; 740 x 605 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85833

    USS Chewink
    (AM-39)

    Memorial services on the ship's afterdeck, marking the first anniversary of the accidental sinking of USS S-4 (SS-109), which took place on 17 December 1927.
    At the time of this photograph Chewink and the repaired S-4 were participating in tests of submarine rescue and salvage techniques and equipment.

    Courtesy of Ted Stone, 1977.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 97KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 69224

    USS S-4
    (SS-109)

    Off Block Island, before being submerged during tests of safety devices, circa 17 December 1928.
    She had been accidently sunk a year earlier, and, following salvage and repairs, was used to develop equipment and techniques for submarine rescue and salvage.

    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 66KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 69221

    USS S-4 (SS-109)


    Photograph dated 20 December 1928, during salvage tests off New London, Connecticut. She is being supported by salvage pontoons, with USS Falcon (AM-28) assisting from alongside and a U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat off her bow.

    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 72KB; 740 x 580 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 69229

    USS S-4
    (SS-109)

    "Partially raised S-4 begins to sink a second time after a leak in the Motor Room foiled salvage operations. S-4 had been submerged for 49 hours when salvage operations using pontoons attached to pad eyes was begun, 20 December 1928." (quoted from original caption released with this photograph in 1928).
    USS S-4 had been accidently sunk a year earlier, and, following salvage and repairs, was in use at the time of this photograph for developing equipment and techniques for submarine rescue and salvage. This view shows her bow lifting out of the water as she sinks by the stern, while illuminated by a searchlight.

    Courtesy of the San Francisco Maritime Museum, San Francisco, California, 1969.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 36KB; 740 x 500 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 100126

    Lieutenant Carlton Shugg, USN(CC)
    ,
    co-designer of submarine rescue chamber and designer of the New London submarine escape training tower;
    Lieutenant Norman S. Ives, USN,
    Commanding Officer of USS S-4 (SS-109);
    Lieutenant Charles B. Momsen, USN,
    developer of the submarine escape "lung"; and
    Chief Gunner Clarence Tibbals, USN,
    co-developer of the submarine escape "lung" and of the submarine rescue chamber.

    Photographed at New London, Connecticut, circa the Winter of 1928-29. The four men are listed from left to right in this view.

    Courtesy of Mr. Wallace Shugg, 1984.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 59KB; 740 x 440 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 102881

    Diving Bell


    Used at Key West, Florida, in salvage tests on USS S-4 (SS-109), December 1929.
    Note the conical fitting on the bottom of the diving bell, shaped to mate with the submarine's hatch.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 73KB; 445 x 200 pixels

     

    For more images concerning this submarine, see:

  • USS S-4 (Submarine # 109, later SS-109), 1919-1936.


    If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


    Return to Naval Historical Center home page.

    Page made 13 October 2005