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DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
805 KIDDER BREESE SE -- WASHINGTON NAVY YARD
WASHINGTON DC 20374-5060

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

USS Squalus (SS-192) -- Rescue of Survivors, 23-25 May 1939

At 8:40 AM on 23 May 1939, USS Squalus was just beginning a test dive in the Atlantic, not far from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. All indications were that everything was ready for a safe dive. However, just after she submerged, the engine rooms began to flood -- somehow the main induction valve, a large opening that brought air to the engines while on the surface, had opened. Quickly, the submarine's after compartments filled with water, drowning 26 men there, and Squalus settled to the bottom, 243 feet deep. In the forward compartments, sealed by watertight doors, 33 men remained alive. Their Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Oliver F. Naquin, began survival planning. Since the water depth and temperature made ascent with the self-contained "Momsen Lung" very dangerous, he elected to wait for rescue from above.

Within a few hours, other ships were searching for the missing Squalus, unfortunately in the wrong place. However, in the early afternoon a distant signal rocket was seen from a sister submarine, USS Sculpin (SS-191). Communication via the sunken sub's rescue bouy was soon established, and as soon broken when the bouy's connecting line snapped. The tug Penacook (YT-6) spent the afternoon and evening dragging a grapnel around the sinking site, finally hooking what all hands hoped was Squalus. Meanwhile, a team of divers from Washington, DC, their leader, Lieutenant Commander Charles B. Momsen, and the submarine rescue ship Falcon (ASR-2) were hurrying northward toward Portsmouth. Falcon carried more divers and a McCann Rescue Chamber, a large diving bell specially designed for just such an emergency.

Falcon moored over the Penacook's contact on the morning of 24 May. Divers soon confirmed that the contact was indeed the Squalus. During the afternoon and early evening, the rescue chamber made three relatively smooth round trips to the sunken submarine, bringing up 25 men. Only one more trip would finish the rescue of all those known to be alive. Shortly before 8PM, crewed by Chief Torpedoman's Mate John Mihalowski and Chief Metalsmith James H. McDonald, the rescue chamber picked up the last eight Squalus survivors, including Lieutenant Naquin, and began its ascent. While still 160 feet deep, its guiding cable jammed and the chamber had to return to the Squalus.

Over the next four hours, as problem followed problem, and divers labored heroically to effect repairs, the chamber was in imminent danger of disaster, risking the lives of its ten occupants. However, with careful handling it surfaced safely shortly after midnight on 25 May. During that day, divers and the rescue chamber crew made more difficult trips down to the Squalus, determining that no more crewmen remained alive on board her. The historic rescue mission, the first such undertaking in World history, and one conducted at a time in which the technologies of underwater object location, communications and deep-water diving were in their infancies, was a success.

This page features all the views we have relating to the rescue of survivors after USS Squalus sank on 23 May 1939.

For other photographs concerning the loss of USS Squalus and the rescue of her survivors, see:

  • USS Squalus (SS-192) -- People involved with her loss, salvage and the rescue of her survivors.

    For additional views relating to USS Squalus, see:

  • USS Sailfish (SS-192), 1939-1948. Named Squalus until 1940.

    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 57508

    USS Squalus (SS-192) Rescue Operations, May 1939


    USS Wandank (AT-26), at left, and USS Falcon (ASR-2) moored over the sunken Squalus, during rescue operations, circa 24 May 1939.
    The McCann Rescue Chamber, which brought 33 of the submarine's crewmen to safety, is visible on Falcon's after deck.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 77KB; 740 x 565 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97292

    USS Squalus (SS-192) Rescue Operations, May 1939


    McCann Rescue Chamber in the water alongside USS Falcon (ASR-2) during the rescue of 33 men still alive and trapped in the sunken submarine Squalus, off the New Hampshire coast, circa 24-25 May 1939.
    The submarine sank when the main induction valve in the engine room stuck in the open position, flooding her after compartments when she submerged.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 137KB; 740 x 610 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 97291

    McCann Rescue Chamber


    Cutaway drawing of the device used to rescue 33 crewmen from the sunken submarine USS Squalus (SS-192) in May 1939.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 159KB; 600 x 765 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 57505

    USS Squalus (SS-192) Rescue Operations, May 1939


    U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane landing the first nine Squalus survivors at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, on 24 May 1939.
    Some of the surviors are visible in center, wrapped in blankets. They had been recovered from the sunken submarine by a McCann Rescue Chamber deployed from USS Falcon (ASR-2). Squalus had sunk in the Atlantic, off Portsmouth, on the previous day.

    Official U.S. Navy Photograph, from the collections of the Naval Historical Center.

    Online Image: 87KB; 740 x 525 pixels

     
    Photo #: NH 85832

    USS Squalus (SS-192) Rescue Operations, May 1939

    Squalus' Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Oliver F. Naquin (center, hatless, wearing khaki pants), with other survivors on board the Coast Guard Cutter Harriet Lane, bound for the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Kittery, Maine, following their rescue, 25 May 1939.

    Courtesy of Ted Stone, 1977.

    U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

    Online Image: 118KB; 740 x 620 pixels

     

    For other photographs concerning the loss of USS Squalus and the rescue of her survivors, see:

  • USS Squalus (SS-192) -- People involved with her loss, salvage and the rescue of her survivors.

    For additional views relating to USS Squalus, see:

  • USS Sailfish (SS-192), 1939-1948. Named Squalus until 1940.


    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.

    19 June 2000