History of USS Sailfish   SS192 (formerly USS Squalus)

Part One .... Disaster Aboard USS Squalus!
Ships Data Section
Public information Division
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Navy Department

       The keel of the ill-fated Squalus (later re-named Sailfish), was laid on 18 October 1937 at the U.S. Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The submarine slid down the ways eleven months later, on 14 September 1938, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas C. Hart, wife of Rear Admiral Hart, USN.  She was commissioned USS Squalus  SS192 on 1 March 1939, with Lieutenant Oliver F. Naquin, USN, as first Commanding Officer.

        Squalus was completely fitted out by 12 May, and then commenced her testing period off Portsmouth.  After having made eighteen successfuldives in the previous tests, and while operating off the Isle of Shoals, the sub made a trial dive at 0740 on 23 May, from which she never recovered.  Due to mechanical failure, which caused flooding of the after section of the boat, Squalus went to the bottom, settling some 240 feet beneath the surface, signaling her distress.

        Her sister ship, the submarine Sculpin, which had been alerted to look for the missing sub in that area, spotted one of the bombs at 1241 and marked the spot with a grapnel and attached buoy. Quickly, the whole nation was alerted.  Divers, salvage and submarineexperts were immediately dispatched to the scene of the disaster.  Preliminary observations and preparations were made by a Navy diver.  At 1130 the following day, the newly developed rescue chamber was lowered over the side of USS Falcon and at 1247 contact was established with the entrapped crew.

        In four trips, the last one attended by great danger due to weakening of the wires attached to the rescue chamber, all 33 men in the sub who lived after the boat made her fateful dive, were rescued!  The fate of the remaining 26 submariners was determined by the fifth and last trip by the chamber to the bottom.  The "diving bell" this time was attached to the after section of the sub, which was found to be flooded, leaving no doubt that those 26 men had perished with their ship.

        Rescue operations were secured at 2107 on 25 May 1939, and then the submarine salvage experts began the difficult and arduous task of raising Squalus from such a great depth.  The method used in the salvage operations involved the use of wood sheathed steel cylindrical pontoons which were to be attached to cables passed beneath the sub's hull.  These pontoons were submerged, then "blown out", thus furnishing Squalus with the additional buoyancy necessary to raise her from the bottom.