"Remembering the USS Squalus 75 years later" Topic

"On May 23, 1939, the USS Squalus was tragically lost at sea off the coast of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Twenty-six lives were lost, thirty-three were saved. The story as told by Carl la Vo in The Short Life of the Squalus follows. (originally published in the Spring 1988 issue of Naval History magazine)

Forty-seven years after his miraculous rescue, Oliver F. Naquin walked into Baltimore's Master Host Inn two summers ago. Inside, veterans of the World War II submarines Sailfish (SS-192) and Sculpin (SS-191) mingled. Most were people unfamiliar to the then 83-year-old retired rear admiral. But among them were six shipmates he hadn't seen in nearly a half-century, not since he was their commanding officer on board the USS Squalus (the original SS-192) when she sank off New England on 23 May 1939.

Twenty-six men died that day. But 33 others survived in the greatest undersea rescue of all time…"
Full interesting article here.
link

Amicalement
Armand

I remember reading several books about the submarines during that period, and it always struck me that it was a very dangerous time as navies pushed the envelop of submersibles with their current technologies.

I served from 1968 through 1970 on the submarine rescue ship USS Greenlet (ASR10), basically an ocean-going tug designed to carry and deploy the McCann rescue chamber. The old Greenlet, launched in 1942, was decommissioned in 1970 and transferred to the Turkish Navy, where it still serves. To my knowledge the Squalus was the only submarine on which the McCann chamber was ever used to perform a rescue. We were ready but never called on.

Thanks for share William. (smile).

Amicalement
Armand