The McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber is a device for rescuing submariners from a submarine that is unable to surface.
71-486: Rescue Chamber can refer to: McCann Rescue Chamber , a device for rescuing submariners from a submarine that is unable to surface Mine rescue chamber , an emergency shelter installed in underground environments. See also [ edit ] Escape Room (disambiguation) Escape crew capsule Escape pod Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with
142-441: A sampan and a patrol craft with her deck gun as the enemy craft tried to capture the downed aviators. The following day, she rescued another flier. The submarines pulled into Saipan , arriving on 24 October, to drop off their temporary passengers, refuel, and make minor repairs. After returning to the patrol area with the wolf pack, she made an unsuccessful attack on a transport on 3 November. The following day, Sailfish damaged
213-493: A "rescue chamber." This success was catalyst for gaining approval for development of the submarine rescue chamber in 1930. Before he could make these changes, Momsen went to the Bureau of Construction and Repair to work on an underwater breathing apparatus (the "Momsen Lung" ) for individual escapes. Lieutenant Commander Allan Rockwell McCann was put in charge of the revisions on the diving bell. From July 1929 to July 1931, McCann
284-660: A civilian ) on board the sunken submarine. Four enlisted divers, Chief Machinist's Mate William Badders , Chief Boatswain's Mate Orson L. Crandall , Chief Metalsmith James H. McDonald and Chief Torpedoman John Mihalowski , were awarded the Medal of Honor for their work during the rescue and subsequent salvage. The successful rescue of the Squalus survivors is in marked contrast to the loss of HMS Thetis in Liverpool Bay in England just
355-423: A fifth dive was made to the aft torpedo room hatch on May 25. This run confirmed the flooding of the entire aft portion of the ship. The rescue chamber was a pear shaped steel chamber, the big end uppermost, seven feet at the greatest diameter and ten feet high. It is divided into an upper closed compartment and a lower open compartment by a horizontal bulkhead which has a water tight hatch in its middle. Surrounding
426-407: A high likelihood of it sinking again. For 50 days, divers worked to pass cables underneath the submarine and attach pontoons for buoyancy. On 13 July 1939, the stern was raised successfully, but when the men attempted to free the bow from the hard blue clay, the vessel began to rise far too quickly, slipping its cables. Ascending vertically, the submarine broke the surface, and 30 feet (10 m) of
497-452: A large explosion nearby, no damage was done, and the destroyers counterattacked with 18–20 depth charges. She returned to Manila on 17 December. Her second patrol (now under the command of Richard G. Voge begun on 21 December, took the submarine to waters off Formosa . On the morning of 27 January 1942, off Halmahera , near Davao , she sighted a Myōkō -class cruiser, making a daylight submerged attack with four torpedoes, and reporting
568-399: A large freighter, but discovered the intended target was a hospital ship and held her fire. On 9 July, she intercepted and torpedoed a Japanese freighter . One of a pair of torpedoes struck home and the ship took a 15° list . As Sailfish went deep, a series of explosions were heard, and no further screw noises were detected. When the submarine surfaced in the area 90 minutes later, no ship
639-400: A pressurized submarine or one lying at extreme angles. It is also incapable of functioning below 850 ft (260 m). The USN Submarine Rescue Chamber (YRC) is air transportable to a Vessel Of Opportunity (VOO) Mother Ship (MOSHIP) which requires little modification to use the system. Transfer Under Pressure (TUP) to and from pressurized environments such as submarines or hyperbaric chambers
710-409: A salvo of four torpedoes, scoring two hits. The cargo ship Toan Maru (2100 GRT) was enveloped in a cloud of smoke and shortly afterwards broke in two and sank. Surfacing after escaping a depth charge attack, Sailfish closed on a second cargo ship of the convoy, scoring two hits out of four torpedoes fired. The submarine's crew felt the cargo ship either had been sunk or badly damaged, but the sinking
781-541: A second convoy , three ships with a subchaser and, unusually, an aircraft, for escort. Sailfish once more fired three stern tubes, sinking Iburi Maru ; in response, the subchaser, the aircraft, and three additional escorts, pinned her down in a gruelling depth charge attack lasting 10 hours and 98 charges but causing only slight damage. After shaking loose pursuit, she set course for Midway on 26 June, arriving there on 3 July. Her ninth patrol (commanded by William R. Lefavour ) lasted from 25 July–16 September and covered
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#1732909256922852-476: A series of test dives off Portsmouth, New Hampshire . After successfully completing 18 dives, she went down again off the Isles of Shoals on the morning of 23 May at 42°53′N 70°37′W / 42.883°N 70.617°W / 42.883; -70.617 . Failure of the main induction valve (the means of letting in fresh air when on the surface) caused the flooding of the aft torpedo room, both engine rooms, and
923-434: A sinking in the area. During the remainder of the patrol, she made unsuccessful attacks on a cargo ship and a destroyer before ending the patrol at Pearl Harbor on 15 January 1943. After an overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard from 27 January–22 April, Sailfish returned to Pearl Harbor on 30 April. Departing Hawaii on 17 May for her eighth patrol, she stopped off to fuel at Midway Island and proceeded to her station off
994-417: A spread of four torpedoes at the two freighters. Two solid explosions were heard, including an internal secondary explosion. Sailfish heard Totai Maru (3,000 GRT ) break up and sink as the destroyers made a vigorous but inaccurate depth charge attack. When Sailfish caught up with the other freighter she was dead in the water, but covered by a screen of five destroyers. Rather than face suicidal odds,
1065-640: A spread of three torpedoes at a mine layer. One hit caused the tanker to disintegrate into a column of water, smoke and debris. It was not recorded in the postwar account. In fact the Sailfish had sunk the Japanese Kinshu Maru (238 GRT) in Luzon Strait in position 20°09'N, 121°19'E. The next target was a battleship escorted by three destroyers, on which she made radar contact shortly after midnight on 18–19 August. At 01:35, after getting as close as she
1136-593: A week later, with four survivors from 104 people aboard. The navy authorities felt it important to raise Squalus as she incorporated a succession of new design features. With a thorough investigation of why she sank, more confidence could be placed in the new construction, or alteration of existing designs could be undertaken when cheapest and most efficient to do so. Furthermore, given similar previous accidents in Sturgeon and Snapper (indeed, in S-5 , as far back as 1920), it
1207-626: Is not possible with this system, even though TUP is essential where being subjected to ambient pressure may be life-threatening. Since the creation of the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicles Mystic and Avalon , the McCann Rescue Chamber is rarely used, but is part of the Submarine Rescue Chamber Flyaway System (SRCFS) which is capable of worldwide submarine rescue missions. Once launched,
1278-512: The Asiatic Fleet until the attack on Pearl Harbor . During the Pacific War , the captain of the renamed boat issued standing orders if any man on the boat said the word "Squalus", he was to be marooned at the next port of call. This led to crew members referring to their boat as "Squailfish". That went over almost as well; a court martial was threatened for anyone heard using it. Following
1349-540: The Boston Navy Yard , where she was drydocked and repaired. She returned to active duty in October 1928 and was employed thereafter as a submarine rescue and salvage test ship. Momsen went to sea in the reconditioned S-4 to carry out practical experiments and training with the rescue chambers. Work with S-4 helped to develop equipment and techniques that bore fruit a decade later, when 33 men were brought up alive from
1420-457: The Formosa Strait and waters off Okinawa . It produced only two contacts (a 2500 ton steamer at Naha, Okinawa , and a junk ), but no worthwhile targets, and Sailfish thereafter returned to Pearl Harbor. After refit at Pearl Harbor, she departed (under the command of Robert E. McC. Ward ) with a rejuvenated crew, on 17 November for her 10th patrol, which took her south of Honshū. Along
1491-640: The Java Sea . After sighting the heavy cruiser Houston and two escorts heading for Sunda Strait following the Allied defeat in the Battle of the Java Sea , Sailfish intercepted an enemy destroyer on 2 March. Following an unsuccessful attack, she was forced to dive deep to escape the ensuing depth charge attack from the destroyer and patrol aircraft. That night, near the mouth of Lombok Strait, she spotted what appeared to be
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#17329092569221562-632: The McCann Rescue Chamber for the first time, saved the lives of the remaining 33 aboard. Squalus was salvaged in late 1939 and recommissioned as Sailfish in May 1940. As Sailfish , the vessel conducted numerous patrols in the Pacific War during World War II , earning nine battle stars . She was decommissioned in October 1945 and later scrapped. Her conning tower is on display at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery , Maine . Squalus ' s keel
1633-502: The USS Widgeon during the attack on Pearl Harbor ). In 1931, a one-fifth scale model of a diving bell for submarine rescue work was built and tested. Design called for the bell to withstand the external pressure encountered at a depth of at least 300 ft (91 m) of water, and the test showed the model fulfilled this requirement with a factor of safety of about 3.5. The vessel was tested under external pressure, failure occurring in
1704-407: The 38,200-long-ton (38,800 t) aircraft carrier Kaga , escorted by four destroyers. Sailfish fired four torpedoes, scoring two hits. Leaving the target aflame and dead in the water, Sailfish dove, the escorts delivering forty depth charges in the next 90 minutes. She eluded destroyers and aircraft and arrived at Fremantle, Western Australia , on 19 March, to great fanfare, believed to be
1775-679: The IJN destroyer Harukaze , which had previously sunk USS Shark , and also a landing ship. Following refit, Sailfish departed Hawaii on 26 December and arrived at New London , via the Panama Canal, on 22 January 1945. For the next four and one-half months, she aided training out of New London. Next, she operated as a training ship at Guantanamo Bay from 9 June–9 August. After a six-week stay at Philadelphia Navy Yard , she arrived at Portsmouth, New Hampshire on 2 October for deactivation. After being decommissioned on 27 October 1945, efforts by
1846-557: The Japanese aircraft carrier Chūyō , a cruiser, and two destroyers. Despite high seas whipped up by typhoon winds, Sailfish maneuvered into firing position shortly after midnight on 3–4 December, dived to radar depth (just the radar aerial exposed), and fired four bow torpedoes at the carrier, at a range of 2,100 yd (1,900 m), scoring two hits. She went deep to escape the escorting destroyers, which dropped 21 depth charges (only two close), reloaded, and at 02:00, surfaced to resume
1917-404: The Japanese destroyer Harukaze and Japanese landing ship T-111 (890 tons) in Luzon Strait in position 20°08'N, 121°43'E but was slightly damaged herself by a bomb from a patrol aircraft. With battle damage under control, Sailfish eluded her pursuers and cleared the area. After riding out a typhoon on 9–10 November, she intercepted a convoy on the evening of 24 November heading for Itbayat in
1988-501: The Philippines. After alerting Pomfret of the convoy's location and course, Sailfish was moving into an attack position when one of the escorting destroyers headed straight for her. Sailfish fired a three-torpedo spread "down the throat" and headed toward the main convoy. At least one hit was scored on the destroyer and her pip faded from the radar screen. Suddenly, Sailfish received an unwelcome surprise when she came under fire from
2059-452: The SRCFS is able to operate around the clock. USS Sailfish (SS-192)#Sinking of Squalus and recommissioning as Sailfish USS Sailfish (SS-192) , was a US Sargo -class submarine , originally named Squalus . As Squalus , the submarine sank off the coast of New Hampshire during test dives on 23 May 1939. The sinking drowned 26 crew members, but an ensuing rescue operation, using
2130-407: The approaching destroyers, the submarine detected breaking-up noises as Uyo Maru (6400 GRT) went to the bottom; destroyers counterattacked with 31 depth charges, "some very close". Sailfish terminated her tenth patrol at Pearl Harbor on 5 January 1944. She claimed three ships for 35,729 GRT, plus damage to one for 7000 tons, believed to be the most successful patrol by tonnage to date; postwar, it
2201-474: The areas of Sailfish ' s fourth patrol, from 22 March–21 May. After delivering 1,856 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition to " MacArthur 's guerrillas ", she made only one ship contact and was unable to attack the target before returning to Fremantle. The submarine's fifth patrol—from 13 June through 1 August—was off the coast of Indochina in the South China Sea . On 4 July, she intercepted and tracked
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2272-463: The attack on Pearl Harbor, Sailfish departed Manila on her first war patrol, destined for the west coast of Luzon . Early on 10 December, she sighted a landing force, supported by cruisers and destroyers , but could not gain firing position. On the night of 13 December, she made contact with two Japanese destroyers and began a submerged attack; the destroyers detected her, dropping several depth charges , while Sailfish fired two torpedoes. Despite
2343-612: The bell operational, safe and large enough to hold up to eight rescued crewmen and two operators. In 1939, the McCann Rescue Chamber made its debut when it was used to successfully rescue thirty-three survivors from Squalus , At the time of Squalus ' accident, Lieutenant Commander Momsen was serving as head of the Experimental Diving Unit at the Washington Navy Yard . The submarine rescue ship USS Falcon (ASR-2), commanded by Lieutenant George A. Sharp,
2414-579: The bow reached into the air for not more than ten seconds before she sank once again all the way to the bottom. Momsen said of the mishap, "pontoons were smashed, hoses cut and I might add, hearts were broken." After 20 more days of preparation, with a radically redesigned pontoon and cable arrangement, the next lift was successful, as were two further operations. Squalus was towed into Portsmouth on 13 September, and decommissioned on 15 November. A total of 628 dives had been made in rescue and salvage operations. Renamed Sailfish on 9 February 1940, she became
2485-446: The carrier lying dead in the water, listing to port and down by the stern. Preparations to abandon ship were in progress. Later in the morning, Sailfish fired another spread of three torpedoes, from only 1,700 yd (1,600 m), scoring two final hits. Loud internal explosions and breaking-up noises were heard while the submarine dived to escape a depth charge attack. Abruptly, a cruiser appeared and, fearing that she would broach
2556-438: The chamber in case of emergency. The forward and aft hatches of American submarines were fitted for attaching the rescue chamber. They have a flat annular plate welded to the hatch coaming upon which the bottom of the chamber rests to make the seal, and a bail over the center of the hatch to which the haul down wire must be attached by the diver. The McCann bell suffers severe limitations in strong currents and when dealing with
2627-424: The chamber is brought into contact with a flat surface (the hatch ring) a water tight joint may be effected with the application of pressure. Attached to the upper compartment is an air supply and an atmospheric exhaust hose, wire wound for strength. Also electric cables for telephone and light are attached. A wire pendant for hoisting and lowering is shackled into a pad-eye on top. This wire is also used for retrieving
2698-528: The city of Portsmouth and area residents to have the submarine kept intact as a memorial were not successful. Agreement was reached to have her conning tower saved, which was dedicated in November 1946 on Armistice Day , by John L. Sullivan , then Under Secretary of the Navy . The remainder of the submarine was initially scheduled to be a target in the atomic bomb tests or sunk by conventional ordnance. However, she
2769-467: The command of John R. "Dinty" Moore ) got underway for her sixth patrol on 13 September and headed for the western Solomon Islands . On the night of 17–18 September, she encountered eight Japanese destroyers escorting a cruiser, but she was unable to attack. On 19 September, she attacked a minelayer . The spread of three torpedoes missed, and Sailfish was forced to dive deep to escape the depth charge counterattack. Eleven well-placed charges went off near
2840-430: The crew's quarters, drowning 26 men immediately. Quick action by the crew prevented the other compartments from flooding. Squalus bottomed in 243 ft (74 m) of water. Squalus was initially located by her sister boat , Sculpin . The two submarines were able to communicate using a telephone marker buoy until the cable parted. Divers from the submarine rescue ship Falcon began rescue operations under
2911-550: The destroyer that she had believed to be sunk. Sailfish ran deep after ascertaining there was no hull damage resulting from a near miss from the escort's guns. For the next 4 1 ⁄ 2 hours, Sailfish was forced to run silent and deep as the Japanese kept up an uncomfortably accurate depth-charge attack. Finally, the submarine was able to elude the destroyers and slip away. Shortly, Sailfish headed for Hawaii, via Midway, and completed her 12th and final war patrol upon arriving at Pearl Harbor on 11 December. Sailfish had damaged
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2982-548: The direction of the salvage and rescue expert Lieutenant Commander Charles B. "Swede" Momsen , using the new McCann Rescue Chamber . The Senior Medical Officer for the operations was Dr. Charles Wesley Shilling . Overseen by researcher Albert R. Behnke , the divers used recently developed heliox diving schedules and successfully avoided the cognitive impairment symptoms associated with such deep dives , thereby confirming Behnke's theory of nitrogen narcosis . The divers were able to rescue all 33 survivors (32 crew members and
3053-437: The east coast of Honshū . Several contacts were made but, because of bad weather, were not attacked. On 15 June, she encountered two freighters off Todo Saki , escorted by three subchasers . Firing a spread of three stern torpedoes, she observed one hit which stopped the maru dead in the water. Sailfish was driven down by the escort, but listened on her sound gear as Shinju Maru broke up and sank. Ten days later, she found
3124-542: The events surrounding the loss of USS Squalus and the rescue of her 33 survivors. The plot was written to closely follow the events of the sinking. Submerged used models and sets originally constructed for the 2000 film U-571 . The floating set used to in Submerged to represent both USS Squalus and USS Sculpin is the non-diving replica built in Malta as the "modified" USS S-33 (SS-138) for U-571 , which also
3195-510: The first U.S. sub to have sunk an enemy carrier. In reality, the Kaga was scuttled in June, 1942, after damage sustained during the Battle of Midway , in that vicinity. Postwar, it was revealed Kaga had been nowhere in the area of Lombok Strait, and the target had in fact been the 6,440-long-ton (6,540 t) aircraft ferry Kamogawa Maru , still a valuable target. The Java Sea and Celebes Sea were
3266-620: The first boat of the U.S. Navy named for the sailfish . After reconditioning, repair, and overhaul, she was recommissioned on 15 May 1940 with Lieutenant Commander Morton C. Mumma Jr. ( Annapolis , Class of 1930) in command. With refit completed in mid-September, Sailfish departed Portsmouth on 16 January 1941 and headed for the Pacific. Transiting the Panama Canal , she arrived at Pearl Harbor in early March, after refueling at San Diego. The submarine then sailed west to Manila where she joined
3337-527: The first two decades of the United States Navy Submarine Force, there were several accidents in which Navy submarines sank with the loss of life. The impetus for the invention for the chamber was the loss of S-51 on 25 September 1925 and the loss of S-4 on 17 December 1927. In the case of S-4 , all of her officers and men were able to reach non-flooded compartments as the submarine bottomed in 110 ft (34 m) of water. However,
3408-427: The lower compartment is a ballast tank of a capacity just equal to that of the lower compartment. Inside the lower compartment is a reel with 400 ft (120 m) of .5 in (13 mm) steel wire on it. The reel is operated by a shaft leading into the upper compartment. The shaft is rotated by an air motor. On the bottom edge of the lower compartment a rubber gasket is embedded into a circular groove, so that when
3479-531: The majority soon succumbed. In her forward torpedo room, six men remained alive. Heroic efforts were made to rescue these six, who had exchanged a series of signals with divers by tapping on the hull. In extremely cold water and tangled wreckage, Navy divers worked to rescue them, but a storm forced a stop to this effort on 24 December. Forty men lost their lives. These experiences led submariner Charles B. "Swede" Momsen to think of technical alternatives for rescuing survivors from sunken submarines, which at that time
3550-406: The pursuit. She found a mass of radar contacts, and a slow-moving target, impossible to identify in the miserable visibility. As dawn neared, she fired another spread of three bow "fish" from 3,100 yd (2,800 m), scoring two more hits on the stricken carrier. Diving to elude the Japanese counter-attack, which was hampered by the raging seas, Sailfish came to periscope depth, and at 07:58 saw
3621-459: The same boat that had helped locate and rescue Sailfish —then Squalus —over four years before. Twenty of the 21 US crew members from Sculpin were killed. None, however, were of the original rescue crew. 1,250 Japanese were also killed. After escaping a strafing attack by a Japanese fighter on 7 December, she made contact and commenced tracking two cargo ships with two escorts on the morning of 13 December, south of Kyūshū . That night, she fired
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#17329092569223692-414: The shell at a pressure of 470 psi (3,200 kPa ). Since the head of the vessel remained intact, it was decided to make a test of the head itself in order to determine its strength relative to that of the shell, and if possible to obtain some measure of the stresses occurring under load. The head collapsed at a pressure of 525 psi (3,620 kPa), indicating its strength under external pressure
3763-400: The submarine quietly left the area. On the night of 20 December, she intercepted an enemy hospital ship, which she left unmolested. On 21 December, in the approach to Bungo Suido (Bungo Channel), Sailfish intercepted six large freighters escorted by three destroyers. With five torpedoes left, she fired a spread of three stern tubes, scoring two hits on the largest target. Diving to escape
3834-433: The submarine, causing much minor damage. Sailfish returned to Brisbane on 1 November. Underway for her seventh patrol on 24 November, Sailfish proceeded to the area south of New Britain . Following an unsuccessful attack on a destroyer on 2 December, the submarine made no other contacts until 25 December, when she believed she had scored a hit on a Japanese submarine. Postwar analysis of Japanese records could not confirm
3905-460: The sunken submarine Squalus . The first diving bells for rescuing men from submarines were designed by the BuC&;R in 1928. The diving bell went through a series of tests off the shores of Key West, Florida . Based on these tests, Momsen had several changes in mind for the bell, and after nearly two years of experimentation full of highly interesting results, the final bell was evolved and christened
3976-410: The surface, Sailfish went to 90 ft (27 m), losing a chance at this new target. Shortly afterwards, the carrier Chūyō (20,000 long tons (20,321 t)) went to the bottom, the first aircraft carrier sunk by an American submarine in the war, and the only major Japanese warship sunk by enemy action in 1943. In an ironic twist, Chūyō was carrying American prisoners of war from Sculpin ,
4047-435: The target was damaged, for which she got credit. However, the damage could not be assessed since the cruiser's two escorts forced Sailfish to dive deep and run silent. Running at 260 ft (79 m), the submarine eluded the destroyers and proceeded south toward Java . She arrived at Tjilatjap on 14 February for refueling and rearming. Departing on 19 February for her third patrol, she headed through Lombok Strait to
4118-474: The title Rescue Chamber . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rescue_Chamber&oldid=866569394 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages McCann Rescue Chamber During
4189-479: The way, she suffered a " hot run " in tube eight (aft), and (after the skipper himself went over the side to inspect the damage) ejected the torpedo; the tube remained out of commission for the duration of the patrol. After refueling at Midway, she was alerted by ULTRA of a fast convoy of Japanese ships before she arrived on station. Southeast of Yokosuka , on the night of 3 December, she made radar contact at 9,000 yd (8,200 m). The group consisted of
4260-550: Was laid on 18 October 1937 by the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery , Maine , the only ship of the United States Navy named for the squalus , a type of shark . She was launched on 14 September 1938, sponsored by Mrs. Thomas C. Hart, wife of Admiral Thomas C. Hart , and commissioned on 1 March 1939 with Lieutenant Oliver F. Naquin in command. On 12 May 1939, following a yard overhaul, Squalus began
4331-486: Was able, 3,500 yd (3,200 m), Sailfish fired all four bow tubes. One of the escorts ran into the path of two fish; the other two missed. While the destroyer must have been severely damaged or sunk, there was nothing in JANAC . On 24 August, south of Formosa, Sailfish made radar contact with an enemy convoy consisting of four cargo ships escorted by two small patrol craft. Moving into firing position, Sailfish fired
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#17329092569224402-475: Was about 10% in excess of that of the shell. The revised Submarine Rescue Chamber had improvements including a soft seal gasket for sealing the submarine/bell interface skirting, and a floor installed to maintain air-space in the bell during raising and lowering. Momsen in his speech to the Harvard Engineering Society on 6 October 1939 credited Allan Rockwell McCann with the improvements which made
4473-588: Was assigned to the Maintenance Division, Bureau of Construction and Repair, where he developed the submarine rescue chamber. When the bell was completed in late 1930, it was produced as the McCann Submarine Rescue Chamber (SRC) (Navy designated the first 12 of these as [YRC] 1–12, YRC-4 was lost aboard the USS Pigeon , at Bataan , Philippines, during the first days of WWII. YRC-5 was aboard
4544-460: Was in sight. She was credited during the war with a 7000 ton ship, and although postwar examination of Japanese records confirmed no sinking in the area on that date, the Sailfish had damaged the Japanese transport ship Aobasan Maru (8811 GRT) off the coast of Indochina in position 11°31'N, 109°21'E. Sailfish observed only one other enemy vessel before the end of the patrol. Shifting her base of operations to Brisbane , Sailfish (now under
4615-612: Was necessary to determine a cause. The Squalus salvage unit was commanded by Rear Admiral Cyrus W. Cole , Commandant of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, who supervised salvage officer Lieutenant Floyd A. Tusler from the Construction Corps . Cole also requested experienced Commander Henry Hartley as his Technical Aide. Tusler's plan was to lift the submarine in three stages to prevent it from rising too quickly, out of control, with one end up, in which case there would be
4686-654: Was not confirmed by JANAC postwar. Sailfish terminated her 11th patrol at Midway on 6 September; her wartime credit was four ships for 13,200 tons, a total reduced to just one of 2100 GRT ( Toan Maru ) postwar. Her 12th patrol—from 26 September through 11 December—was conducted between Luzon and Formosa, in company with Pomfret and Parche . After passing through the edge of a typhoon, Sailfish arrived on station to perform lifeguard duty. On 12 October, staying surfaced in full view of enemy attackers, she rescued 12 Navy fliers who had ditched their stricken aircraft after strikes against Japanese bases on Formosa. She sank
4757-459: Was on site within twenty-four hours. It lowered the Rescue Chamber — a revised version of a diving bell invented by Momsen — and, in four dives over the next 13 hours, recovered all 33 survivors in the first deep submarine rescue ever. McCann was in charge of Chamber operations, with Momsen commanding the divers. Although there was no reason to believe anyone was alive in the aft part of the ship,
4828-496: Was pigeonholed by the bureaucracy, even during his own subsequent assignment at BuC&R. The loss of S-4 with all hands put the Navy very much "on the spot" because of the loss of lives that might have been saved. The pressure of this incident forced favorable action and Momsen, using the aircraft hangar from S-1 , designed and built a prototype submarine rescue chamber. During the first three months of 1928, divers and other salvage personnel were able to raise S-4 and tow her to
4899-784: Was placed on sale in March 1948 and stricken from the Naval Vessel Register on 30 April 1948. The hulk was sold for scrapping to Luria Brothers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , on 18 June 1948. Her conning tower still stands at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery as a memorial to her lost crewmen ( 43°04′55.4″N 70°44′18.7″W / 43.082056°N 70.738528°W / 43.082056; -70.738528 ). The 2001 television movie docudrama Submerged , directed by James Keach and starring Sam Neill as Charles B. "Swede" Momsen and James B. Sikking as Admiral Cyrus Cole , depicted
4970-530: Was reduced to two ships and (less Uyo Maru ) 29,571 tons. After an extensive overhaul at Mare Island—from 15–17 June—she returned to Hawaii and sailed on 9 July as part of a " wolfpack " ("Moseley's Maulers", commanded by Stan Moseley ), with Greenling and Billfish , to prey on shipping in the Luzon–Formosa area. On the afternoon of 6 August, Sailfish and Greenling made contact with an enemy convoy. Sailfish maneuvered into firing position and fired
5041-514: Was still a virtual impossibility. Momsen soon conceived a submarine rescue chamber that could be lowered from the surface to mate with a submarine's escape hatch and proposed the concept through official channels. While in command of the submarine S-1 (SS-105), in 1926, Momsen wrote the Bureau of Construction and Repair (BuC&R) recommending the adoption of a diving bell for the purposes of rescuing entrapped personnel from submarines. But this idea
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