Review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster

Williams, Joseph A. Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2015. ix + 279 pages. Hardcover, $26.95.

When the U.S. Navy introduced the submarine to the fleet, there were many unknowns: how deep, how long, and what happens if you collide under water? Today, the U.S. Navy Submarine Service’s safety record is the best in the world. However, the early days of the submarines (the small diesel boats known as “pig boats”) were intrinsically dangerous and the navy lacked the capability to rescue the crews that were unable to escape their steel tombs.

Joseph Williams, a naval historian, documents the sinking of the U.S. submarine S-4 off Rhode Island in Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster. He links the experiences of a number of officers: dive and salvage experts that attempted to rescue the crews of the S-51 (1925) and the S-4 (1927) submarines that sank after colliding with surface vessels, and the development of equipment and doctrine, which the navy used successfully in 1939 to rescue the crew of the USS Squalus.

Between 1900 and 1927 there were eight submarines lost at sea in non-combat collisions or accidents. Mr. Williams shows how the navy’s knowledge base was built through trial and error while innovators designed and tested equipment that would be critical in future rescue and salvage operations. As an example, the rescue diving bell and the “Momsen lung” developed by Lieutenant Charles “Swede” Momsen were critical in the rescue of the USS Squalus crew and follow-on designs remain in the fleet today for rescue and salvage work.

The U.S. Navy’s reaction to the collision of the S-4 and the Coast Guard cutter Paulding was an “all hands on deck” evolution. The navy, which had downsized after World War I, pulled divers, ships, and salvage experts from commands up and down the East Coast. The rescuers traveled by various modes, including a navy hospital ambulance to Rhode Island and many with police escorts, to offer their knowledge and experience in rescuing their shipmates and later to salvage the boat and reclaim the bodies from the sea.

Similar to a catastrophe today, tension built among the participants due to the lack of information available. Williams describes the small quiet coastal village as it prepared for the Christmas holidays. However, after the collision, the town’s hotels were full and many of the press, navy and coast guard officials, and even some family members moved in with townspeople or stayed in public buildings. Often, the family and press misunderstood the movement of ships. For example, the USS Falcon left the scene to transport an injured diver to the Boston Naval Hospital. The little information the press was able to gather was often passed from sailors that answered a few questions by semaphore code. The dribble of information that the press published was all the families received

After the operation was completed, the Navy and the Coast Guard launched boards of inquiries to investigate and place blame for the accident. Not surprisingly, the Navy placed blame on the Coast Guard cutter operating on the surface while some placed the blame for the collision on the 18th Amendment that the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Paulding was enforcing by interdicting “rum runners” smuggling illegal alcohol.

Often the cause of a submarine accident cannot be totally understood; many questions remain unanswered, and open to speculation. Therefore, there are a number of books written on the subject even years after the incidents. Of note, Edward Ellsberg, a former naval officer that volunteered to join the S-4 rescue effort authored On the Bottom, his memoir of the S-51 salvage operation. However, Williams weaves the story of the S-4 with the greater story of the S-51 and the USS Squalus and provides the reader with the perspective of early submarine rescue operations.

Mr. Williams used a wide range of documents, court of inquiry proceedings, and participant’s notes to tell the tragic story of the sinking as well as the dangers encountered by the divers that risked diving in the cold winter waters of New England, using unreliable dive equipment and untried salvage doctrine to attempt the rescue of their shipmates. He frames the sinking and various aspects of the attempted rescue and salvage in a way that brings the reader into the dangers of going to sea in “pig boats.”

Seventeen Fathoms is an important book to be read by anyone interested in submarines, deep sea diving, and rescue operations. Remarkably the equipment used today in rescue and salvage can be traced to this operation. It also tells the story of a navy that went “all hands on deck” to try and save its sailors!