The USS Squalus, Oliver Naquin and Swede Momsen

On this day, 69 years ago, LT Oliver Naquin, had his hands full. The New Orleans, Louisiana native and Naval Academy graduate of 1925 was in a most unenviable position. His new submarine, the USS Squalus (SS-192), was sunk in 240 feet of cold water off the New Hampshire coast. The rear part of the sub was flooded and 26 of his crew were presumed dead. 33 remained in the forward part of the boat. They all knew that their chance of rescue was somewhere between slim and none. In those days, sitting on the seafloor in almost 250 feet of water, you might as well have been on the dark side of the moon. Rescue was thought to be impossible.

However, a man named “Swede” Momsen had been experimenting with submarine rescue methods for years and his background in submarine rescue and diving were about to come together in one of the greatest sea rescue stories ever told.

CDR Momsen directed the rescue of the surviving crew using the McCann Diving Bell that he had invented 10 years arlier. The trapped sailors were equipped with Momsen Lungs, an escape device that he invented. The rescue bell was rigged by divers using new helium/oxygen breathing mixtures also developed by Swede.

Put yourself back in those times and imagine how these divers must have looked to the rest of world. They used cutting edge technology and weird gas mixtures to go someplace previously unreachable by man. And they did it under emergency conditions. Four Navy Divers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their heroism in rescuing the sailors of the Squalus. They were:

William Badders, Chief Machinst’s Mate
Orson Crandall, Chief Boatswain’s Mate
James Harper McDonald, Chief Metalsmith
John Mihalowski, Torpedoman First Class

William Badders transferred to the Fleet Reserve in 1940, He died in 1986.
Orson Crandall became a Mustang during WW II. He died in 1960.
James McDonald was also a Mustang in WW II. He died in 1973.
John Mihalowski was also a Mustang in WW II. He died in 1993.

(For you non-Navy types, a Mustang is an enlisted man that becomes an officer.)

The Squalus was salvaged (again by Momsen) and reborn as the USS Sailfish (still SS-192). Her sailors were forbidden to speak the name of the original hull, but they got around that by calling her the Squailfish. She was in Pearl Harbor on Dec 7, 1941 and saw combat in the Pacific, completing 12 patrols and returning safely. She was awarded 9 battle stars and a Presidential Unit Citation. She was sold for scrap in 1948 but the conning tower remains at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard as a memorial to the sailors lost on the Squalus.

We next encounter Oliver Naquin near the end of the war. Evidently, he was not given another opportunity for command and had staff jobs throughout the war. He was now a Captain and the Operations Officer on Guam whose office told Captain Charles McVay on the USS Indianapolis (CA-35) that Japanese submarines were not a great concern on his proposed route. He later testified in the court martial of Captain McVay. Not much more is known about Oliver Naquin. He retired from the Navy as a Rear Admiral and died in 1989. He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. His quote about the Squalus crew from the accident investigation is on his gravestone.

"My Officers And Men Acted Instinctively And Calmly. There Were No Expressions Of Fear And No Complains Of The Bitter Cold. Never In My Remaining Life Do I Expect To Witness So True An Exemplification Of Comradeship And Brotherly Love. No Fuller Meaning Could Possibly Be Given The Word 'Shipmate' Than Was Reflected By Their Acts."

“Swede” Momsen went on to become a submarine squadron commander during WW II. He was the one who discovered the problem with torpedo fuses at the beginning of the war by firing them into underwater cliffs off Hawaii and then diving to recover the live torpedo for inspection. However, it was after the war, when he was Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Undersea Warfare, that he made his greatest contribution to submarine warfare.

He took his wartime lessons and gave simple instructions to his submarine designers: “Forget about surface performance. Think only about submerged capability which will provide the utmost speed with minimum of power. When in doubt, think speed”. (It is rare to get a design basis with such clarity.) This was the idea behind the development of the USS Albacore (AGSS 569). He originally had to hide the true intent of the project by calling it a target vessel for anti submarine warfare training, but his real plan was to build a full size submarine that could be used to test various submarine propulsion and control mechanisms. (His slyness is evident in the fact that, being unarmed, the design did not have to receive “input” from the numerous naval design bureaus responsible for such things.) The Albacore was the first submarine to have the hull shape that is now familiar to the world. Between 1953 and 1972 the USS Albacore developed and tested the technology that was then put to use in the nuclear submarine fleet.

She was not very successful as a target. She easily outran or out maneuvered anything that came after her. The Albacore twice set world submerged speed records. She is now on display and open to the public in Portsmouth, NH.

Charles Momsen retired from the Navy in 1955 as a Vice Admiral. He died in 1967 and is buried at Arlington Cemetery.