About USS Squalus

About USS Squalus

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USS Squalus SS-192

USS Squalus, a Sargo class submarine, was built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, in Kittery, Maine. Squalus was commissioned on March 1, 1939 and began crew training and fine tuning of the new boat. She was conducting test dives off the coast of New Hampshire on May 23rd when the main induction valve failed to close, which flooded the after compartments. The Squalus sank to the sea floor 240 feet below the surface.

When Squalus failed to report at the appointed time vessels were dispatched to look for her. Sister boat USS Sculpin SS-191 spotted a flare fired by Squalus. Soon other rescue vessels converged on the location.

Salvage ships and Navy divers quickly responded. The next day operations began to rescue the 32 crew members and one civilian from the forward sections of the boat. At 11:30 on May 24th, USS Falcon (ASR-2) lowered the newly developed McCann rescue chamber and, over the next 13 hours, all 33 survivors were rescued from the stricken submarine. Four trips with the McCann chamber were required to rescue all survivors. After extensive preparation Squalus was raised on September 13, 1939 and towed into the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The Squalus was formally decommissioned on November 15, 1939. She was renamed USS Sailfish on February 9, 1940, and recommissioned on May 15, 1940.

The subsequent rescue and salvage operations ushered in several new technologies. The two main ones being the first use of the McCann Rescue Chamber, and the first operational use of Helium diving by the USN.

USS Squalus was one of 10 Sargo class submarines. These were the newest and most advanced submarines in the US Navy at the time. The loss of one of its newest submarines sent a shock wave through the Navy. Squalus would have to be salvaged to determine if there was a flaw in the Sargo class design. The salvage would have to be done quickly as the first four of the Sargo subs were in commission and the six follow on ships would be commissioned by years end.

Commissioning order and date:

SS-191	USS Sculpin	1/16/39
SS-188	USS Sargo	2/7/39
SS-192	USS Squalus	3/1/39
SS-189	USS Saury	4/4/39
SS-190	USS Spearfish	7/19/39
SS-193	USS Swordfish	7/22/39
SS-196	USS Searaven	10/2/39
SS-194	USS Seadragon	10/23/39
SS-195	USS Sealion	11/27/39
SS-197	USS Seawolf	12/1/39
SS-192	USS Sailfish (ex Squalus)	5/15/40

USS Squalus patch

USS Sailfish

The USS Sailfish went on to have a successful and distinguished service record. She was awarded nine battle stars during WWII. Decommissioned on October 27, 1945, she was initially scheduled to be a target ship in the atomic bomb tests or to be sunk by conventional ordnance. However, she was placed on sale in March 1948 and struck from the Naval Vessel Register on April 30, 1948. The hulk was sold to Luria Brothers of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for scrap on June 18, 1948. The conning tower of USS Sailfish stands as a memorial to the lost crew of the USS Squalus at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine.