The S-4 before her loss. (226k JPG)
(U.S. Navy Official Photograph)
The S-4 before her loss. (226k JPG)
(U.S. Navy Official Photograph)
Date of Loss: 17 December, 1927
Returned to Service: No
Sank after being involved in a collision with the USCG Cutter Paulding during an exercise off Providencetown, Cape Cod, Mass.
At least six men survived the initial accident and were trapped in the forward torpedo room. However, rescue and salvage attempts were thwarted by severe weather.
Forty two men lost. No survivors.
(Polmar American Submarine 35; U.S. Navy DANFS 6: 179)
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U.S. Peacetime Submarine Losses
S-4 was finally raised on 17 March, 1928. She was converted into a training submarine - her engines were removed, interior bulkheads were strengthened, and quick acting watertight doors were installed and tested. Many new or experimental rescue devices were installed or tested for the first time aboard S-4. These included the "Momsen Lung", which would allow, for the first time, submariners to escape from a sunken submarine; the McCann rescue diving bell; and telephone buoys which would allow crews trapped inside a submarine to communicate with rescue ships on the surface.
The S-4 travelled to Panama, San Diego, and Pearl Harbor, training submarine crews in the proper use of these new devices.
This page last updated 21 January, 1998