Collection Guide:
The collection includes excellent imagery of the divers attempting to rescue survivors from the submarine, as well as the pontoons used for salvage operations, and the various diving bell/rescue tanks that were subsequently tested in the years following the operation. S-4 was raised on 17 March 1928, and salvage operations were commenced led by Rear Admiral Frank Brumby, Captain Ernest J. King, Lieutenant Henry Hartley and Commander Edward Ellsberg, only to be thwarted by severe weather. Captain King directed the rescue efforts and can be seen in several of the images. Despite the best efforts of the rescue team, all 40 men aboard were lost. S-4 was recommissioned on 16 October 1928, after repairs and conversion to a test vessel for submarine rescue experimentation. Photographs of various tests and experiments related to diving bells (models by E.B Company & O’Rourke), rescue capsules, and communication equipment highlight these experiments.
Below are examples of images from the collection.
