PORTSMOUTH, Va. — I recently visited Portsmouth to check out a piece of local history at the Naval Shipyard Museum.
Ross Patterson, Assistant Curator of the museum tells the story of one item in the collection. "As a peacoat, it's not quite the Navy pattern. It's actually civilian. But it's still very much intrinsically tied to one of the most important aspects of the Navy submarine history."
On the morning of May 23, 1939, the USS Squalus suffered a catastrophic valve failure during a test dive off the New England coast. "That ship plummeted 240 feet down, and 33 men are trapped in the forward torpedo bay area and have essentially 48 hours of air." According to Patterson, "Up till May of 1939, no one had ever saved anyone below 20 feet in a submarine."
Over the next 13 hours, all 33 survivors were rescued from the sunken submarine, making international news. Months later the Squalus was raised and salvaged, along with this peacoat. Patterson says, "This coat is a tangible connection to that event. And from that point on, we suddenly are able to start saving people deep underwater."
The Naval Shipyard Musuem is located on High Street in Portsmouth and is open Wednesday to Sunday from 10 AM to 4 PM. Admission is $4 with discounts for military, seniors, and children.
