1915 US Submarines

The USS F-4 Story
The circumstances of her sinking
and how the lost crew "got their names back"
By Sondra White
Contributed to eNewsHawaiiSaturday, March 25, 2000


A STORY RARELY TOLD

The heartbreaking story of the USS F-4 immediately made front-page news in Honolulu and across the United States at the time, eclipsing even news of the war in Europe for months. The submarine was relatively new and unique, and at that time, only 17 of the underwater war machines had been lost worldwide. This was an unfortunate first for the United States.

Since the F-4's salvage and subsequent resinking, only a smattering of newspaper articles, magazine narratives and Navy reports exist that document what really happened on that day in 1915. Many of these records are stored at either the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park at Pearl Harbor or with the archives of Commander Submarine Forces Pacific. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin followed the F-4's story closely as well. These records weave the tragic tale.

HAWAI`I'S FIRST SUBMARINE FLEET

According to the Dictionary of Naval Fighting Ships, the SS-23, originally named Skate, was renamed F-4 in 1911 and was launched by Moran Bros. Co. of Seattle in 1912. It was the 24th submarine commissioned into the U.S. Navy. After commissioning on May 3, 1913, the F-4 and its sister ships joined the 1st Submarine Group, Pacific Torpedo Flotilla, in Hawai`i. They were the first four submarines to be stationed in Hawai`i.

"Though the men could not
be saved, the Navy spared
no time, expense or ingenuity
to raise the F-4. It would take
five grueling months before
the vessel would reach the
surface ... only then could the
Navy begin the dreadful task
of extracting and identifying
the dead submariners."
Because of their limited range, however, all of them were towed to Honolulu from Mare Island by cruisers. One Honolulu newspaper described the boats as "queer little craft but the first warships in many years that Honolulu can call her own." An unidentified article dated 1963 indicates that the F-4 suffered a severe battery explosion shortly after its commissioning, an incident that some took as an omen of the disaster to come.

The submariner's life in 1915 contrasted sharply with that of today's nuclear-powered giants. Space limitations and the short operational range of a typical F-class submarine did not call for a large crew, nor was it designed with a galley, bunks or toilet facilities.

In addition to the captain, Lt. Alfred L. Ede, the F-4 carried 20 enlisted men. Its hull was divided into three compartments: the torpedo room forward, which carried four 18-inch torpedoes, the control room amidships and the engine room in the stern. Operating from the old Navy pier, these submarines made short daily training exercises that usually began around 9 a.m. and commenced at noon. Primitive and small by today's standards, the 142-foot boats used diesel engines for surface cruising and two 310-horsepower electric motors driven by 120 battery cells while submerged.

"As each new submarine became operational, the Navy learned more and more of the frailties and problems connected with this relatively new arm of the fleet," said Alfred W. Harris in "Last Dive of the F-4 Sub," published in a June 1979 edition of Sea Combat magazine. "Many of the difficulties that confronted submariners arose unexpectedly, and attempts to find solutions for these problems were often formulated on pretty much of a trial and error basis."

THE FINAL DIVE

By Dec. 14, the F-4 had completed all repairs from its battery explosion, and commenced normal operations for several months. When it left Honolulu harbor for the last time on March 25, 1915 at around 9 a.m., its crew expected to practice some typical training maneuvers with the F-1 and F-3 and be back for lunch by noon. Many had wives and children waiting nearby in Honolulu, though most of their families lived on the U.S. Mainland.

Some accounts indicate that one fortunate crewman was inadvertently left behind when he reported to the wrong dock and missed the launch.

The last person to see the F-4 was a lightkeeper on duty at the lighthouse at Barbers Point. He saw the boat submerge and minutes later remembered hearing what sounded like an underwater explosion in the same area. At the time, it seemed inconsequential, so he went about his business.

Others began to worry when the F-1 and F-3 returned to the harbor without the F-4, and within two hours smaller boats were launched to locate the missing submarine. Most assumed that at worst the F-4 had lost power and simply needed a tow back to its base. A few hours later, the search party noticed air bubbles and an oil slick -- the telltale signs of a submarine in distress.

Charts indicated that the incapacitated F-4 was sitting in about 300 feet of water, withstanding pressure much greater than its hull was designed for.

Realizing the urgency of the situation, the Navy initiated a rescue operation, which first involved pinpointing the exact location of the boat -- no easy task in 1915.

"Any attempt at raising the F-4 and rescuing any possible survivors presented the Navy with a situation in which (it) had practically no experience," Harris said in Sea Combat magazine. "While fires, explosions and numerous other types of accidents had occurred about other U.S. submarines, F-4 was the first of our boats to take her crew to the bottom, unable to return."

Numerous cable sweeps of the ocean floor by tugs finally gave rescue personnel a good idea of the boat's location, but divers attempting to reach the vessel faced poor visibility and depths that had not yet been reached by any human. "The Navy assumed the F boats were capable of remaining submerged for two weeks," said Ray de Yarmin in a March 1994 issue of Patrol magazine. "It was believed the only real danger would be a lack of food."

During an attempt to attach heavy lifting cables to the F-4, the Navy's best deep-sea divers reached record depths of 185 and 196 feet.

"The search grew more intense as darkness fell and underwater signals to the F-4 went unanswered," said Peter Stevens in a November 1990 issue of Honolulu Magazine. "Rumors of the disaster at the harbor's mouth spread from the piers into Honolulu, and hordes of citizens jammed the waterfront, staring solemnly at the distant lights of the search ships."

More than 24 hours later, however, after four tugs had tried time and again in vain to move the stricken vessel to shallower water with steel cable slings, they lost hope of saving the men inside. The waterlogged craft was too heavy to move, and too much time had passed for the doomed crew, which had most likely run out of oxygen, drowned or asphyxiated. Now full of water, the F-4 would be a deadweight of 260 tons.

FROM RESCUE ATTEMPT TO SALVAGE

Though the men could not be saved, the Navy spared no time, expense or ingenuity to raise the F-4. The submarine's loss had become a public relations nightmare for the Navy, but it would take five grueling months full of endless setbacks before the vessel would reach the surface.

During that time, Chief Gunner's Mate Frank Crilley was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his efforts to rescue Chief Gunner's Mate William F. Loughman, a fellow diver who was entangled for four hours in the cable being used to move the submarine. By then the men were routinely working at depths approaching 300 feet. Loughman suffered severe head, shoulder and chest injuries and was unconscious when finally brought to the surface, but he would survive thanks to Crilley's heroism. During the salvage, Crilley also became the first diver to reach a depth of 305 feet, establishing a new world record.

The F-4 finally came home on Aug. 29 with the help of eight specially designed salvage pontoons built at the Mare Island Navy Yard and shipped to Honolulu aboard the Maryland, an armored cruiser. It was towed into the harbor and dry-docked. Only then could the Navy begin the dreadful task of extracting and identifying the dead submariners.

A Navy investigating board later attributed the accident to the corrosion of rivets in the lead lining of a ballast tank, most likely caused by sulfuric acid. This corrosion permitted seawater to seep into the battery compartment. According to U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, "As the sea valves of the ballast tank were open as usual, additional water entered the hull, probably to the extent of several tons. This caused the boat to sink to a bottom depth of 288 feet within two to four minutes, where the water pressure was so enormous as to open her seams," flooding the vessel.

It was eventually found that the accident was not due to carelessness, negligence or inefficiency on the part of the men on the vessel.

It is assumed the crew drowned, but only after futile attempts to resurface. Fifteen of their bodies were found in the F-4's engine room behind a closed hatch, indicating they had sought refuge there before ever increasing depths allowed seawater to flood the entire hull.

THE DOOMED F-CLASS

Badly crushed and battered, the F-4 was stricken from the Navy Register on Aug. 31, 1915. Her sister ships were marked for disaster, as well.

According to one account, the F-1, 2 and 3 were on the surface making engineering runs off Point Loma, Calif., when fog set in. The F-3 struck the F-1, resulting in a large hole that caused it to sink in 600 feet of water in about 10 seconds. Only five of the crew escaped, leaving 19 to perish. No attempt has ever been made to raise the F-1. Incidentally, the remaining two F-class submarines were rammed by a steamer and dry-docked. Shortly thereafter the Navy declared all of the F-class submarines defective and dangerous, and they were removed from active service.

Archives at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park indicate that the salvaged F-4 was "tied up at various berths since 1915," and was then "shuttled about Pearl Harbor until 1940," after which time the Navy dug a trench "and put this piece of history in a safe haven very close at hand."

The F-4 sat 10 feet under the silt for another 18 years until 1958 when the Navy, in a clean-up effort, considered raising it again. But concern over the safety of such an operation and the sinking of the submarine Stickleback that same year put the project on hold. Estimates to raise, restore and display the F-4 as a memorial since then have come with a prohibitive $40 million price tag.

The USS F-4 remains the U.S. Navy's oldest existing submarine.

CASUALTIES OF THE USS F-4
George T. Ashcroft, GM1;
Clark G. Buck, GM2;
Ernest C. Cauvin, MM2;
Harley Colwell, EMC;
Walter F. Covington, MM1;
George L. Deeth, EM1;
Alfred L. Ede, LT (CO);
Frederick Gilman, GM1;
Aliston H. Grindle, EMC;
Frank N. Herzog, EM2;
Edwin S. Hill, MM1;
Francis M. Hughson, MM1;
Albert F. Jennie, EM2;
Archie H. Lunger, GM2;
Ivan L. Mahan, MM1;
Horace L. Moore, GM1;
William S. Nelson, MMC;
Timothy A. Parker, ENS (XO);
Frank C. Pierard, GMC;
Charles H. Wells, MM2;
Henry A. Withers, GM1.

THE SEARCH FOR A SIMPLE STONE

For Richard B. "Guns" Mendelson, chaplain and rabbi of the U.S. Submarine Veterans, Capitol Base, this inadequate remembrance is a dishonor to the 21 seamen who died so tragically while serving aboard one of the Navy's earliest submarines.

The U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc. is a nationwide organization of 6,000 members whose creed is "to perpetuate the memory of our shipmates who gave their lives in the performance of their duties, that their dedication, deeds and supreme sacrifice be a constant source of motivation toward greater accomplishment." In 1999, Mendelson's Capital Base veteran's group conducted the first-ever memorial service solely for submarine sailors.

Last year, in preparation for the second annual memorial service, the veterans began looking for grave of the F-4 crew in Arlington Cemetery. One of its members read about the ill-fated boat in Sea Stories magazine and was inspired to find the site.

For weeks, as many as 10 veterans searched Arlington Cemetery for the grave, but only in vain. Old, poorly kept records, the enormity of the facility and the small size of the headstone made it a daunting task. Even with a definite section and grave number, it took months to locate the site, and only then with the help of Tom Sherlock, an Arlington historian.

" We left the cemetery speechless
I looked back at the hill where
they were buried and then to our
group. There was not one dry
eye ... How sad it is that these
submarine pioneers gave their
lives for us and we have never
acknowledged their sacrifice or
existence."
Richard B. Mendelson

"Each section of Arlington Cemetery is odd-shaped and very large," Mendelson said. "Thousands of headstones of every shape and description make it almost impossible to locate one individual marker. The records from that era are not very well kept and there is so much activity with newer sites from the Vietnam era that the past gets buried along with the remains. Surely we walked by the grave several times without noticing it."

The veterans were shocked and saddened by the size and condition of the stone. "It was dirty, deteriorating and entirely too small for the 21 victims of the F-4," Mendelson says. "We left the cemetery speechless. I looked back at the hill where they were buried and then to our group. There was not one dry eye. For 85 years they have been lying there watching silently while visitors walk past without any recognition. How sad it is that these submarine pioneers gave their lives for us and we have never acknowledged their sacrifice or existence."

A REMEMBRANCE DESERVED

The fallen crew of the F-4 will get that acknowledgement on May 28, when the U.S. Submarine Veterans Inc. of the Capitol Base and the Northern Virginia Submarine Base conduct a full military memorial ceremony at the gravesite in Arlington Cemetery. The event will include the Navy honor guard, a drum and bugler and a veteran's color guard. A tolling of the bells ceremony will be held simultaneously for the 51 lost submarines and 3,800 sailors who have died in service to the United States.

Mendelson researched the F-4 disaster at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where he found a list of its crew, their hometowns and next of kin. Determined to find as many living relatives of the F-4 crew as possible before May 28, he searched the internet using the last names and hometowns, and sent hundreds of letters and postcards throughout the United States. So far, four groups of relatives have responded, and Mendelson says his phone is ringing off the hook with information and inquiries about these relatives.


Image from Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park
The USS F-4, seen here before it went down 85 years ago,
was the United States' first tragic submarine sinking.
A more fitting memorial listing the complete names and ranks of the crew that went down with it will replace the F-4 headstone, and a large display of the F-4 will be on permanent display at the National Navy Memorial in Washington, D.C.

"These brave men were in every respect pioneers," Mendelson said. "Being in a submarine under any conditions, during war or peace, is stressful. We as submarine veterans must remember our heritage for the sailors of the future. They deserve to know what we and our forefathers were willing to sacrifice."

It is apparent that these men did not join the submarine service in 1915 for money. They earned about $38 per month, and once qualified, received $1 a month more. In some cases, Mendelson says, they got an extra buck for each submarine dive. "It takes a special person to venture beneath the sea in such a primitive machine," he says. "These men unknowingly paved the way for the Navy to realize it had come up with a way to save sub crews and raise sunken subs."

RELATIVES REMEMBER

Mendelson's memorial committee has sent out hundreds of letters of inquiry in an attempt to find all the living relatives of the F-4 crew. So far, only four families have responded.

The Withers family, in California, is one of them. "The people who really would have loved (the memorial) were my father- and mother-in-law," said Nati Withers, whose husband, 76-year-old John, was the nephew of F-4 casualty Henry Withers.

Henry Withers was 28 years old and a 14-year Navy veteran when he died 85 years ago yesterday.

"My mother had an affection for (Henry), and she was always saddened when she spoke of him," recalled John Withers, who says he, too, has a "feeling of sadness" when recalls the story of his uncle's demise.

"My mother-in-law used to talk about how she knew that when she saw her husband walk up the driveway in the middle of the day that something was wrong," Nati Withers recalled. "Her husband owned a butcher shop, and he wouldn't have left the shop in the middle of the day. She knew something urgent or terrible had happened."

100 YEARS OF SILENT SERVICE

This year's submarine memorial service at Arlington Cemetery is unique, as it is part of the 100th anniversary of the U.S. Submarine Service. It is only one of many events taking place across the country to commemorate the event, including the release tomorrow of the Submarine Centennial Stamp by the U.S. Postal Service.

The Navy's first step towards the modern nuclear submarines of today was the launch of the USS Holland, the first submarine to be put into service, on April 1900. During World War II, the submarine force made up only 3 percent of the Navy, yet its sailors and their submarines accounted for 55 percent of all the ships that were sunk by allied forces. It has the highest casualty rate per capita of any service in the United States. The U.S. Navy lost 52 submarines and 3,500 men during that time, and seven submarine commanding officers were awarded the Medal of Honor for their efforts. Since then, the United States has lost two additional submarines and their crews.

"The F-4 represents more than 3,800 men who went down with their submarines during the past 100 years," Mendelson said. "It can and will be remembered as long as there is a submarine in service. Her loss represents a willingness of all submarine sailors to protect our freedom."

Hawai`i's USS Bowfin Submarine Museum & Park also plans to erect a new memorial near Pearl Harbor next month in remembrance of all U.S. submariners who were lost before and after World War II, including the F-4.
http://militaryhonors.sid-hill.us/history/f4-hist1.htm