Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Sunken Gold
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1973
WEBSITE:
CITY:
STATE: CT
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1973.
EDUCATION:Queens College, two master’s degrees.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Library director and writer. State University of New York, Maritime College, Bronx, head of collections, then assistant director of Stephen B. Luce Library; Briarcliffe College Library, Long Island, NY, director of library; Greenwich Library, CT, deputy director.
WRITINGS
Contributor of articles to scholarly journals, trade publications, and popular magazines. Contributor to anthologies.
SIDELIGHTS
Joseph A. Williams is a library director and writer based in Connecticut. He holds two master’s degrees from Queens College. Williams has served as head of collections and assistant director of the Stephen B. Luce Library at the State University of New York, Maritime College, in the Bronx. Williams also directed the library at Briarcliffe College. He is the deputy director of the Greenwich Library, in Connecticut. Williams has written articles that have appeared in scholarly journals, anthologies, trade publications, and popular magazines. His work is typically focused on maritime history. In an interview with a contributor to the Two Gals and a Book website, Williams stated: “I was always interested in maritime history, and have a M.A. in American history, but it really got going when I headed collections at the Stephen B. Luce Library at Maritime College. They have a largely unknown, but important collection of archival materials dealing with American maritime history.” Williams’s first book is Four Years Before the Mast: A History of New York’s Maritime College, which was released in 2013.
Seven Fathoms Deep
In Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster, Williams examines the 1927 demise of the USS S-4, an American submarine. He details efforts to save the submarine’s forty men after an accident caused it to sink. In the same interview with the contributor to the Two Gals and a Book website, Williams commented on the changes made to submarine designs after the S-4 disaster. He stated: “I think all military craft are always in a state of development and always have inherent dangers—look at modern submarine disasters. By 1927, submarines were a fully developed arm of the Navy, so the risks were known and understood. Unfortunately, it takes disasters to bring about innovations in safety technology since unforeseen contingencies always occur.”
The same contributor to the Two Gals and a Book website asserted: “All history lovers should have this book in their collection. To this day, every November, a service is held in Provincetown, Mass. (the town close to where the sub was sunk) for the men. How come most of us don’t know of this disaster?” “Williams manages to find the good throughout the disaster in the heroic deeds of the salvage crew,” noted Jason L. Steagall in Xpress Reviews. Thomas McClung, reviewer on the New York Journal of Books website, commented: “He has produced an engaging and interesting account which details everything from the circumstances of loss and the personnel involved to undersea diving and salvage and the lessons learned.” McClung added: “As this incident has essentially passed from memory, Joseph A. Williams, a deputy library director, has rescued it from obscurity and presents a human interest story that also depicts the lessons learned and the good that can result from such a tragedy.” Writing on the gCaptain website, Rick Spilman suggested: “Williams’ vivid portrayals of the main characters—diver Thomas Eadie, Captain Ernest King, salvage specialist Edward Ellsberg, and submarine expert Harold ‘Savvy’ Saunders, among others, are particularly well done. Williams also does a fine job capturing the desperate resolve of the divers and salvors on the Falcon who did all that could be done to save the trapped sailors, pushing the limits of their physical endurance and equipment.” Spilman concluded: “Joseph A. William’s Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster is a gripping account of an important, if forgotten, event in nautical history. Highly recommended.” Rick Elkin, critic on the Naval Historical Foundation website, remarked: “Mr. Williams has written a very tight and emotional account of the rescue and salvage attempts on the S-4. I found this book difficult to put down. … He also wrote of the controversy surrounding the weather delays that made it impossible for any of the crewmen in the torpedo room to survive. For those of you who are unfamiliar with submarine safety/rescue/salvage, this book is an excellent way to learn.”
The Sunken Gold
The Sunken Gold: A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History finds Williams describing the 1917 sinking of the Laurentic, a passenger ship carrying forty-three tons of gold. The gold was traveling from Northern Ireland to the United States and was meant to pay for British involvement in the war. A German submarine sunk the ship. Guybon Damant was assigned to salvage the Laurentic’s wreckage, a particularly dangerous and lengthy job. In an interview with Susan Blood, contributor to the Wellfleet website, Williams noted: “World War I is not given as much treatment. … In World War II, there are spy stories that couldn’t have happened without the groundwork laid by the naval intelligence division [during World War I].”
A critic offered a favorable assessment of The Sunken Gold in Kirkus Reviews. The critic described the book as “a well-told tale of naval exploits in which gold is the MacGuffin.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Kirkus Reviews, July 15, 2017, review of Sunken Gold: A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History.
Xpress Reviews, July 31, 2015, Jason L. Steagall, review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster.
ONLINE
gCaptain, http://gcaptain.com/ (September 20, 2016), Rick Spilman, review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep.
Naval Historical Foundation Website, http://www.navyhistory.org/ (December 14, 2016), Rick Elkin, review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep.
New York Journal of Books, https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/ (April 13, 2018), Thomas McClung, review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep.
Two Gals and a Book, https://twogalsandabook.com/ (May 8, 2018), author interview and review of Seventeen Fathoms Deep.
Wellfleet, http://wellfleet.wickedlocal.com/ (November 12, 2017), Susan Blood, author interview.
Joseph A. Williams is the Deputy Director of Greenwich Library (CT). Formerly, he was Assistant Director at the Stephen B. Luce Library of SUNY Maritime College and the Director of the Briarcliffe College Library. He currently lives in Connecticut.
Joseph A. Williams is a librarian, archivist, and historian holding master's degrees in American History and Library and Information Science from Queens College. He worked for several years as the Head of the collections and Assistant Director of the State University of New York Maritime College's Stephen B. Luce Library which specializes in nautical research. Currently, he is the Deputy Director of the Greenwich Library. Joseph has published in the fields of maritime history and librarianship including articles in scholarly journals, popular sea history magazines, trade publications, and chapters in anthologies. His work has also been presented at national and regional conferences and symposia. He has taught courses at the graduate and undergraduate level in American History and Librarianship. His first book, Four Years Before the Mast, is a history of Maritime College, the nation's oldest maritime training school. His second book, Seventeen Fathoms Deep, is a narrative history concerning...
the 1927 submarine S-4 disaster.
QUOTED: "All history lovers should have this book in their collection. To this day, every November, a service is held in Provincetown, Mass. (the town close to where the sub was sunk) for the men. How come most of us don’t know of this disaster?"
"I think all military craft are always in a state of development and always have inherent dangers—look at modern submarine disasters. By 1927, submarines were a fully developed arm of the Navy, so the risks were known and understood. Unfortunately, it takes disasters to bring about innovations in safety technology since unforeseen contingencies always occur."
"I was always interested in maritime history, and have a MA in American history, but it really got going when I headed collections at the Stephen B. Luce Library at Maritime College. They have a largely unknown, but important collection of archival materials dealing with American maritime history."
Reviews of "Seventeen Fathoms Deep", Interview with Author Joseph A. Williams, and a Giveaway!
Blurb:
The rescue divers could hear the crew tapping out a message in Morse code: Is there any hope? After being accidentally rammed by the Coast Guard destroyer USS Paulding on December 17, 1927, the USS S-4 submarine sank to the ocean floor off Cape Cod with all forty crew aboard. Only six sailors in the forward torpedo room survived the initial accident, trapped in the compartment with the oxygen running out.
Author and naval historian Joseph A. Williams has delved into never-revealed archival sources to tell the compelling narrative of the S-4 disaster, the first attempt to rescue survivors stranded aboard a modern submarine. As navy deep sea divers struggled to save the imprisoned men, a winter storm raged at the surface, creating some of the worst diving conditions in American history. Circumstances were so terrible that one diver, Fred Michels, became trapped in the wreckage while trying to attach an air hose to the sunken sub—the rescuer now needed to be rescued. It was only through the bravery of a second diver, Thomas Eadie, that Michels was saved.
As detailed in Seventeen Fathoms Deep, lessons learned during this great tragedy moved the US Navy to improve submarine rescue technology, which resulted in later successful rescues of other downed submariners.
My Review:
5 ***** stars!
Seventeen Fathoms Deep effected me emotionally. It is the true story of a submarine that was sunk in December 1927 when struck by a Coast Guard boat that had been cruising around hunting for rum runners. The tragedy threw the nation into an uproar, blaming the Navy in particular in every possible way. Even though they could have followed advice before the tragedy from a respected engineer to install some type of brackets on top so that a sub could be pulled up from the deep in the event of a sinking and didn’t, claiming that the weight would make the craft slower. But, it must be said, that upon the S-4 sinking, the Navy mobilized quickly to the scene, gathering a flotilla of various ships hoping to rescue the 40 men trapped in the sub as quickly as possible. The weather would not cooperate, being some of the worst imaginable. In spite of that, the elite Navy divers did their best to evacuate the men, risking frequently their own lives. As the story unfolded, I kept thinking “Oh those poor men!” trying to imagine the horror of what they were living. Ice cold temperatures, dark, stuck in 18 inches of water and not able to move much to conserve oxygen, and tapping out periodically in morse code “is there any hope?” Mr. Williams thoroughly researched then compiled the forgotten story into a compelling novel that I will never forget, not only what the men trapped must have felt and thought, but the admirable bravery exhibited daily for months by the divers. The good that came out of that tragedy was that it forced the Navy to improve the safety of the submarines, and invent ways for men aboard them to save themselves and also devices for rescue. All history lovers should have this book in their collection. To this day, every November, a service is held in Provincetown, Mass. (the town close to where the sub was sunk) for the men. How come most of us don’t know of this disaster? I received this book from the author and his publisher, Chicago Review Press in exchange for an honest review. I am blessed to have read it.
Read for twogalsandabook.com
Daisy’s Review:
5 ***** stars!
This is a nonfiction book of maritime history, taking place mainly in 1927 in the waters off of Provincetown, Cape Cod.
The rum-runner-chasing Coast Guard ship Pauline collided with the partially submerged S-4 submarine with devastating results. The Pauline was relatively unharmed, but the S-4 went down, leaving bubbles and an oil slick in its wake. The crew, if any were left alive after the accident, were trapped in a dark, leaking submarine seventeen fathoms deep, with a very limited supply of food and air that will not last for long. When assistance arrives, can they save any possible survivors before time runs out? With a storm brewing, and divers hindered from going down, the odds of a rescue are slim. Will they make it out alive, or die while their rescuers look on helplessly?
Williams tells the thrilling story of a nautical tragedy of errors in such a vivid way that he literally pulls you back in time and submerges (no pun intended) you in the moment. This is not just the story of a submarine disaster, but it is also about how this one now-forgotten event has changed the world in unimaginable ways over the years. I really liked this book, and think that every nautical history buff should get a copy and read it. Definitely worth five stars.
Interview with Joseph A. Williams, Author
For our previous interview with Mr. Williams, and about his book “The Sunken Gold”, click here.
twogalsandabook: “Seventeen Fathoms Deep” has received very high praise by national best selling authors. How does that make you feel?
Joseph A. Williams: Honestly, it is all very humbling, especially when authors who I admire like my own work.
twogalsandabook: If the S-4 had been equipped with the “lifting eyes” that Edward Ellsburg had recommended after the S-51 tragedy, do you think that the men could have been saved, or would other deficiencies in technology and knowledge still have proved inadequate?
Joseph A. Williams: The lifting eyes that Ellsberg recommended only would have worked if the whole submarine had been retrofitted so that a winch from that depth could haul the submarine to the surface. After the “S-4” lifting eyes were installed on some submarines, but the Navy discontinued them shortly thereafter since the eyes interfered with how aquadynamic a boat was beneath the sea. Now, if those eyes were properly installed on the “S-4,” I am not confident that those men could have been easily saved since the weather savaged the whole rescue operation.
twogalsandabook: With the news media’s obsession to sell papers, and tendency to exaggeration to do so, do you think their presence made matters worse as far as being a distraction and hampering progress? Should there be lines drawn as far as the public’s need to know? If so, how should that decision be made?
Joseph A. Williams: I don’t think that the media’s presence was unwanted or undesirable if you look at their role in a functioning democracy and the right for people to know what was happening. Their interference with the mission, while a nuisance to those aboard the Falcon was certain, I do not believe it really hampered progress. If anything, it intensified pressure on the Navy to rescue those men. I think most of the problems that the mission had with the press emanated from Ernest King, who was legendary for his whiplash tongue and arrogance. I think once they managed to embed a couple of journalists aboard the Falcon, things calmed down a bit.
twogalsandabook: Was it wise, in your opinion, to send men out in a craft that the Navy was still developing? Should the Navy have been so rash as to put men in harm’s way when so little could be done to save them in the event of an emergency? Or, are risks like this viewed as unavoidable in order to progress?
Joseph A. Williams: I think all military craft are always in a state of development and always have inherent dangers — look at modern submarine disasters. By 1927, submarines were a fully developed arm of the Navy, so the risks were known and understood. Unfortunately, it takes disasters to bring about innovations in safety technology since unforeseen contingencies always occur.
twogalsandabook: With all the valiant efforts of the divers trying to rescue the men of the S-4, and many of them receiving medals for their bravery, was there anyone that you felt should have received a medal and didn’t?
Joseph A. Williams: All the men who deserved medals got them.
twogalsandabook: If you had been on the rescue team for the S-4, is there anything you would have done differently?
Joseph A. Williams: Well, that’s a loaded question since I have the clarity of hindsight. As a matter of reference to your readers, the divers upon landing on the submarine, believed that only one compartment was flooded, the battery, S-class boats were designed to be raised with one compartment flooded by blowing the ballast tanks which would tilt up the stern of the vessel to breach the surface where the rescuers could cut through. However, more than one compartment was flooded and unbeknownst to them the ballast tanks had been compromised in the collision.
It would have been best if the divers upon getting to the “S-4” hooked up air to the compartment salvage air valves rather than the ballast tanks since this would have delivered air to the men in the torpedo room — it would still be very tough going since it would have taken weeks to raise the sub using salvage pontoons, but the Falcon was prepared to deliver soup through air pipes and packages through the torpedo tubes. But with that being said, I think that if I were heading the rescue mission and given the knowledge that they observed on the spot, I would have done what they did.
twogalsandabook: If you could travel back in time to this disaster, and had the opportunity to prevent it from happening, knowing that the advances to future submarines might not develop due to the disaster being averted, would you?
Joseph A. Williams: If I were to avert this disaster, another would occur that would result in improvements in rescue and safety technology. I’m thinking in particular of the incredible Squalus rescue in 1939.
twogalsandabook: Have you been to the annual commemorative gathering that was mentioned toward the end of the book yourself?
Joseph A. Williams: Oh yes! I have been there three times and presented twice with the last time being in 2017. I try to get up there when I can. The Vicar of the church is a great, caring man and has been carrying on this important tradition.
twogalsandabook: Has a trailer been made for “Seventeen Fathoms Deep”?
Joseph A. Williams: Nope.
twogalsandabook: What first sparked your interest in true stories of the sea?
Joseph A. Williams: I was always interested in maritime history, and have a MA in American history, but it really got going when I headed collections at the Stephen B. Luce Library at Maritime College. They have a largely unknown, but important collection of archival materials dealing with American maritime history.
twogalsandabook: Is it difficult to put yourself in the shoes of the people you have written about?
Joseph A. Williams: It is, but deep research helps. For example, if you want to empathize with the divers, then you really need to study their manuals and read their memoirs and then visualize yourself in that situation. Even better if you can get into a real Mark V diving dress!
twogalsandabook: Have you ever considered writing a fictional novel, and if so, what would it be about?
Joseph A. Williams: Great question. I have at times wanted to try my hand at fiction and my tastes in reading (if you see what I read on Goodreads) is diverse ranging from fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction, narrative nonfiction, and popular science. I think I’d enjoy most writing a fun sci-fi or fantasy book that doesn’t take itself too seriously — it is a nice reprieve from some of the grim stuff I’ve researched. I would also like writing historical fiction, especially from the colonial period or age of exploration. For example, I always found Drake’s circumnavigation interesting and it might form the good basis for a longer novel — but I definitely wouldn’t do it from Drake’s point of view.
twogalsandabook: If you were to write your own autobiography, what would you call it?
Joseph A. Williams: Who? Me? — Yes, I’d title it something like that.
twogalsandabook: When could we expect to see your next book?
Joseph A. Williams: This week I was planning to do some research at the National Archives in DC since I’m doing a talk at the International Spy Museum on 1/23, but this government shutdown has thrown a monkey wrench into the works. But in terms of big picture, if you do see another book from me, it probably won’t be out until at least 2020 since I am just at the very beginning of researching a new topic and it usually takes me about 2-3 years to finish a book project.
QUOTED: "World War I is not given as much treatment. ... In World War II, there are spy stories that couldn’t have happened without the groundwork laid by the naval intelligence division [during World War I]."
‘Sunken Gold’ reveals a diver’s daredevil heroism
By Susan Blood / Banner Correspondent
Posted Nov 12, 2017 at 9:20 AM
In 1917, the transatlantic liner Laurentic, pressed into service by the British Royal Navy after the outbreak of World War I in 1914, was en route from Liverpool, England, to Halifax, Nova Scotia, when it hit a moored pair of German mines and sank to the bottom of the ocean. Having set a record in 1911 for a round-trip voyage from Britain to Canada in 13 days, the elegant and stately Laurentic, described as a “Titanic in miniature,” was delivering 3,211 gold ingots — weighing 44 tons — to the still neutral United States to finance the war effort when it went down.
“The Sunken Gold: A Story of World War I Espionage and the Greatest Treasure Salvage in History,” by Joseph A. Williams, tells the story of the Laurentic and its precious load. Packed with details, the book illuminates maritime history during wartime through the lives of the men who shaped it. It was published by Chicago Review Press in September.
Williams, a historian, archivist and library director in Greenwich, Conn., will be reading from “Sunken Gold” at 6 p.m. next Thursday, Nov. 16, at the Provincetown Public Library. He first heard about the Laurentic while he was writing his 2015 book, “Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster,” which is about a collision in waters near Provincetown in 1927 that killed most of the 40 sailors on board the submarine, and the rescue effort to save the survivors trapped inside. In his research on the S-4 incident, Williams kept coming across references to the salvage of the Laurentic gold.
“I looked into it and thought it had excellent elements for a great story,” he says. “Nothing had been written about it, which was surprising.”
He began his research at the Records of the Admiralty in Britain, where he found multiple volumes of official documents in the archives. He also reached out to descendants of deep sea diver Guybon Damant, who would become the book’s main character. From the Damant family he received information that “humanized the whole thing,” Williams says. “The book became the story of the sinking of the Laurentic and subsequent efforts to recover the remaining gold, all centered around this man who was very significant in the history of diving. Not much was known about him until now.” Such as: he was named for his uncle Guybon, who was rumored to have been cannibalized by headhunters.
“When I try to write a story, I make sure it has the elements — good storytelling, good tension and strong characters,” Williams says. For “Sunken Gold,” he was particularly lucky to get unpublished memoirs and papers written by Damant himself.
“You can only see so much from an official document, but when you look into personal papers, that rounds it out really well,” he says. Damant was a blueblood whose father made him join the Navy to become a cadet. Diving was considered a lowbrow occupation then — primarily scraping barnacles off ships and looking for lost items — but Damant’s innate curiosity as a budding physiologist and scientist drew him to it.
“He liked being underwater, looking at the zoology,” Williams says. “He does all the action adventure things, but then gets distracted by things like what may be a unique species of flea.”
Save the date
What: Reading by Joseph A. Williams from his book, “The Sunken Gold”
Where: Provincetown Public Library, 356 Commercial St.
When: 6 pm Thursday, Nov. 16
Admission: Free
New orders from the Royal Navy sent Damant here, there and everywhere, including exploring the wreckage of U-boats in search of signal books, cipher keys and minefield plans. Along the way he and his men do things like reinvent deep sea diving. Many questions arise, not the least of which is “Why hasn’t this story been made into a movie?”
“World War I is not given as much treatment,” Williams says. “In World War II, there are spy stories that couldn’t have happened without the groundwork laid by the naval intelligence division [during World War I].”
Williams’ background is in maritime history archives, which is how he ended up in Provincetown doing research for “Seventeen Fathoms Deep.” The story for that book begins in 1927, when a Coast Guard destroyer hunting rum runners off Provincetown headed into port. Between Long Point and Wood End, there was a measured mile course where U.S. submarines would do performance trials.
“The Coast Guard ship was coming around the bend when right in front of it a submarine pops up,” Williams says. “It ran roughshod right over the submarine” — the S-4, which then sank in water that was about 100 feet deep.
Besides his reading at the library next Thursday, Williams will be a guest speaker at the annual S-4 memorial service that will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 18, at the Church of Saint Mary of the Harbor in Provincetown. Despite the S-4′s nightmarish death toll, that tragedy, which is marking its 90th anniversary, did lead to some positive results.
“They ended up advancing rescue technologies in submarines, which were used a few years later in the rescue of the Squalus in New England waters,” Williams says. “That technology wouldn’t have been available if it hadn’t been for the S-4.”
QUOTED: "a well-told tale of naval exploits in which gold is the MacGuffin."
Williams, Joseph A.: SUNKEN GOLD
Kirkus Reviews. (July 15, 2017):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Williams, Joseph A. SUNKEN GOLD Chicago Review (Adult Nonfiction) $26.99 9, 1 ISBN: 978-1-61373-758-3
The history of the sinking of a trans-Atlantic liner and the hunt for the 43 tons of gold it was carrying.Early in 1917, the Laurentic, an elegant passenger ship refitted for wartime service, set sail from Northern Ireland bound for the United States, laden with gold ingots to finance Britain's effort in World War I. Before the vessel left the Irish coast, it was sunk by a German submarine as part of Germany's U-boat campaign. Along with details on submarine development, Williams (Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster, 2015) writes like a truly sober sailor, with a vocabulary that includes "coaming," "paravane," and "splicing the mainbrace." The author graphically recounts the sinking and provides a biography of Guybon Damant (1881-1963), the naval officer who undertook the salvage for the Admiralty. Though Damant loved the task, it was not a simple assignment. Clad in inflated canvas diving dress, heavy boots, and globular metal helmets and tethered by lifelines and air pipes that tended to tangle, divers were subject to the bends. Damant became an expert in the practice of recompression. The wreck of the Laurentic was compressed accordionlike and shifting in rough water. Tons of plating and bulkheads required exploding and removal. There was also Admiralty red tape, shifting sand, silt, and crumbling wreckage. Winter weather was bad, and diving was restricted to summers. The effort took seven years, but, eventually, Damant's group was successful. After he retired, he became a commander of the British Empire. Ultimately, the crew recovered 3,186 of the 3,211 ingots that went down with the ship. Others have since searched, unsuccessfully, and there are still a few bars of gold deep down in what is now an Irish historic site. A well-told tale of naval exploits in which gold is the MacGuffin.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Williams, Joseph A.: SUNKEN GOLD." Kirkus Reviews, 15 July 2017. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A498344984/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=769fb07c. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A498344984
QUOTED: "Williams manages to find the good throughout the disaster in the heroic deeds of the salvage crew."
Williams, Joseph A. Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster
Jason L. Steagall
Xpress Reviews. (July 31, 2015):
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2015 Library Journals, LLC
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/reviews/xpress/884170-289/xpress_reviews-first_look_at_new.html.csp
Full Text:
Williams, Joseph A. Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster. Chicago Review. Sept. 2015. 304p. photos. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781613731383. $26.95. HIST
Williams (Greenwich P.L.; Four Years Before the Mast) uses his second book to explore the wreck of the U.S. Navy submarine USS S-4 in 1927. To do this, he works with official papers and photographs of the incident and memoirs from several of the men in charge of the rescue and salvage operation. The S-4 was conducting submarine standardization trials off the coast of Provincetown, MA, on December 17, 1927, when it was suddenly rammed by the U.S. Coast Guard's USS Paulding. The submarine immediately sank, with 40 men aboard, while the Paulding managed to make it to shore. The salvage ship Falcon arrived on the scene, along with many of the navy's best deep-sea divers, including Thomas Eadie. There are moments of great stress, such as when diver Fred Michels became trapped on the structure of the S-4. It is an ultimately tragic tale, but Williams manages to find the good throughout the disaster in the heroic deeds of the salvage crew and the resulting safety measures taken for submarines.
Verdict A worthwhile purchase for fans of such recent best sellers as Erik Larson's Dead Wake and Hampton Sides's In the Kingdom of Ice.--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
Steagall, Jason L.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Steagall, Jason L. "Williams, Joseph A. Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster." Xpress Reviews, 31 July 2015. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A425675200/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=3a32d6f0. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A425675200
QUOTED: "He has produced an engaging and interesting account which details everything from the circumstances of loss and the personnel involved to undersea diving and salvage and the lessons learned."
"As this incident has essentially passed from memory, Joseph A. Williams, a deputy library director, has rescued it from obscurity and presents a human interest story that also depicts the lessons learned and the good that can result from such a tragedy."
Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster
Image of Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster
Author(s):
Joseph A. Williams
Release Date:
September 1, 2015
Publisher/Imprint:
Chicago Review Press
Pages:
304
Buy on Amazon
Reviewed by:
Thomas McClung
The early history of submarines is replete with examples of disasters, not terribly surprising given the limitations and newness of the technology. Just as in vehicular collisions, much of the blame can be placed on human error.
Unfortunately, in this particular instance, it resulted in the loss of the entire crew of the United States submarine, S-4. However, some good did come of it, as it usually does in the case of tragedies. Indeed, there was plenty of post-loss motivation to produce new technological ways and means for the purpose of rescuing submariners who initially survive a catastrophe and become trapped inside their boat’s hull on the ocean bottom.
In researching an unrelated project, author Joseph A. Williams stumbled upon the archives, files, photographs, correspondence, and Navy hearing transcripts of the S-4 incident. From this information, he has produced an engaging and interesting account which details everything from the circumstances of loss and the personnel involved to undersea diving and salvage and the lessons learned, which resulted in the aforementioned means of improving crew survivability in submarine disasters.
The error in this incident was largely a matter of having two vessels in the same place at the same time. The S-4 was conducting measured mile standardization trials with officers aboard, from the Navy’s Board of Inspection and Survey, off the coast of Cape Cod on December 17, 1927. At the same time, the Coast Guard’s USS Paulding, on loan from the Navy, was in the process of returning to Provincetown Harbor following a day of patrolling for rumrunners operating in violation of Prohibition. As the S-4 was surfacing, directly in the path of the Paulding, a collision was inevitable and “the impact was to be immense.”
It was feared at first that the Paulding would be lost, having rammed and then literally run over the submarine; however, it was the S-4, which sank in 102 feet of water. Hence the title: Seventeen Fathoms Deep. Although rescue procedures were instituted almost immediately, there now began a series of circumstances which ultimately precluded survivability. First, the location of the S-4 on the bottom was uncertain and had to be found and contact maintained. This was followed by the necessity of getting ships, divers, and their equipment to the site.
Initial dives determined that damage to the submarine was extensive and the only survivors contacted were six crew members, including one officer, who had managed to close themselves off in the forward torpedo room. It was a race against time as there was limited air available to these six men. Rescuers held out hope of relief to keep their spirits up but it was at this point that Mother Nature stepped in and created conditions in the form of a storm which forced divers out of the water. By the time the weather calmed sufficiently and divers could return to the sub, there was no longer any response from the survivors and it eventually became a salvage operation.
A winter-time vessel recovery and salvage operation is not standard Navy operating procedure but was accomplished by March 1928. The crew’s bodies were removed and hearings were later held to determine how this tragedy occurred and any disciplinary repercussions in the way of fault. Shortly thereafter, technology was developed which, in the future, would improve survivability and escape from a sunken submarine. The two most effective devices were the one-man “breathing lung” invented by Charles Momsen and an air-filled diving bell which could be affixed to a hatch on the deck of a submarine and return surviving crew to the surface. The lessons learned from this incident led to the survival of countless future submariners, particularly in World War II.
Space limitation precludes summarizing the controversy, conflict, public drama and cast of characters, including a future Chief of Naval Operations, Ernest J. King. However, the author has included all of these facets in the text, weaving a story of heroic effort and tragedy which was remembered and memorialized for years afterward by the Navy, the crew’s families, and the citizens of Provincetown.
The book’s text is interspersed with numerous photographs of both vessels and many of the persons mentioned in the story of this tragic loss. Although the author consulted many and varying sources of information, do not look for traditional footnote citations. The notes in back generally tend to list only the archives, files, and other documents used in a chapter and are not specific to facts or information in the text. Do not let this deter you from reading this volume as there is considerable detail to maintain interest as the story plays out.
As this incident has essentially passed from memory, Joseph A. Williams, a deputy library director, has rescued it from obscurity and presents a human interest story that also depicts the lessons learned and the good that can result from such a tragedy.
Stuart McClung holds a Master of Arts in Military History and has written reviews for the Journal of America's Military Past and Humanities and Social Sciences Online. He is a recognized long-time living historian and interpreter at Gettysburg National Military Park and various state and local venues. He is also a member of the Society for Military History, the Council on America's Military Past, and the Civil War Trust.
QUOTED: "Williams’ vivid portrayals of the main characters — diver Thomas Eadie, Captain Ernest King, salvage specialist Edward Ellsberg, and submarine expert Harold “Savvy” Saunders, among others, are particularly well done.
Williams also does a fine job capturing the desperate resolve of the divers and salvors on the Falcon who did all that could be done to save the trapped sailors, pushing the limits of their physical endurance and equipment."
"Joseph A. William’s Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster is a gripping account of an important, if forgotten, event in nautical history. Highly recommended."
Book Review — Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster by Joseph A. Williams
September 20, 2016 by Rick Spilman
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Seventeen Fathoms Deep Cover PhotoBook Review by Rick Spilman – On the afternoon of December 17th, 1927, the US Navy submarine S-4 was surfacing near Provincetown, MA, when it was run down by US Coast Guard destroyer Pauling, sending the submarine to the bottom. Joseph William’s latest book, “Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster,” is a gripping account of the US Navy divers and salvors who raced against time and the weather in a vain attempt to save at least some of the 40 men trapped inside the sunken submarine.
Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster
Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster
When word was received of the sinking, the Falcon, a minesweeper converted to a rescue and salvage ship, was dispatched from the Navy submarine base at New London, CT. Falcon was the only Navy ship equipped to support divers with the compressors, winches and a decompression chamber. Independently, the best Navy divers and salvage experts were sent to Provincetown from all over the East coast.
Many in the assembled team had worked together before. Two years before, in September of 1925, the submarine S-51 was run down by the merchant steamer City of Rome off Block Island, RI. Only three sailors escaped before the submarine sunk, drowning the remaining 33 crew and officers.
Captain Ernest J. King, salvage expert Edward Ellsberg, and divers Fred Michells, Bill Carr and Tom Eadie had all worked together on the S-51. The S-4, however, was very different. The S-51 was pure salvage. Except for the three survivors, the crew had all died in the collision. In S-4, at least some of the crew might still be alive, although no one knew how many, or for how long.
When the S-4 sank, 6 sailors were trapped in the forward torpedo room and 34 officers and crew were in the after battery and control rooms. As the rising salt water reached the submarine’s batteries, the batteries began to leak deadly chlorine gas. When the divers from Falcon were able to reach the sunken sub, there was no response from the men aft in the battery room. They did, however, hear tapping from the men in the forward torpedo room. Six men were still alive.
The Navy rescuers were not the only group flooding into Provincetown. Newspaper reporters hired fishing boats to take them out to the wreck site, much to the annoyance of the Navy. Two days after the sinking, a prayer was read for the S-4 sailors trapped in the submarine on the floor of the Senate in Washington, DC. The story of the trapped men became national news, reported in lurid headlines by the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Hartford Courant, among other papers across the country.
The officers and crew on Falcon in the spotlight were a diverse and fascinating mix of Navy career officers and specialists. Williams’ vivid portrayals of the main characters — diver Thomas Eadie, Captain Ernest King, salvage specialist Edward Ellsberg, and submarine expert Harold “Savvy” Saunders, among others, are particularly well done.
Williams also does a fine job capturing the desperate resolve of the divers and salvors on the Falcon who did all that could be done to save the trapped sailors, pushing the limits of their physical endurance and equipment. The diving gear was massively heavy and the associated lines and hoses were easy to tangle in the twisted wreckage of the submarine in the near darkness one hundred feet down. At one point, the attempt became a rescue within a rescue, as diver Fred Michells became seriously fouled as he was attempting to attach an air hose to the submarine. Chief diver Tom Eadie risked his own life rescuing Michells under incredibly difficult conditions. Eadie was later awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.
In the end, however, the rescuers lost their race with time. As they struggled to find ways to get air to the just barely holding on survivors, winter gales made diving impossible. The remaining survivors died in the submarine’s forward torpedo room.
Williams doesn’t end the story with the loss of the men aboard the submarine S-4. Their deaths resulted in a dramatic improvement in submarine safety. Improved emergency communications and signaling gear was installed on all submarines. The Momsen Lung, a personal escape rebreather hood, which had been proposed but shelved before the collision, was put into development and became standard submarine equipment until 1962. Likewise, a rescue diving bell developed after the S-4 tragedy would later save 33 men on the submarine Squalus. Even the hull of the S-4 itself contributed. After being salvaged from the ocean floor and renovated, submarine was used for testing new safety equipment and techniques.
Williams notes the tragic truth that disasters are often the motivation for improvement and change. He writes:
[su_quote]“Theoretically, if these innovations had existed in 1927, the men on the S-4 might have been saved – or their odds of survival might have improved. The men may have used the Momsen Lungs to escape. The submarine would have been found more easily if a locator buoy with a telephone were available, thus saving precious time. Then, if all else failed, a rescue chamber could have been lowered onto the torpedo room to deliver Fitch and his five companions to freedom.[/su_quote]
[su_quote]All of this was theoretically possible within a few years after the S-4 disaster, and none of these inventions would have come to fruition if the collision had not occurred.”[/su_quote]
Joseph A. William’s Seventeen Fathoms Deep: The Saga of the Submarine S-4 Disaster is a gripping account of an important, if forgotten, event in nautical history. Highly recommended.
QUOTED: "Mr. Williams has written a very tight and emotional account of the rescue and salvage attempts on the S-4. I found this book difficult to put down. ... He also wrote of the controversy surrounding the weather delays that made it impossible for any of the crewmen in the torpedo room to survive. For those of you who are unfamiliar with submarine safety/rescue/salvage, this book is an excellent way to learn."
BOOK REVIEW – SEVENTEEN FATHOMS DEEP: THE SAGA OF THE S-4 DISASTER
December 14, 2016Book Reviews, Books, Featured, History, Newsbook review, joseph Williams, naval history, rick elkin, s-4 disaster, seventeen fathoms deep
seventeen-fathoms-deepBy Joseph A. Williams, Chicago Review Press, Chicago, Il (2015)
Reviewed by Rick Elkin
As followers of naval history, most of us have, at least, a small amount of knowledge regarding submarine disasters that have occurred since just after World War I, when submarines became major weapons thanks to the German use of U-Boats. However, many of us know of only one or two of the most famous submarine sinking and rescue efforts, such as the USS Squalus (SS 192) in May 1939. Author Joseph Williams was doing some other research at the SUNY Maritime College in New York, when he came across several boxes of memorabilia and records of the sinking of the USS S-4 on December 17, 1927, within sight of Provincetown, Massachusetts. Lt. Cdr. John Baylis, USCG, donated the boxes to the college. John Baylis was the former commander of U.S. Navy destroyer Paulding, which the Navy had transferred to the Coast Guard as a “Rum Chaser” to catch fast boats trying to bring illegal liquor into the USA during prohibition.
On that cold December day, unknown to Baylis, S-4 was doing trials off Wood End. During those trials, she was coming to the surface when the bow of the Paulding sliced into her hull at the battery room. The rest of the story revolves around the six crew members of S-4 who survived the collision in the torpedo room, the abysmal weather that raged topside, and the frantic attempt to save the survivors. Unfortunately, the severity of the weather prevented the brave divers from being able to rescue any of the six survivors in the torpedo room. Despite many efforts to feed an air-line to the torpedo room, once their air ran out, they succumbed. Most of the well-known salvage divers and members of the early submarine community were present, including Capt. Ernest J. King who would later lead the Navy as a Fleet Admiral during World War II (and the Naval Historical Foundation) and Charles “Swede” Momsen (who was actually of Danish descent), who became a household name when much of the Squalus crew was saved in 1939. Diver Fred Michels nearly drowned when he became entangled in the wreckage of S-4, and only the valiant efforts of diver Thomas Eadie in appalling conditions enabled Michels to survive. In the end, the rescue would revert to a salvage operation as none of the crew of forty aboard the S4 survived the sinking in 102 feet of water.
The heavy weather eventually subsided, and the tedious job of salvaging S-4 began. Once she was finally raised, using pontoons, and was slowly drawn to Boston where she was drydocked at the Charlestown Navy Yard, the home of USS Constitution. The bodies of the entire crew were located and treated with great dignity as they were returned to family members or sent to Washington for burial at Arlington National Cemetery. Once they removed the crew, the S-4 was repaired and re-christened SS-109 in late 1928. She made her way to Key West, Florida, where she was used as a test bed for submarine rescue technology. She returned in that role to New London, and eventually sailed through the Panama Canal and on to Pearl Harbor, where she was decommissioned in 1936 and eventually scrapped.
Mr. Williams has written a very tight and emotional account of the rescue and salvage attempts on the S-4. I found this book difficult to put down once I started to read it. He also wrote of the controversy surrounding the weather delays that made it impossible for any of the crewmen in the torpedo room to survive. For those of you who are unfamiliar with submarine safety/rescue/salvage, this book is an excellent way to learn about the “silent service” and some of its hazards in those early days. I highly recommend Seventeen Fathoms Deep to anyone interested in Navy history not necessarily connected to war or battles.
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Elkin is a former Northern New Jersey Navy League Council president who has retired to Clearwater where he buys and sells antique cars.