Sinking of the USS Squalus SS-192

One of my favorite YouTube content creators is The History Guy - Real name: Lance Geiger.  The link to his YouTube channel is on the right panel of this blog.  He is a fellow who creates short historical videos and posts them on YouTube.  I find all of his videos to be interesting and entertaining, but this particular one caught my attention, because it's about a submarine, and so I thought that it should get a shout out on this blog. 
Check it out...

At about the 2:00 minute mark, the video mentions that the cause of flooding was the failure of the main induction valve.  I'd like to expand on that just a bit.

The main induction valve opens or closes off the the air path that supplies a submarine's diesel engines.  It's a big opening, so it would not take long to flood a compartment if the valve failed to go shut when the sub dove under the waves.  Since the induction valve supplies air to the engines, the 26 men who died when Squalus sank were in the engine room.  Fortunately the ship did not sink in deep water, and the internal compartment bulkhead held back the sea pressure.  Internal compartments are not intended to withstand as much pressure the hull.

Sea story time:
One time, my ship was playing 'cat and mouse' with another submarine off the island of Guam.  They were snorkeling and running their diesel generator at periscope depth.  Their induction valve failed, and they sucked a full pipe of seawater down their snorkel mast.  This lasted long enough that they flooded the main fan room, the control room floor, and then damaged their diesel generator engine when it aspirated seawater.  This was on one of the most modern submarines in the Navy at the time, deployed on her first WestPac cruise, so it can happen to anyone. 

Also bear in mind that Squalus used diesel-electric propulsion, not nuclear propulsion.  This means the induction system would have been a great deal larger than what is needed on a nuclear ship.  The air system would have supplied four 1500 horsepower propulsion engines with air, whereas a nuclear ship would only need to supply a smallish emergency diesel generator.

At the end of the video is a quote from the commanding officer of Squalus.  I'll repeat it here:

"My officers and men acted instinctively and calmly.  There were no expressions of fear, and no complaints of the bitter cold.  Never in my remaining life do I expect to witness so true an exemplification of comradeship and brotherly love.  No fuller meaning could possibly be given the word "shipmate" than was reflected by their acts".  O.F Naquin  Commanding Officer, USS Squalus

I would also add this:  Squalus isn't unique.  It's unique to submariners.  You don't have the luxury of succumbing to panic, and you don't have the luxury of not acting to take care of each other.  Sadly this is a practical attitude that's in pretty short supply around the world right now.