Evening star., 1939-09-15
Bodies Are Removed
From SquaIus, but
One Is Missing
IS Of 26 Are Token
To Improvised Morgue;
Scene in Sub Described
Nv the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
PORTSMOUTH, N. H., Sept. Is
A possibility that the sea might
hold forever one of the 26 victims
of the U. S. S. Squalus arose today
when grim naval officials were able
to find only Is of the bodies en-
tombed for lis days in the battered
submarine now lying in drydock
here.
None could say for sure. The
search still went forward. But
officers did not deny the> chance
that the body of one man might
have been given up to the open sea
through a hatch found open during
difficult and dangerous salvage op-
erations.
While naval steel workers strug-
gled to remove the 25th victim,
wedged in a battery we'll only 18
Inches deep, by cutting with
acetylene torches through the plates
of the battery room floor, officers
revealed the macaber sight that had
greeted those who first entered the
Squalus.
20 at Foot of Ladder.
Twenty bodies were heaped in the
after torpedo room around the foot
of a ladder leading to an escape
hatch-the same type of hatch
through which 33 men in the for
ward compartments made their way
into 9-ton rescue bell lowered
from the salvage ship Falcon.
Another body. tentatively indenti-
fled as that of Alfred Priester of
Rosedale. Long Island, torpedoman,
steel locker and a torpedo tube. His
station had been at a telephone
connected with the control room OF
the submarine. His earphones still
were clamped to his head today.
1t. Comdr. Charles B. Momsen,
inventor of the Momsen escape lung
and key figure in the rescue and
salvage efforts, said he believed
those trapped in the after compart-
ments had died relatively merciful
death.
Il believe all must have died in a
few minutes" he said.
Momsen Lungs in Place.
So swiftly did water sweep in upon
them that not one had time to reach
for the Momsen lungs, all of which
still remained today in their racks
along the walls of the torpedo room.
White-coated Naval Hospital aides
made trip after trip from inside
the Squalus to an improvised
morgue. working through the night
under the eerie glare of foodlghts.
and three hours after dawn "a
bodies had been removed.
On the scene as each sheet
wrapped basket-stretcher was car
ried ashore were most of the SO
survivors of the Squalus fatal
plunge on May %, and throughout
the night 1t Oliver F. Naquin, who
still commands the rusted subma-
rine, stayed on or near her deck.
Experts Aid Identification.
A crew of fingerprint and dental
experts from the Navy Department
In Washington were on hand to aid
in the identification of those who
failed to pass the watertight door
that saved majority when the
Squalus sank. Included in the dead
were one officer and two civilian
observers.
Five of the bodies were taken
out before the 81 200, 900 submersible,
brought back from the deep We'd
nesday after weeks of labor, was
towed into the water-filled drydock
on high tide today.
Although witnesses-including the
33 officers and men rescued in div
ing bell soon after the Squalus sank
in 240 feet during routine diving
tests Is miles off Portsmouth-gave
testimony at hearings during the
summer which tended to support
an unofficial theory that failure OF
an air induction valve caused the
tragedy, board of inquiry with
held a finding until after viewing
the sub
Nays List of Dead.
The Navy's official list of dead, as
the bodies were removed from the
submarine Squalus, follows in the
order in which they were identified:
Joshua Casey, Grand Ridge, Fla,
fireman, first class.
John A. Chestnut, Oakland, Calf.
chief machinists mate.
John P. Hathaway, La Porte, Ind. =,
fireman, first class.
Eugene A. Hoffman, Cleveland,
machinist's mate, first class.
HUE K. McAfee, East Point, Ca,
electricians mate, first class.
Alexander B. Keegan, Quakertown,
Pa, seaman, first class.
John M. Thomala, Nashville, Tenn,
machinist's mate, first class.
Robert L. Coffey, Fullerton, Calf =.
electricians mate, second class
Lionel H. Fletcher, San Diego,
Calf, electricians mate, third class.
Robert R. Weld, Kooskia, Idaho
fireman, second class
Don Smith-General Motors Corp,
Detroit (civilian).
John j. Marino. Marshalltown,
Iowa, seaman, second class.
1t. Joseph Patterson, oklahoma
City