Oliver F . Naquin Rear Admiral Oliver Francis Naquin , United States Navy ( March 24 , 1904 – November 13 , 1989 ) was born in New Orleans , and was a 1925 graduate of the United States Naval Academy . He was one of 33 men rescued by the McCann Rescue Chamber when the submarine sank in 240 feet of water during routine sea trials in the Atlantic Ocean off Portsmouth , New Hampshire on May 23 , 1939 , and was rescued in a two - day rescue operation . USS " Squalus " disaster . Twenty - six men ( one officer , Ensign Joseph H . Patterson ; 23 enlisted men ; and two civilian technicians , Donald M . Smith and Charles M . Wood ) were trapped in a flooded aft compartment and died . The remaining 32 naval personnel and a third civilian , naval architect Harold C . Preble , spent up to 39 hours in the sunken vessel before they were brought to the surface by the McCann Rescue Chamber which was used for the first time . Survivors of the USS " Squalus " were brought up in four trips as the diving bell rode a cable attached to the forward escape hatch of the submarine . A naval board of inquiry concluded that “ a mechanical failure in the operating gear of the engine induction valve , ” had caused flooding of the aft compartment . The USS " Squalus " was later salvaged , repaired and returned to sea as the renamed , receiving credit for sinking seven enemy vessels in World War II . World War II . Naquin also was a survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor while aboard the battleship , which sank in shallow water after being struck a bomb and two torpedoes in the Japanese attack on December 7 , 1941 . During World War II , he served as navigator of the heavy cruiser in the battles of the Coral Sea and Midway . At the Battle of Tassafaronga on November 30 , 1942 the cruiser was struck by a Japanese torpedo , which detonated the ship ' s forward magazines and gasoline tanks and the ensuing explosion severed 150 ft of her bow forward of turret # 2 . The severed bow , including turret # 1 , swung around the port side and crushed several holes in the " New Orleans " ' hull before it sank at the stern and damaged the port inboard propeller . Naquin guided the ship to Tulagi Harbor , which was reached near daybreak on December 1 , 1942 for repairs and was awarded a Bronze Star for his role in saving the vessel . Naquin played two roles in the sinking of the . His first role as Port Director was to not inform Capt . Charles Butler McVay III of enemy submarine activity along the route from Guam to Leyte and to refuse a request for escort , making this the first time a cruiser had traveled the Philippine Sea unescorted . The trip was approximately 1 , 500 miles ; when the USS " Indianapolis " sunk it was 300 miles from land . The second role Naquin played was to not follow through on being notified of a distress call from a ship in the approximate area where the USS " Indianapolis " would be , even once he was made aware that the USS " Indianapolis " was seriously overdue . His justification was that it was Navy policy to confirm a distress call and his Office sent out a reply message but did not get a return message . The reason for this policy was that the Navy wanted to be sure that the call was not an enemy trap . There were many high - ranking officers who had knowledge of the route and schedule of the USS " Indianapolis " voyage from Tinian to Guam to Leyte and were anticipating word of the ship ' s arrival in Leyte . There are many scenarios where , under proper Navy procedure the survivors could have been found at least approximately 24 hours before they were , and as soon as twenty - four hours after the sinking of the ship , which would have been forty - eight hours earlier . They were not found until a pilot on routine patrol spotted them by accident approximately seventy - one hours after the incident . It took another two days for everybody to be rescued . The crew consisted of 1 , 196 young men in their late teens and early twenties . Approximately 300 went down with the ship and 317 survived . That means approximately 550 – 600 were lost at sea , mostly to the sharks . The twenty - four or forty - eight hour difference would have saved hundreds of lives , and , of course , if there had been an escort with submarine detection capability , perhaps , all could have been saved . Post - war . Naquin held several high staff positions after the war and was the chief naval officer in the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Britain , at his retirement on July 1 , 1955 after a 34 - year career in the Navy . He lived in Arlington , Virginia . He died on November 13 , 1989 , at age 85 , of pancreatic cancer at Andrews Air Force Base Hospital and was buried in Section 5 of Arlington National Cemetery . References . Notes . Obituary , " New York Times " , November 15 . 1989 Barrows , Nathaniel A . " Blow All Ballast ! The Story of the Squalus . " New York : Dodd , Mead & Co , 1940 . " Department ' s Report on " Squalus " Disaster " . Washington : U . S . G . P . O . , 1939 . Gray , Edwyn . " Disasters of the Deep : A Comprehensive Survey of Submarine Accidents and Disasters . " Annapolis , Md : Naval Institute Press , 2003 . Naval Historical Center ( U . S . ) . " USS Squalus ( SS - 192 ) The Sinking , Rescue of Survivors , and Subsequent Salvage , 1939 . " Washington , D . C . : Naval Historical Center , 1998 . http : / / www . history . navy . mil / faqs / faq99 - 1 . htm LaVO , Carl . " Back from the Deep : The Strange Story of the Sister Subs Squalus and Sculpin . " Annapolis , Md : Naval Institute Press , 1994 . Mariners ' Museum ( Newport News , Va . ) . " Salvage of the Squalus : Clippings from Newspapers , May 25 , 1939 – January 20 , 1941 " . Newport News , Va : Mariners ' Museum , 1942 . Portsmouth Naval Shipyard ( U . S . ) . " Technical Report of the Salvage of U . S . S . Squalus . " Portsmouth , N . H . : U . S . Navy Yard , 1939 . " Falcon " ( Salvage ship ) , and Albert R . Behnke . " Log of Diving During Rescue and Salvage Operations of the USS Squalus : Diving Log of USS Falcon " , 24 May 1939 – 12 September 1939 . Kensington , Maryland : Reprinted by Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society , 2001 Maas , Peter . " The Rescuer . " New York : Harper & Row , 1967 . " Diving in the U . S . Navy a brief history . " http : / / purl . access . gpo . gov / GPO / LPS88384 Maas , Peter . " The Terrible Hours : The Man Behind the Greatest Submarine Rescue in History . " New York : HarperCollins Publishers , 1999 .