Nov 18, 2008 - Sale 2163

Sale 2163 - Lot 201

Price Realized: $ 900
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 600 - $ 900
(NAVY.) Powell, Charles A. Submarine Log of U.S.S. Squalus (S-11). 85 manuscript and typescript pages (mostly blank on even pages), 13 manuscript folding plans. In letter-sized loose-leaf binder, faded and lightly stained. Vp, March 1939
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Additional Details

The USS Squalus was a submarine launched in November 1938. On 23 May 1939, it sank off the New Hampshire coast, killing many of the crew instantly. The 33 survivors were rescued from the ocean floor in a daring maneuver which has been enshrined in submarine lore.
This volume is not, despite its cover title, a daily log of the Squalus. It is, rather, a set of exhaustively detailed specifications for the doomed sub. It was property of Powell, a radioman on the Squalus and one of the accident survivors, but the title page is initialed "Checked 3/5/39 JHP" (presumably by Joseph H. Patterson, ensign of the Squalus, who died in the accident). After long manuscript accounts of the ballast tanks, torpedo room, conning tower, etc. are pencil drawings of many components, additional typed descriptions, and finally 13 blueline print outlines of the sub completed with details in pencil, each signed by Powell. with--Powell's honorable discharge certificate, 17 August 1940; and a collection of 2 books and an article on the Squalus, 1940-1999.