DOB/DOD: February 2, 1903 (St. Joseph, MO) – May 10, 1960 (St. Petersburg, FL); 57 years old
MARITAL STATUS: Married Mary “May” C. Donaldson (1903-1987) in 1929.
ENLISTMENT: Enlisted June 30, 1922, from Connecticut.
SERVICE NUMBER: 385-23-69.
RETIREMENT: December 1, 1952.
FAMILY: Born to Marshall J. (1863-1928) and Bertie L. Bennett Crandall (1876-1910). Two brothers, Berne (1897-1933) and Robert (1899-?). One sister, Martha (1899-?). His mother died when he was seven years old, and he was raised by Nehemiah (1841-1917) and Matilda Aldrich (1843-1926).
OTHER: Orson Crandall was living at 10 Montauk Avenue in New London, Connecticut, at the time of the incident, resulting in him receiving the Medal of Honor.
MEDAL OF HONOR CITATION
AWARDED FOR ACTIONS DURING: Peace Time Awards
BRANCH OF SERVICE: Navy
ASSIGNED TO: U.S.S. Falcon (ASR-2)
AGE ON THE DAY OF THE EVENT: 36
CITATION:
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Chief Boatswain’s Mate Orson Leon Crandall, United States Navy, for extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession as a Master Diver with the Submarine and Rescue Salvage Unit, U.S.S. Falcon, throughout the rescue and salvage operations following the sinking of the U.S.S. Squalus on 23 May 1939. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Crandall’s leadership and devotion to duty in directing diving operations and in making important and difficult dives under the most hazardous conditions characterize conduct far above and beyond the ordinary call of duty.
Presentation Date and Details: January 19, 1940, Washington, D.C., presented by Secretary of the Navy Charles Edison.
The U.S.S. Squalus from history.navy.mil
Orson L. Crandall joined the Navy in 1922 and was trained as a diver from 1932-33. He achieved the designation of a Master Diver in March 1939. He was serving in U.S.S. Falcon (ASR-2) when she supported the rescue and salvage effort on the sunken submarine Squalus (SS-192) in May-September 1939. Chief Boatswain’s Mate Crandall was awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism as Master Diver during that operation. During World War II, Crandall became a commissioned officer and served in a variety of salvage and diving-related positions. He transferred to the Fleet Reserve in June 1946 and retired in December 1952.
From history.navy.mil
U.S.S. SQUALUS (SS-192): THE SINKING, RESCUE OF SURVIVORS, AND SUBSEQUENT SALVAGE, 1939
U.S.S. Squalus (SS-192), a diesel-electric submarine built at the Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and commissioned there on March 1, 1939, suffered a catastrophic valve failure during a test dive off the Isle of Shoals at 0740 on May 23. Partially flooded, the submarine sank to the bottom and came to rest, keel down in 40 fathoms (240 feet) of water. Navy divers and salvage ships responded quickly, and the following day began operations to rescue the surviving 32 crew members and one civilian from the forward sections of the boat. At 1130 on May 24, U.S.S. Falcon (ASR-2) lowered the newly developed McCann rescue chamber – a revised version of a diving bell invented by Commander Charles B. Momsen – and, over the next 13 hours, all 33 survivors were rescued from the stricken submarine. On September 13, after long and difficult salvage operations, Squalus was raised and towed into the Portsmouth Navy Yard. The boat was formally decommissioned on November 15, renamed Sailfish on February 9, 1940, and recommissioned on May 15, 1940.
From The Evening Sun, Baltimore, Maryland, on May 2, 1952
ROLE IN SQUALUS DISASTER RECALLED BY DIVER
Thirteen years ago yesterday, one of the worst undersea disasters in American peacetime naval history occurred when the ten-ton Sargo class submarine Squalus sank while making a routine dive off the Isles of Shoals near New Hampshire.
Fifty-nine officers and men, one of them a native of Baltimore, were trapped on the bottom beneath 42 fathoms of water. The Squalus and her crew were at the mercy of the weather, tides – and times.
To most, the marine tragedy meant a gripping story in the papers, sympathy for victims and their families, or an opportunity to assail the then-current naval building program.
To Chief Petty Officer Orson L. Crandall, a master diver and navy salvage man, it was a clear-cut call to duty. In the three months that followed the sinking of the Squalus, Chief Crandall made more than sixty dives to the stricken submarine from the decks of the Navy repair ship U.S.S. Falcon.
At Bainbridge Naval Training Center, where today he is an instructor in seamanship, Medal of Honor winner Crandall recalls the sinking clearly.
“We, the U.S.S. Falcon,” he explains, “were tied up at New London, Connecticut, for overhaul when we heard the news of the Squalus going down. Within sixteen hours, we were on the spot of the sinking, and by 8 A.M. of the next day, we were ready to dive.
“I remember that the water was rough and that the wind was pretty stiff, but after a while, it calmed down some. The descent was pretty fast – it took only about seven minutes to drop down to the 240-foot level where the submarine lay with her stern in about 12 feet of mud.
“Because of the pressure, we could work for an average of only eighteen minutes at a time. It took three hours to bring us to the surface. It seems like a long time, but it was the only way they could protect us from the bends. The bends, Chief Crandall explained, are when air bubbles form in the bloodstream from too rapid a change in pressure.
From the Tampa Bay Times May 23, 1958
TWO RETIRED NAVY MEN RECALL SQUALUS RESCUE
For the public, it was just an open house. But for two graying Navy career men now living here, a recent visit of the U.S.S. Petrel was old home week. The Petrel was here last weekend for Armed Forces Day.
Aboard a similar vessel 19 years ago, fate threw them together to write a dramatic chapter in Naval history.
On that day, May 24, 1939 – some 24 hours after the submarine Squalus sank off New Hampshire – Torpedoman Third Class Leonard de Medeiros became a living testimonial to the validity of the Navy’s then-new submarine rescue procedures. Medeiros and 32 others survived, and 26 died.
Chief Boatswain’s Mate Orson L. Crandall, then one of the Navy’s top deep sea divers, is partly responsible for Medeiros now being here. For that, Crandall won the nation’s top award for valor and courage – the Congressional Medal of Honor.
Crandall retired as a lieutenant several years ago and now lives at 10005 Bay Pines Boulevard. He is a charter boat captain in his time off from personal fishing. Crandall has been invited by President Eisenhower to attend Memorial Day ceremonies on May 30 at Arlington National Cemetery.
Medeiros, now 47, retired last December 1. He now lives at 4707 13th Avenue South. Both he and Crandall are married, but neither has children.
Medeiros, then 28, won no medals for his part in the Squalus saga. But he was chosen at the time to pioneer the “Momsen lung” escape from a sunken submarine.
The Squalus’ skipper, Lieutenant Oliver F. Naquin, chose the escape priority list from among his top men. Medeiros was to have had the vital chore of attaching a line from the sub’s hull, which his crewmates would have followed hand-over-hand to the surface 240 feet above.
But the rescue crews deemed the use of the McCann “diving bell,” an underwater rescue chamber lowered from a surface ship, the better method of rescue.
The diving bell, an inverted pear-shaped object which, with its crew of two, can be lowered by cable and winch to the submarine’s escape hatches, was used for the first time in an emergency on the Squalus rescue.
Air pumped into the chamber sustains the men involved, and the chamber is still used by the Navy today.
The pay-off test of the Squalus rescue proved the Navy’s theory that trapped submariners should be removed at the earliest possible moment from their sunken ships rather than to try to refloat them with the crew on board.
While no incident as dramatic has been logged in Navy annals since the Squalus’ sinking, the Navy still uses the methods and equipment proved by that acid test.
Medeiros recalls his 24 hours trapped beneath the sea primarily as “cold.” The other crew members “razzed me for sleeping through most of it,” he says with a shrug.
Medeiros and the other survivors were in forward compartments when a faulty valve flooded the Squalus during a test dive. His 26 crewmates, who died, drowned in water-filled aft compartments.
Both Medeiros and Crandall saw combat action in World War II, Crandall as skipper of a salvage and rescue ship and Medeiros as a crewmember on another submarine.
Crandall, whose Medal of Honor citation commends him for “extraordinary heroism,” non-committally says the Squalus diving was routine.
The rescue was handled by men inside the diving bell, but divers had to descend first to attach a cable to the sunken sub, which was used extensively to refloat the ship after the rescue.
The late Nat Barrows, a Boston Globe reporter who covered the Squalus rescue and salvage, says in his book “Blow All Ballast” that Crandall’s life was saved by chance during the diving operations.
Crandall, a quarterback on a shore-based Navy football team, began calling football signals unconsciously as he lapsed into unconsciousness from an unsuspected buildup of carbon dioxide in his diving helmet.
A teammate, Lieutenant Julian K. Morrison, realized something was wrong and hauled Crandall to the surface.
Lieutenant Morrison died in St. Petersburg on February 11, 1940, a victim of an accidental discharge of a pistol he was cleaning while visiting here aboard the submarine U.S.S. Seahorse.
Orson L. Crandall had a Navy ship named in his honor. The U.S.S. Crandall (YHLC-2) heavy-lift craft was built in Germany in 1942 as the Salvage Barge Ausdauer by Seebeck Werft in Bremerhaven, Germany. It was leased by the United Nations in 1957 to clear the Suez Canal. It was then purchased by the US Navy in 1967 at Bremerhaven, Germany from Bugsier-, Reederei & Bergungs – AG, Bremerhaven / Hamburg, Germany, named AHLC II and renamed and commissioned U.S.S. Crandall (YHLC-2) in 1967. Assigned to Harbor Clearance Unit One at Naval Station Subic Bay R.P. Decommission date is unknown. Custody was transferred to the Maritime Administration on February 11, 1976, for lay-up in the James River National Reserve Fleet, Lee Hall, VA. Permanent custody was transferred to the Maritime Administration on October 1, 1977. The title was transferred to the Maritime Administration on December 11, 1993. Final Disposition: sold for scrapping on November 28, 2001, to Transforma Marine, Brownsville, Texas.
Buried in Arlington National Cemetery, 1 Memorial Drive, Arlington, Virginia; Section 48, Lot 2004. Photo Jeff DeWitt.
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