The Deep Peril: Submarine Disasters and the Urgent Quest for Safety in 1928

In 1928, the submarine force found itself caught between tragedy and transformation. The year opened with the lingering sorrow of the USS S-4, lost after colliding with the Coast Guard destroyer Paulding. Her crew of forty never came home, though their struggle and the desperate attempts to save them gripped the nation. Salvage teams fought the sea for months until the boat was finally raised, and the lessons of that disaster would change the Navy forever.

Across the Atlantic, Italy’s F-14 sank in the Adriatic after a collision, her crew poisoned by deadly gas before rescuers could reach them. These twin losses deepened the submarine’s reputation as an “iron coffin” and forced naval leaders to face hard questions about safety, technology, and even the value of submarines themselves. Out of grief and controversy, new ideas began to take shape, including the first steps toward devices like the Momsen Lung.