Mystery Ship

One of the last submarines built by the Simon Lake company and the first Navy vessel fitted with true piezoelectric SONAR, submarine S-49 served as a United States Navy ship for five years, testing innovative devices. Two politicians from Revere, Massachusetts, rescued her from the scrapyard, and she was exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair and in cities on the Eastern Seaboard until World War II. Navy Research fitted up the sub so that she could dive again and used her for SONAR fuze testing until one day she could no longer rise to the surface. The sub sits at the bottom of the Patuxent River in Maryland to this day. This work relates the history of the S-49, including tales of her deeds, her battery explosion, her commanders, her wily civilian rescuers, and her life as an exhibition subject.