U.S.S. S-4 crash site
Torpedo room of the U.S.S. S-4 (1919), courtesy of the U.S. Naval Historical Center.
Thirty-four sailors, four officers, and two visitors were aboard the U.S.S. S-4 submarine for a trial run on 17 December 1927, when it was hit by the U.S.C.G. Paulding off Wood End. The sub sank more than 100 feet. A day later, a Navy diver pounded out Morse code on the hull: How many survivors? “There are six; please hurry.” Gale-force winds hindered the rescue. The Navy rebuffed assistance from local fishermen. “Please send us oxygen, food and water,” said a coded message on the 19th. The Navy could not. The rescue was abandoned on the 22nd. “There is a special terror in the memory of those men waiting, tapping their patient messages, and dying,” Mary Heaton Vorse wrote. “Everyone in Provincetown had a feeling that it was their individual task to save these men and no one could do anything.”
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