USS Crevalle (SS-291) - Fifth War Patrol, September 1944

Fifth War Patrol, September 1944

Refitted once more at Fremantle, Crevalle put to sea on her fifth war patrol 1 September 1944. Ten days later, she surfaced after a routine trim dive. A lookout, Bill Fritchen, was first through the hatch followed closely by the Officer of the Deck, Lt. Howard James Blind. Fifteen seconds later, the boat took a sharp down angle, and submerged with the upper and lower conning tower hatches open, washing the lookout overboard. The flow of water through the upper hatch, which was latched opened, prevented anyone in the conning tower from closing it. The lower hatch to the control was blocked by a piece of floor matting.

At 150 feet (50 m) the hatch was seen to close and lock. The ship continued diving to 190 feet (60 m) at an angle that reached 42 degrees down. With communications out, an alert machinist's mate, Robert L. Yeager, saved the submarine by backing full without orders. The pump room, control room and conning tower flooded completely, and all electrical equipment was inoperative. Yeager received the Silver Star for his action.

Bringing the submarine under control, her men surfaced and were able to recover the lookout, but not Lt. Blind. It was later determined that the stern planes had jammed in the full dive position causing the sudden dive. With Fritchen having been washed off the bridge when the submarine dived, it was concluded that Blind had hung on the ship, and sacrificed his life in unlatching the upper conning tower hatch, saving the submarine. Blind posthumously received the Navy Cross for his action. Blind, a graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, had married a woman in Australia only two weeks before his death.

Crevalle made her way back to Fremantle 22 September, and sailed on to an overhaul at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, followed by training at Pearl Harbor.