1. Charles Momsen was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929.
27 Facts About Charles Momsen
1. 2.
In May 1939, Momsen directed the rescue of the crew of Squalus.
3.
Charles Momsen entered the US Naval Academy in 1914, but he was dismissed after a widespread cheating scandal during the spring of his first year there.
4.
From 1919 to 1921, Charles Momsen served on the battleship Oklahoma.
5.
Charles Momsen was ordered to take S-1 to search for the crippled submarine.
6.
Charles Momsen conceived a diving bell, which could be lowered to a submarine in distress, mated to an escape hatch, and opened to allow trapped submariners to climb in.
7.
Charles Momsen diagrammed his idea and sent it up the chain of command.
8.
Charles Momsen waited more than a year for a response, heard nothing, and concluded there must have been something technically wrong with the concept.
9.
Charles Momsen stated his case again, but to no avail.
10.
The Charles Momsen lung contains a canister of soda lime, which removes poisonous carbon dioxide from the exhaled air and then replenishes the air with oxygen.
11.
Between June 1929 and September 1932, Lieutenant Momsen developed the lung along with Chief Gunner's Mate Clarence L Tibbals and Frank M Hobson, a civilian employee of the Bureau of Construction and Repair.
12.
In 1929, Charles Momsen received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal for personally testing the device at a depth of 200 feet.
13.
The Charles Momsen lung was eventually supplemented by the Steinke hood and free-ascent techniques.
14.
Charles Momsen built a prototype, constructed from a water-tight aircraft hangar pirated from S-1 and tested it off Key West, Florida.
15.
Charles Momsen stated the bell was unstable, tipped, and leaked, and had several changes in mind for the diving bell, but was sent to the Bureau of Construction and Repair to teach submariners how to use the Charles Momsen lung before he could make the changes.
16.
The final bell, with the revisions and changes that Charles Momsen authorized, included a floor bulkhead, pneumatic winch and a pressure seal allowing direct transfer of survivors to the diving bell in a dry environment.
17.
From 1937 to 1939, Charles Momsen led an experimental deep-sea diving unit at the Washington Navy Yard which achieved a major breakthrough in the physiology of the human lung's gas mixtures under high pressure.
18.
Charles Momsen supervised rescue chamber operators as it made four dives to bring the submariners to the surface and a fifth to check the flooded aft section for survivors.
19.
Charles Momsen led the diving operations in the effort to salvage the Squalus, which took 113 days.
20.
Charles Momsen was taken to the drydock at the Portsmouth Navy Yard.
21.
Charles Momsen took torpedoes to the shallow waters and sheer cliffs of the Hawaiian Island of Kahoolawe and fired until he got a dud.
22.
Charles Momsen drilled his captains and their executive officers in tactics, planning to have three boats act in company, one boat making the first attack on a convoy then acting as "trailer", while the other two attacked alternatively on either flank afterward.
23.
Charles Momsen developed a simple code for communications on the short range VHF radio system used for Talk Between Ships.
24.
Charles Momsen commanded the battleship South Dakota from December 1944 through August 1945.
25.
Charles Momsen served on the Navy General Board from June 1947 until May 1948.
26.
Charles Momsen served as Assistant Chief of Naval Operations for Undersea Warfare from 1948 to 1951, then became Commander of the Submarine Force's Pacific Fleet.
27.
Vice Admiral Charles Momsen died of cancer on May 25,1967.