WHO

HENRY BREAULT - U.S. NAVY (MOH 1924)

Henry Breault

U.S. Navy

1900 - 1941

Breault was presented the Medal of Honor March 8, 1924 by President Calvin Coolidge in Washington, DC., for his heroic rescue of a fellow shipmate.

Sheppard J. Shreaves Dockmaster and foreman shipwright for the Panama Canal Mechanical Division -- Qualified diver and supervisor of the Panama Canal’s highly proficient salvage and diving crew

Shep Shreaves was awarded the Congressional Life Saving Medal for his heroic efforts in ensuring the raising of the sunken sub against time which permitted the rescue of Breault and Brown from the sub.
His being underwater and in his diving suit for almost 24 hours set a new record for the longest duration dives up to that time.

Torpedoman’s Mate Second Class Henry Breault was awarded the Medal of Honor for his uncommon valor in rescuing a fellow shipmate on board U.S. submarine O-5 (SS-66) when it sank October 28, 1923, in Limon Bay at the Atlantic entrance to the Panama Canal. At the time of the accident, the O-5 was operating with other submarines of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet under the command of Commander Submarine Force, Coco Solo, Canal Zone. After colliding with the SS Abangarez, a United Fruit Company boat, the O-5 sank within a minute, during which time all but five of the 21 onboard the submarine had managed to abandon it before it sank and were quickly rescued alive.

Upon hearing the order to abandon the O-5, 23-year-old Breault escaped to the main deck, but he quickly realized that his friend, Chief Lawrence T. Brown, was asleep in the forward battery room. Breault, with more concern for warning Brown than for saving his own life, dropped into the O-5, as she was sinking, securing the hatch cover. After reaching Brown with water engulfing them, the two attempted to escape through the conning tower, but the deluge blocked that route. They struggled back into the forward torpedo room and forced shut its watertight door where they remained for 31 hours until the sub was lifted to the surface and they were rescued. (The bodies of two other shipmates, who had drowned while abandoning the sub, were recovered and buried in Mt. Hope cemetery on the Atlantic side of the Canal Zone; that of a third shipmate was never found.) #

Any attempt to rescue them could not be attempted until the sub could be raised sufficiently above water. At a time when modern rescue and safety devices did not exist, and while submarines were still in their infancy, it remains a remarkable feat that the two men strapped in the O-5 were not only rescued, but that their submarine was raised quickly thereafter. The convergence of incredible luck in appropriate specialized equipment to raise up the sunken sub having been fairly close at hand (within some 50 miles of the accident site) with the efforts of an experienced diver of the Panama Canal salvage and diving crew -- Sheppard Shreaves -- and much perseverance made the difference against all odds. #

Had the Abangarez and the O-5 collision occurred elsewhere, Breault and Brown would have perished for want of the rare combination of humanity and technology that was required to effect their rescue and which made the O-5 incident unique in the annals of submarine rescue. #

Rescue of personnel from within a disabled submarine was not duplicated until 16 years later in 1939 when 33 men were saved from the USS Squalus (SS-192) through the use of a submarine rescue chamber. (For his heroic rescue efforts following that accident off the coast near Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Navy diver Navy Chief Machinist's Mate William Badders received the Medal of Honor. After retiring from the Navy, Badders became master diver-salvage master for the Panama Canal organization.) #

Born in Putnam, Connecticut, on October 14, 1900, Breault enlisted in the British Royal Navy at sixteen years of age and, after serving for four years, he joined the U.S. Navy. Following twenty years of U.S. Navy service, he became ill with a heart condition. He died at the Naval Hospital at Newport, Rhode Island, on December 4, 1941.

Sources:

# Extracts and above photos from The O-5 is Down! by Julius Grigore, Jr.(Captain, U.S. Naval Reserve), in U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, February 1972. To view that complete account of the sinking of the O-5 sinking and rescue and salvage efforts, GO TO.

Naval Historical Center website http://www.history.navy.mil/ - Photo of Medal of Honor presentation and photo captions.

Home of Heroes.com, Medal of Honor citation.