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| Charles B. Momsen | |
|---|---|
| Name | Charles B. Momsen |
| Birth date | July 7, 1896 |
| Birth place | Pawling, New York |
| Death date | February 3, 1967 |
| Death place | Washington, D.C. |
| Allegiance | United States |
| Branch | United States Navy |
| Serviceyears | 1917–1954 |
| Rank | Rear Admiral |
| Battles | World War II |
Charles B. Momsen was a United States Navy officer and pioneer in submarine rescue and salvage whose innovations transformed underwater survival and recovery. He developed techniques and devices that influenced naval engineering, diving medicine, and submarine warfare doctrine, and he held senior positions that connected technical innovation with operational practice across multiple Navy bureaus and commands.
Born in Pawling, New York, Momsen attended preparatory schools before gaining appointment to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, where he graduated into the United States Navy amid the era of World War I mobilization. At the Naval Academy, he studied engineering and seamanship alongside contemporaries who later served in World War II and interwar naval modernization programs. Postgraduate professional development included assignments at Naval Submarine School and technical collaboration with institutions such as the Bureau of Engineering and the Engineer Corps of naval administration.
Momsen’s early service included postings on surface ships and submarine commands, with operational experience in Atlantic and Pacific theaters tied to fleets and squadrons such as Submarine Force, United States Atlantic Fleet and Submarine Force, United States Pacific Fleet. He served in staff roles at the Bureau of Ships and with tactical planners engaged with carriers and battleships from the era of the Washington Naval Treaty through pre‑World War II rearmament. His career intersected with leaders and organizations like Admiral Ernest J. King, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, and the Naval Research Laboratory as he moved into technical leadership, reserve salvage operations, and doctrine development.
Disturbance catalyzing his focus on rescue was the loss of submarines such as USS S‑4 (SS-109) and the wider submarine accidents of the 1920s and 1930s that prompted collaboration with institutions including the U.S. Navy Experimental Diving Unit, Harvard University physiologists addressing decompression, and industrial partners like Bethlehem Steel for pressure hull work. Momsen conceptualized and developed the Momsen lung, an emergency rebreather that drew on work by Christian Lambertsen and earlier rebreather designs used by Royal Navy and Royal Netherlands Navy divers, and he supervised construction of rescue chambers influenced by trials at the Submarine Escape Training Tank and experimental work with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He coordinated with salvage specialists from the United States Coast Guard, Mare Island Naval Shipyard, and commercial salvors to refine procedures for deep submergence recovery, integrating physiological data from researchers such as Haldane-influenced decompression theory proponents and clinicians at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
During World War II, Momsen’s expertise contributed to submarine safety, rescue doctrine, and salvage operations supporting Pacific and Atlantic submarine campaigns, interfacing with commanders in theater such as Admiral William Halsey Jr., Admiral Raymond Spruance, and theater staffs of the Pacific Fleet. He advised on submarine design resilience with firms like Electric Boat Company and General Dynamics, and he was involved in responses to wartime mishaps including coordination with Maritime Commission salvage efforts and civil defense entities in ports like Pearl Harbor and Guam. His wartime work connected with Allied counterparts in Royal Navy salvage bureaus and with multinational conferences on undersea safety convened by organizations including the Combined Chiefs of Staff.
After the war, Momsen held senior technical and command billets that bridged research and procurement, including roles that worked alongside the Naval Sea Systems Command, the Office of Naval Research, and the National Defense Research Committee legacy. He advocated for incorporation of submarine rescue capability into new fleet plans influenced by Cold War imperatives and nuclear submarine development exemplified by USS Nautilus (SSN-571). Momsen’s leadership touched policy fora including the Joint Chiefs of Staff planning cycles, cooperative programs with NATO allies, and interagency initiatives with the Department of Defense and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for deep‑sea research coordination. He mentored successors who later led innovations in deep submergence vehicles and rescue vehicles such as the deep-submergence rescue vehicle concept institutionalized in subsequent decades.
Momsen received honors from naval and scientific communities recognizing his contributions to safety and technology, reflecting peer recognition by entities like the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and service awards from the Department of the Navy. His legacy is preserved in named vessels and institutions, in training doctrine at the Naval Submarine School and Naval Diving and Salvage Training Center, and in commemorations by organizations including the Submarine Force Library and Museum and the Naval Historical Center. His work influenced later programs at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and commercial deep‑sea operations by companies such as Lockheed Martin and Thales Group. Monuments, museum exhibits, and ships bearing connection to his innovations continue to link his name to practices in submarine safety used by the United States Navy and allied maritime services worldwide.
Category:United States Navy admirals Category:Submarine rescue