Dating to season 1 in 1957, this episode of “The Silent Service” is titled “The Starfish Came Home”. It was directed by Sobey Martin and written by Sidney Marshall, and is hosted by Rear Admiral Thomas M. Dykers. The cast includes Patrick O’Neal, William Boyett and Richard Jaeckel.

The plot of the episode is about the “USS Starfish” — a fictionalized name for the submarine USS Crevalle. (According to at one source, the reason for the name change was that actual events depicted in the episode were still considered a secret at the time of production.) In September of 1944, while on its fifth war patrol, USS Crevalle was cruising on the surface. Suddenly, the submarine crash dived due to a malfunction of the dive planes. Both the outer and inner conning tower hatches were open. The flow of water through the upper hatch should have been fatal to the boat and its crew, but the officer of the watch, Lt. Howard James Blind, managed to get it closed at the cost of his own life. Blind posthumously received the Navy Cross for his action.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com