Beneath the Waves: Thomas Eadie and the Tragedy of S-4
Blueprint of USS S-4 On the afternoon of Saturday, December 18, 1927, off the coast of Provincetown, Massachusetts, U.S. Coast Guard Cutter USCGC Paulding (CG 17) was on routine patrol. With the passing of the 18 th Amendment in 1919, which prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation and consumption of alcohol, Paulding’s crew was tasked with intercepting and searching private ships off the coast of New England. Commanded by Lieutenant Commander John S. Baylis, the destroyer was on the lookout for approximately three hundred vessels in the area suspected of smuggling illicit alcohol or ‘rum running’ as it was known at the time. Paulding was built as a destroyer for the Navy, but it was redesignated as a cutter after being transferred to the Coast Guard. USCGC Paulding (CGC 17) Unbeknownst to Baylis and his crew, a U.S. Navy S-class submarine was conducting diving tests off Cape Cod and was submerged directly in the path of Paulding . USS S...