S-49 as a civilian exhibit

Notes

S-49, along with her four near sisters, was never well liked by the Navy. A slow diver with the underwater maneuverability of a laden barge, and below average reliability all lead the Navy to decommission the boat in August 1930 and finally strike her from the Navy List in March of 1931. She was sold for scrapping to the Boston Iron & Metal Co. out of Baltimore, but at that point fate stepped in and provided her with a new story. The company apparently "demilitarized" the S-49, but before they started on the final scrapping process they sold the hulk to two gentlemen by the name of William M. Keevey, a business man and local politician from Revere, MA., and Francis J. Chrestensen, who was a ne'er-do-well and something of a huckster and carnival side-show man with a penchant for pursuing the "next big thing". The date of the purchase was July 1, 1931. They saw the S-49 as a potentially lucrative money-making venture so they somehow raised $25,000 to purchase her and refit her as a traveling exhibit. The boat had been rendered incapable of diving by the Boston Iron company, and it removed the batteries and rendered the engines inoperative as well.

At first Chrestensen and Keevey had her towed to each location, but Chrestensen got tired of being derided for it so he had a small diesel engine installed so that she could move her under her own power. She was displayed at a variety of locations throughout the Great Lakes and the New England coast. Chrestensen, his wife, and a small crew actually lived onboard the boat.

As the story goes, S-49 proved to be a popular attraction, but the owners constantly struggled to pay their debts, skirting bill collectors and creditors. Keevey later left the venture, with Chrestensen continuing alone. Unfortunately, at one point he and his wife entered into a bitter divorce, and after a drawn-out court battle Chrestensen lost control and ownership of the S-49. The Navy reacquired the hulk in 1941 "as equipment" for use as a sonar and weapons target at the Naval Mine Warfare Proving Ground, Solomons, Maryland. In the course of this work she sank on December 16, 1942 in 102 feet (31 m) of water just off Point Patience, MD. in the Patuxent River. She remains there to this day.