Sheppard J. Shreaves

With more than 1,000 dives behind him, Shreaves retired to St. Petersburg, Florida on December 31, 1945, after 32 years of Panama Canal service. He died in January 1968.

Salvage efforts began immediately, and divers were sent down from a salvage tug that arrived from Coco Solo. By 10:00am, they were on the bottom examining the wreck. To search for trapped personnel, they hammered on the hull near the aft end of the ship and worked forward. Upon reaching the torpedo room, they heard answering hammer blows from inside the boat. In 1923 the only way the salvage crew could get the men out of the submarine was to lift it physically from the mud using cranes or pontoons. One of the largest crane barges in the world, Ajax, built specifically for handling the gates of the canal locks, was in the Canal Zone. However, there had been a landslide at the famous Gaillard Cut and Ajax was on the other side of the slide, assisting in clearing the Canal. The excavation shifted into high gear and by 2:00pm on the afternoon of the sinking, the crane barge Ajax squeezed through and was on its way to the site.

Further heroism Four laborers were trapped in the hold of the SS Columbia on 16 July 1924. Shreaves went into the hold after them, but he was too late. The laborers died from poisonous fumes, and Shreaves was rendered unconscious. He was commended by the American Red Cross:

Your extraordinary heroism has aroused my admiration. It is one thing to calmly perform a heroic act under the stimulation of a great wave of excitement, without having time to think much of danger, and quite another to calmly face death without excitement and inspiration of dramatic circumstances.—John Barton PayneChairman, American Red Cross