Frank William Crilley

Freed a trapped diver deep below the waters of Honolulu Bay.

Frank William Crilley was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on 13 September 1883. He enlisted in the Navy in March 1900, became a gunner’s mate and trained as a diver. By 1915 he was a chief gunner’s mate conducting deep salvage dives.

On 17 April 1915, during salvage work on USS F-4 off Honolulu, William F. Loughman became trapped at a depth of 250 feet when his lifeline and air hose tangled in a wire hawser. Crilley volunteered to descend and free him. He untangled the lines, allowing Loughman to return alive to the surface. Crilley’s own return came after two hours and eleven minutes underwater. President Calvin Coolidge presented his Medal of Honor on 15 February 1929.

Crilley became a temporary gunner in 1917 and an ensign in the Naval Reserve in February 1918. He commanded USS Salvor in 1919 and left active duty that July. He participated in the salvage of USS S-51 in the mid-1920s and returned to active naval service in 1927–1928 for the recovery of USS S-4. His repeated hazardous dives in icy water during that operation earned the Navy Cross.

In 1931 he served as second officer and master diver aboard the civilian submarine Nautilus during its Arctic expedition and assisted with the salvage of USS Mayflower. He entered the retired list in May 1932 and worked on the salvage of USS Squalus in 1939. He died at the Naval Hospital in Brooklyn on 23 November 1947 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Medal of Honor citation

For display of extraordinary heroism in the line of his profession above and beyond the call of duty during the diving operations in connection with the sinking in a depth of water 304 feet of the U.S.S. F-4 with all on board, as a result of loss of depth control, which occurred off Honolulu, T.H., 25 March 1915. On 17 April 1915, William F. Loughman, chief gunner's mate, U.S. Navy, who had descended to the wreck and had examined one of the wire hawsers attached to it, upon starting his ascent, and when at a depth of 250 feet beneath the surface of the water, had his lifeline and air hose so badly fouled by this hawser that he was unable to free himself; he could neither ascend nor descend. On account of the length of time that Loughman had already been subjected to the great pressure due to the depth of water, and of the uncertainty of the additional time he would have to be subjected to this pressure before he could be brought to the surface, it was imperative that steps be taken at once to clear him. Instantly, realizing the desperate case of his comrade, Crilley volunteered to go to his aid, immediately donned a diving suit and descended. After a lapse of time of two hours and 11 minutes, Crilley was brought to the surface, having by a superb exhibition of skill, coolness, endurance, and fortitude, untangled the snarl of lines and cleared his imperiled comrade, so that he was brought, still alive, to the surface.