The following poem was contributed by Arthur E. Haynes in memory of his father, Harold F. Haynes, EM3c, USN.
His father was stationed in New London, CT in 1925 and was on the S-8. This poem was found in his scrapbook.

The S-51

by Minna Irving

The war-god slept, and the moon was bright

On a sea of silver sheen,

When six and thirty Navy men

Took out a submarine-

They tuned her up for a practice drill,

But before the night was done

But three were left to tell the tale

0f the loss of the 51.

It was written down in the log of fate

That the City of Rome should pass,

And crush the shell of the speeding sub

As a stone will shatter glass.

She sank to rest where the starfish bide,

And weeping mermaids spun

Green shrouds of the sea weed's silken strands

For the dead of the 51.

No eye was there in that tragic hour

To pierce the watery gloom,

And see within the darkened walls

0f the craft that was a tomb,

But we know that they died as heroes die,

And their gallant souls have won

A place with Lawrence and Hull and Jones-

The crew of the 51.

In times of peace when the ocean lanes

To the fleets of the world were free,

She met the death of a fighting ship

On her own familiar sea.

The breach in her side was made by chance

And not by a foeman's gun,

But they died for their country just the same-

The men of the 51.

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