At age 38, Sheppard Shreaves was awarded the Gold Lifesaving Medal for his heroic efforts in raising of the sunken submarine USS O-5 (SS-66) with two men trapped in the torpedo room.

Working against time, Shreaves enabled the rescue of Lawrence Brown and Henry Breault from the bottomed submarine.

[2] 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.

At approximately 0630, O-5, under the command of Lieutenant Harrison Avery, was underway across Limon Bay toward the entrance to the Panama Canal.

Through a series of maneuvering errors and miscommunication, the SS Abangarez collided with the O-5 and struck the submarine on the starboard side of the control room, opening a hole some ten feet long and penetrating the number one main ballast tank.

The submarine rolled sharply to port – then back to starboard – and sank bow first in 42 feet of water.

To search for trapped personnel, they hammered on the hull near the aft end of the ship and worked forward.

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.

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 O-5 (SS-66) site.

Sheppard J. Shreaves, supervisor of the Panama Canal’s salvage crew and himself a qualified diver, had been working continuously throughout the night to dig the tunnel, snake the cable under the submarine, and hook it to Ajax’s hoist.

As midnight on the 29th approached, the crane was ready for another lift, this time with buoyancy being added by blowing water out of the flooded Engine Room.

Men from the salvage force quickly opened the torpedo room hatch, and Breault and Brown emerged into the fresh air.

The O-5 lay upright in several feet of soft, oozing mud, and I began water jetting a trench under the bow.

[2]Shreaves was recommended for the Congressional Gold Lifesaving Medal by the acting governor of the Canal Zone.