Ross, Fred W. Papers

Resident of Kansas City, Missouri.

The papers of Fred W. Ross consist of correspondence, drawings, and printed materials mostly concerning a plan he submitted to the U.S. Navy for a mechanical device to rescue submarine crews.

Size: Less than one linear foot (about 300 pages).
Access: Open.
Copyright: The donor gave to the U.S. Government all of its copyright interest in these materials and in any other materials received by the U.S. Government and maintained in a depository administered by the National Archives and Records Administration. Documents created by employees of the U.S. Government in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interest in other documents in the collection presumably belongs to the creators of those documents, or their heirs.
Processed by: Randy Sowell (2025).

Fred W. Ross was born in England on May 7, 1872, served in the British Navy, and came to the United States during the 1890s. He settled in Kansas City, Missouri, and was later employed by the Kansas City municipal government. Between 1927 and 1940, Ross wrote a series of letters to various officials regarding his plan for a mechanical device that would make it possible to rescue the crews of sunken submarines. Ross developed his plan following the tragic loss of forty men aboard the U.S.S. S-4, which sunk after an accidental collision with a U.S. Coast Guard vessel in December 1927. Based on his own experience with naval vessels, he suggested an air-tight chamber that would bring the endangered members of a submarine crew safely to the surface, and submitted his proposal to the U.S. Navy. The Navy presented his plan, along with many others, to a special board for consideration. In May 1929, Ross was informed that his plan had not been adopted by the board.

Several years later, the Navy tested a device that was similar to the one Ross had proposed, and he wondered if he was entitled to compensation from the U.S. government for his earlier idea. He corresponded with Senator Harry S. Truman, Congressman C. Jasper Bell, and Navy officials regarding this matter. Congressman Bell introduced a private bill in the House of Representatives that authorized a substantial payment to Ross, but it was not enacted.

Ross died in Kansas City on August 10, 1948. Katherine Summerson, a relative, donated his papers to the Truman Library in 1978.

The papers of Fred W. Ross consist of correspondence, drawings, and printed materials mostly concerning a plan he submitted to the U.S. Navy for a mechanical device to rescue submarine crews. The persons with whom Ross corresponded regarding his plan included Senator Harry S. Truman, Congressman C. Jasper Bell, Secretary of the Navy Curtis Wilbur, and Rear Admiral Frank Brumby, who had commanded the unsuccessful rescue operation following the accidental sinking of the U.S.S. S-4 in December 1927. Ross’s earlier letters, written soon after the accident, described an airtight chamber in which crewmen could escape from an endangered submarine and reach the ocean’s surface. His later letters focused on his quest for compensation from the U.S. Government after the Navy tested a similar device during the mid-1930s. Also included in the collection are drawings Ross submitted to illustrate his ideas, copies he made of his own letters, original letters he received from the Navy and from members of Congress, bills that Congressman Bell introduced in Ross’s behalf, and published articles concerning the S-4 tragedy and related matters.

Ross’s papers were originally opened for research at the Truman Library as part of the General Historical Documents Collection (GHDC 179).