The luck of the Irish ran out far too soon for 23-year-old submariner John Joseph “Jack” Sheehan of Groton. He was a motor machinist mate first class on the S-51 in 1925, built by Simon Lake at The Lake Torpedo Boat Company in Bridgeport, and home-ported in New London.

The son of Irish immigrants, Jack Sheehan was a conscientious man. His thoughts at sea surely turned to his young wife, Margaret (Conroy), a Poquonnock Bridge girl at home on Thames Street in Groton, where they lived with Margaret’s mother. They had just celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary.

Margaret was three months pregnant, and Sheehan, whom the Navy graded high for “sobriety and obedience at all times,” would make a good father.

But, on the night of Sept. 25, 1925, fifteen miles east of Block Island, Sheehan was asleep in his bunk on the S-51, unaware that the 331-foot steamer SS City of Rome bore down on the sub as it cruised the surface. The ship misread the sub’s running lights, and the sub misinterpreted the steamer’s intent until it was too late. The Rome cut into the submarine, slicing a gaping hole in her port side.

The heavy ship powered on, sliding over the submarine, forcing it under, seawater rushing in through open hatches. It fell 132 feet down to the bottom.

Of the 36 men onboard, only three escaped.

Heartbroken, young Margaret Sheehan soldiered on as best she could. She gave birth to daughter Gloria Ann months later on March 27, 1926, at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital, as the S-51 salvage operation dragged on, six months after the accident.

Her joy over Gloria Ann was tempered by the dreadful thought of her husband still trapped in his submarine off Block Island, and worries of Gloria’s life without her father.

John Sheehan’s body remained on the S-51 for months, as Navy deep sea divers encountered treacherous conditions and daunting engineering and equipment obstacles in the effort to raise her. The operation riveted the nation, and was shown on newsreels in theaters and followed by major newspapers.

The S-51 was finally raised and towed to the Brooklyn Navy Yard in July 1926. Margaret Sheehan claimed her husband and buried him in St. Mary Cemetery in New London.

With the insurance settlement, Margaret bought a home on Thames Street. When Gloria was about 4 years old, Margaret married Dennis Patrick Wrenn in Groton. Wrenn, coincidentally, was also a motor machinist mate on a submarine, as Jack had been.

Time passed, but Margaret’s love for Jack never waned. Speaking to a Day newspaper reporter in 1975, fifty years later, his memory brought tears to her eyes.

“People think you forget, but you don’t. You just don’t. It still hurts.”

Margaret carried her heartache until she died in 1985 at age 83. She’s buried with her second husband in Groton’s Starr Burying Ground.

Little Gloria Ann Sheehan grew up in Groton and graduated from Boston University. She met and married Lieutenant James Gallemore when he reported for submarine school in Groton.

Gloria had two sons and two daughters, three born at Lawrence + Memorial Hospital and one at the Groton Sub Base. Her youngest son, David, died tragically at 21 years of age in a vehicle accident.

Gloria and James were living in Silver Spring, Maryland, when she died in 2011 at age 85. Like her mother, she’s buried with her husband in Groton’s Starr Burying Ground.

Young Jack Sheehan’s terrible fate on the S-51 didn’t deter following generations from serving on ships. The Sheehan, Wrenn, and Gallemore families were Navy families.

Besides Margaret’s and Gloria Ann’s marriages to Navy men, Gloria’s son is retired Navy Captain James Bruce Gallemore, now of Fairfax, Virginia. He graciously assisted with this story.

Gloria’s father-in-law, Roy Trent Gallemore, was on the submarine R-14, a one-time New London sub, when it ran out of fuel off Hawaii in May 1921. Now part of submarine lore, the crew made sails from blankets and sailed the sub into Hilo.

Margaret’s brother Frank Conroy was on the submarine S-5 when it sank off the coast of Delaware in 1920. The entire crew was rescued.

Margaret Sheehan survived the worst of being a Navy wife back in 1925 when she lost her husband to the sea, but Navy life is not easy under the best of circumstances.

In the 1982 hit movie, “An Officer and A Gentleman,” factory worker Paula (Debra Winger) wins her naval aviator fiance in the emotional finale.

Gloria’s daughter Sheila and daughter-in-law Theresa (Captain Gallemore’s wife) went to see the movie. Theresa’s daughter, Katie Gallemore Eliot, who also contributed to this story, said: “At the end of the movie, while everyone around them were all standing, clapping, and crying, my mom and aunt remained seated because they knew what the future had in store for Paula, marrying a Navy man.”

After decades of heartache, Margaret Sheehan would no doubt have stayed seated, too.

John Steward lives in Waterford. He can be reached at tossinglines@gmail.com.