F. S. Bell F. S. Bell Captain Frederick Secker Bell CB (17 August 1897 – 23 November 1973) of the Royal Navy was the commander of during the Battle of the River Plate in December 1939. He was educated at Matfield Grange, a prep school in Kent, and then at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth. He served afloat in the battleship at the Battle of Jutland, as First Lieutenant of the destroyer in the Reserve Fleet at Devonport, 1923–25, and as executive officer of from 1935–38 and was promoted captain on 31 December 1938. He took command of in August
USS S-26 (SS-131) London on 10 December 1941, and arrived at Coco Solo, Panama on 19 December. Accidentally rammed by the submarine chaser at night in the Gulf of Panama, "S-26" sank on 24 January 1942 with the loss of 46 men. Three men (the captain, executive officer, and a lookout) survived. Though divers were sent down to the wreck over the following days, her hull was not salvaged. USS S-26 (SS-131) USS "S-26" (SS-131) was an "S"-class submarine of the United States Navy. Her keel was laid down on 7 November 1919 by Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation's Fore River Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts.