FOCUS ON HISTORY - Donato “Danny” Persico entered the submarine’s escape hatch, crawling up a steel ladder as his hands were too chilled to grasp the ladder’s rungs.Persico, who lived on Broad Street on Amsterdam’s South Side, was one of the survivors from the submarine U.S.S. Squalus, which sank May 23, 1939 in the Atlantic Ocean off the Isles of Shoals, N.H.Valves malfunctioned during a test dive on the new submarine. The after compartments filled with water, drowning 26 men. Squalus settled on the ocean floor in 243 feet of water. Persico was almost crushed by a torpedo."This happened so…