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The discovery of wreckage from the Argentine submarine ARA San Juan in November 2018 grimly highlights the dangers inherent to submarine operations even in peacetime. Well over a dozen submarines have been lost catastrophic accidents since the end of World War II. Only stringent safety protocols and rigorous maintenance regimes can minimize the likelihood of such accidents.
Fortunately, though U.S. submarines have experienced numerous collisions and groundings, it has been over fifty years since the U.S. Navy lost its last submarine to causes which remain unclear to this day—though lax safety procedures may well have been involved.
I know there are lots of stories, but a lot of focus was on the torpedoes that were the contributing factor to her sinking. They already had one near incident before with the torpedoes on another boat.
An entry in the Journal of Military History (I think), years ago, in an article about the Scorpion noted that after SUBSAFE had been done for all the submarines, the US has not lost another SSN.
An entry in the Journal of Military History (I think), years ago, in an article about the Scorpion noted that after SUBSAFE had been done for all the submarines, the US has not lost another SSN.
The SUBSAFE program has made submarines much safer since addressing all problems identified on:
the USS Thresher (SSN-593) lost on 10 April 1963,
and
the USS Scorpion (SSN-589) lost on 22 May 1968.
I was in the US Submarine Service in the early to mid 60's. The boats I rode were attached to SubDevGrp II out of New London CT as was the Thresher. I lost friends on the Thresher. May they all Rest In Peace.
The Thresher sank during what was called a sea trail after having undergone an overhaul at the Portsmouth NH Naval Base. It was common for a boat (sub) to undergo sea trials after an overhaul. The crew is stationed all over the boat during sea trials looking for issues. You would make a few shallow dives then go deep, to the boat's test depth.
Test depth is the deepest a boat can safely operate at. Crush depth is the depth at which the boat will collapse from the pressure. Typical crush depth is twice test depth. It is actually a 4 to 7 ratio. Her test depth was 600 to 800 feet depth so her crush depth would be 1200 to 1600 feet. She was operating in and sank in water 8000 feet deep. Thresher completed several shallow dives. It was on the deep dive when the problem occured.
There were 129 on board (all lost) including 17 civilians. I expect the civilians were what we called Yard Birds meaning they worked at the Naval Base and were involved in the overhaul. It use to be said that we were taking Yard Birds out, so they better do a damn good job on the boat or they sink with us.
As best could be determined, one or more of the welds (where pipes/valves are welded together) gave out and caused flooding which resulted in electrical problems which caused the reactor to scramble (shutdown) thus losing power. Without power, they were unable to overcome the flooding by pumping/blowing the water out or driving to the surface.
My criticism is they should have been operating in water say 2000 feet deep which might have made for a different outcome but that is pure speculation on my part.
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NATO know has a dedicated submarine rescue unit.
There was recently a film about the Kursk, as well as a remake of the classic Das Boot.
Being trapped on a submarine must have been terrifying.
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