Nine years later, while on a routine patrol south of the Azores, she disappeared. Login | The operations compartment was largely obliterated by sea pressure, and the engine room had telescoped 15 m (50 ft) forward into the hull due to collapse pressure, when the cone-to-cylinder transition junction failed between the auxiliary machine space and the engine room. Scorpion‘s final resting place was 1.86 miles below the surface, 466 miles southwest of the Azores. [33], The results of the U.S. Navy's various investigations into the loss of Scorpion are inconclusive. Exceding the Mfg. The proximate cause in that scenario would have been the procedural carryover from diesel boat days wherein the boat was effectively rigged for collision—with subsequent changes in ventilation flow and watertight condition—before proceeding to periscope depth by way of setting "Condition Baker". This acoustic homing torpedo, in a fully ready condition and without a propeller guard, is theorized by some to have started running within the tube. [3] In November 2012, the US Submarine Veterans, an organization with over 13,800 members (all former submariners) asked the US Navy to reopen the investigation on the sinking of USS Scorpion.[4]. (The panel qualified its opinion, saying the evidence it had available could not lead to a conclusive finding about the cause of her sinking.) The book reports that concerns about the Mk 37 conventional torpedo carried aboard Scorpion were raised in 1967 and 1968, before Scorpion left Norfolk for her last mission. BOSTER, Gerald Charles Electrician's Mate Third Class. The book Blind Man's Bluff documents findings and investigation by Dr. John Craven, who surmised that a likely cause could have been the overheating of a faulty battery. Despite the second technical investigation, the Navy continues to attach strong credence to Craven's view that an explosion destroyed her, as is evidenced by this excerpt from a May 2003 letter from the Navy's Submarine Warfare Division (N77), specifically written by Admiral P.F. USS Scorpion, 22 August 1960, off New London, Connecticut. HullNumber.com's mission is to provide a means for shipmates to keep in touch with one another. Fountain ordered emergency procedures to surface the boat, stated Dr. Craven, "but instead she continued to plummet, reaching collapse depth and imploding in ninety seconds—one second shy of the acoustic record of the actual event.". With Norfolk her home port for the remainder of her career, Scorpion specialized in the development of nuclear submarine warfare tactics. Operational pressures and complex and unforeseen problems created by the Submarine Safety Program (SUBSAFE) that was initiated after the 1963 loss of Thresher, meant that submarine overhauls went from nine months in length to 36 months. The court was presided over by Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin, who had presided over the inquiry into the loss of Thresher. SHIPS CREW. Gray, Papers of Rear Admiral Charles M.E. The USS Scorpion was a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine first commissioned in December 1959. The SAG physicists argued that the absence of a bubble pulse, which invariably occurs in an underwater explosion, is absolute evidence that no torpedo explosion occurred outside or inside the hull of the Scorpion. Crossed the Bar & Resting on their Oars whilst on Eternal Patrol. You can locate this information through various sources: The Old Military and Civil Records Branch, National Archives, 700 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20408, holds copies of deck logs from 1801 through 1940, as well as muster rolls through 1938 in bound books. Ward, Papers of Chief Warrant Officer Paul A. Willis, Papers of Pharmacist's Mate 1/c James Wright, Papers of Lieutenant Commander Philip W. Yeatman, Supervisor of Diving and Salvage, Naval Sea Systems Command 1915-1985, Transcript of Meetings of the Military Armistice Commission 1965-1966, USS Memphis Survivors Association Records, Naval Forces Vietnam, Lessons Learned and End of Tour Reports, 1968-1970, Vietnam Strike Assault Boat Squadron 20, 1969-1970, Navy Research and Development Unit, Vietnam (NREUV) 1967-1972, Yorktown Mine Warfare Engineering Activity. This acoustic homing torpedo, in a fully ready condition and without a propeller guard, is believed by some to have started running within the tube. Following its discovery, other submersibles were dispatched to collect information and a court of inquiry was set up by the Navy on January 31, 1969. When completed, the NOL acoustics study of Sterlet and Scorpion sinking sounds provided a highly debated explanation as to how Scorpion may have reached its crush depth by anecdotally referring to the uncontrolled and nearly fatal dive of the diesel submarine Chopper in January 1969: Piecing together all the information (or suggestions) we can glean from the analysis of the hydroacoustic data, the photographs of the wreckage of SCORPION and THRESHER, and the results of the STERLET acoustic measurements, we believe the sequence of occurrences outlined below is a plausible description of what might have happened when Scorpion sank. The Mark 46 silver-zinc battery used in the Mark 37 torpedo had a tendency to overheat, and in extreme cases could cause a fire that was strong enough to cause a low-order detonation of the warhead. Likewise the two nuclear-tipped Mark 45 anti-submarine torpedoes (ASTOR) that were lost when the Scorpion sank show no signs of instability. [citation needed], In November 2012, the U.S. Subsequently, the court of inquiry was reconvened, and other vessels, including the bathyscaphe Trieste II, were dispatched to the scene, collecting many pictures and other data. Sank on 22 May 1968; cause of sinking unknown. Colloquium on Contemporary History 1989-1998, DANFS - Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Needs and Opportunities in the Modern History of the U.S. Navy, Permitting Policy and Resource Management, "Ex Scientia Tridens": The U.S. [citation needed], Cold War pressures had prompted U.S. Mazzuchi was my chief. Hoffman, Papers of Lieutenant Commander Lloyd O. Johnson, Papers of Lieutenant Commander John H. Jorgenson, Papers of Lieutenant Commander John M. Kidd, Papers of Commander Margaret Combs Kinsey, Papers of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox, Papers of Rear Admiral Onnie P. Lattu, SC, USN, Papers of Secretary of the Navy John F. Lehman, Papers of Rear Admiral Joseph W. Leverton, Papers of Chief Ship Fitter Charles A. Levi, Papers of Electus D. Litchfield and Lieutenant William S. Cox, Papers of Lieutenant (jg) Harris C. Lockwood, Papers of Yeoman Second Class George A. Loebel, Papers of Yeoman First Class Dorothy Loktu, Papers of Rear Admiral Mitchell D. Matthews. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Navy failed to inform the public that both the U.S. Scorpion went silent on May 21, 1968 and was reported as late arriving back at base in Norfolk, Virginia by the media on May 27. Fountain was told he was headed home at 18 knots (33 km/h) at a depth of his choice, then there was an alarm of "hot running torpedo". Recent reports, coinciding with the fiftieth anniversary of the incident, suggest that there was radio traffic which would support the theory that Scorpion was downed by a Soviet hunter-killer class submarine. [citation needed], Twenty years later, Craven learned that the sub could have been destroyed by a "hot-running torpedo." This and other declassified information led to speculation that the Navy knew of Scorpion's destruction before the public search was launched.[10]. Pers-312 On 9 August 1961, she returned to New London, moving to Norfolk, Virginia, a month later. Try the Ship's Store. Nothing in those investigations caused the Navy to change its conclusion that an unexplained catastrophic event occurred. Johnson, a critic of Dr. Craven, agrees with Navy scientists who, in 1970, gave their opinion that the sub's hull was smashed by implosion damage and not a torpedo blast, a finding they support with their interpretation of certain evidence about the condition of the hull and hydroacoustic recordings of the disaster. The secondary Navy investigation – using extensive photographic, video, and eyewitness inspections of the wreckage in 1969 – suggested that Scorpion's hull was crushed by implosion forces as it sank below crush depth. Chief Engineman. Never tasted better since. Submarine Fleet Atlantic (SUBLANT) officers to hunt for ways to reduce overhaul durations. All Rights Reserved. Upon departing the Mediterranean on 16 May, two men departed Scorpion at Rota, Spain. [15], An extensive, year-long analysis of Gordon Hamilton's hydroacoustic signals of the submarine's demise was conducted by Robert Price, Ermine (Meri) Christian, and Peter Sherman of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL). In fact, it is unlikely that any of the Scorpion acoustic events were caused by explosions. ", "Assessment of Why Scorpion Was Lost by an Exceptionally Qualified Submarine Officer", "Youtube: The Scorpion Departs But Never Returns", Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, "Rebutting Conjecture: Scorpion Reversed Course Just Before Being Lost", World War II National Submarine Memorial – West, World War II National Submarine Memorial – East, List of submarines of the United States Navy, List of submarine classes of the United States Navy, Shipwrecks and maritime incidents in 1968, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=USS_Scorpion_(SSN-589)&oldid=986368728, Nuclear submarines of the United States Navy, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2019, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from December 2015, Articles needing additional references from September 2016, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2018, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2018, Wikipedia articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. [28] W. Craig Reed, who served on Haddo a decade later as a petty officer and diver, and whose father was a U.S. Navy officer responsible in significant Electronic Support Measures (ESM) advances in sub detection in the early 1960s, recounted similar scenarios to Offley in Red November,[29] over Soviet torpedoing of Scorpion and details his own service on USS Haddo in 1977 running inside Soviet waters off Vladivostok, when torpedoes appeared to have been fired at Haddo, but were immediately put down by the captain as a Soviet torpedo exercise. I LOVED MY SERVICE ABOARD SCORPION. EM. This was after the Navy had released sound tapes from its underwater SOSUS listening system which contained the sounds of the destruction of Scorpion. Newburgh. Court of inquiry, finding of fact #49 to 53, see, Pages using duplicate arguments in template calls, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2014, Articles incorporating text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, "USS Scorpion (SSN 589) May 27, 1968 – 99 Men Lost", Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage, "Submarine vets call for USS Scorpion investigation", http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2012/11/10/scorpion-expedition-navy/1692343/, "Strange Devices That Found the Sunken Sub Scorpion.
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