Titanic, - the rest of the story, ...

[North Pack]

According to newly declassified information, the Navy sent Commander (Dr.) Robert "Bob" Ballard, the oceanographer credited for the successful search for the wreck of RMS Titanic, on a secret mission to map and collect visual data on both Thresher  and Scorpion wrecks.[citation needed] The Navy used Ballard's search for Titanic as a screen to hide the mission.
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 Ballard approached the Navy in 1982 for funding to find Titanic  with his new deep-diving robot submersible. The Navy saw the opportunity and granted him the money on the condition he first inspect the two submarine wrecks. Ballard's robotic survey discovered that Thresher  had sunk so deep it imploded, turning into thousands of pieces. His 1985 search for Scorpion, which was thought to be a victim of a Soviet attack, revealed such a large debris field that it looked "as though it had been put through a shredding machine." The survey data revealed the most likely cause of the loss of Scorpion was one of its own torpedoes exploding inside the torpedo room. Once the two wrecks had been visited, and the radioactive threat from both was established as small, Ballard was able to search for Titanic. Due to dwindling funds, he had just 12 days to do so, but he used the same debris-field search techniques he had used for the two subs, which worked, and Titanic was found.[6]

[TCups]

And do you know what sank the Thresher?  I do.  With the advent of the nuclear power plant, a sub had, effectively, an unlimited power supply.  That being the case, sub drivers could trim the subs to have a negative buoyancy, and using the driving power of their nuclear powered engines and dive planes, simply drive the sub up or down without having to blow the ballast tanks.  That all worked well, until on a deep dive, the reactor scrammed because something was out of whack, and the power shut down.  This prompted the emergency need to blow the ballast tanks to surface.  Unfortunately, after days or weeks of not blowing the ballast tanks, the compressed air needed to do so had cooled to ambient temp.  When the emergency ballast valves were opened wide, the rapid expansion of the compressed gas supercooled the valves, and the valves froze up.  Oops.  I believe they eventually found some of the drowned crew with blowtorches in hand trying desperately to heat and free the frozen valves, but sadly, not in time to prevent the Thresher's final, fatal dive.

[North Pack]

And on the Thresher they had "a few" brazed pipes, instead of welded. One of which is believed to be the cause of the leak, - which grew larger as they passed their "test depth".

[TCups]

Of all the branches of the Military Service, being a Submariner would scare me the most, I think.  BTW, Mike Melick was a Submariner, I believe -- back in the days of the diesel boats.

[North Pack]

I've only been on one, - and it's on dry land in Portsmouth N.H.. - You couldn't get me on one of those things at sea for anything. If you aren't claustrophobic when you go aboard, you will be when you get off.
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http://www.ussalbacore.org/

[SDale]

It's actually not that bad being a Submariner. I was on 2 different boats. USS Providence SSN719 and the USS Tucson SSN770.  The torpedos exploding in the Scorpion was a result of a Hot Run. The fish's engine started up before loading was complete then she heated up and swelled to the point it stuck in the tube. Once it's running, it's running till it's dead. They couldn't shut it down and couldn't reverse course fast enough to activate the failsafe.

[North Pack]

Congrats on your service, - while I always had an interest in them, and a WWII "Battle Of The Atlantic" history buff - being on one full time is something I'd pass on. The Albcore link above is quite a sub, - propelled by two "vertically mounted" diesels - forget the cylinders or HP, but one fast sub. - There's a paragraph there saying a speed of 40 mph submerged was achieved, - and this was in the sixties. - Like most things, if nothing goes wrong, you're all set, - but with a sub if there's problem (Scorpion/Thresher come to mind) getting off or out presents a problem. - Again, thanks for your service., ...

[Big_Bill]

I agree with you Tommy,

I was on a sub moored in the Philadelphia Navy Yard, and almost died before I got off. Those damn door ways are so low, even the kids had to duck down to get through them.

I whacked my head twice, even ducking as low as I could, one can only guess how many times I would have smashed my head if I really needed to get off that boat !!!!

Can anyone say "OUCH !!!!!"

Bill

[SDale]

No need for thanks... Just doing my Job and my DUTY!

There's LOTS of failsafes in place to rpevent sinking of the newer boats from anything short of a topedo or in-hull explosion. But like you said, emergency egress is something to think about. The escape trunks and Steinkie Hoods have ALWAYS been though of as a joke by just about everyone in the Sub Fleet. Imagine tring to get 135 guys off a boat, through 2 escape trunks 5 each at a time. It ain't gunna happen unless you're in almost IDEAL circumstances.  I think the only thing they're good for in ingress & egress of Spec-Ops forces or divers.


HO HO HO HO!!! <---  hehehehe there's a few other bubble heads here who know what I'm talkin about

[North Pack]

I read a book on the Kursk incident, - quite interesting to say the least. They also had a HUGE torpedo go off aboard, and as you know I'm sure, just about blew the bow completely off a VERY heavily constructed boat. Had so much force it registered about a 3. something on the Richter Scale. a number of things were impressive, but one of the most was a young officer who managed to get into a stern compartment. After all he had JUST endured, he KNEW they were in relatively shallow water, and tried to "time their decent" to the bottom. Under those circumstances how he STILL had the "presence of mind" to even attempt that just blows my mind.
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http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2007/04/16/the-remains-of-kursk-submarine/

[TCups]

check out the panoramic images.

http://www.nonplused.org/panos/uss_pampanito/index.html

"USS Pampanito is a World War II Balao class Fleet submarine museum and memorial. Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during World War II during which she sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others. Her biggest day came on September 12, 1944, when she and two other submarines surprised an 11-ship convoy and sank seven vessels. Later, Pampanito rescued 73 Allied prisoners of war who had been carried aboard the enemy transports."

[North Pack]

Great link TCups, - but clearly these things had WAY TOO much open space, talk about a pleasure cruise!!! ... ... Most WWII subs couldn't "safely" dive much deeper than their own length.