All hands — 129 men — died. It was the first loss of a new nuclear powered, fast-attack submarine.
After months of searching, the Navy located the remains of the Thresher 220 miles east of Boston using the 1950s-era Trieste, a navigable underwater vehicle.
The cause of the disaster is still in question. A likely scenario, according to findings from a Naval Court of Inquiry, is a flooding casualty in the engine room causing a piping system failure in one of the submarine’s saltwater systems. Many faulty pipe welds were found throughout the ship.
The loss of the Thresher spurred the development of the Navy’s Submarine Safety (SUBSAFE) quality-assurance program, still in place today, which includes formal submarine design requirements, the verification of inspections, and other safety criteria.
The Navy also made search and rescue a top priority after the Thresher tragedy, establishing the Deep Submergence Systems Project to create a rescue vehicle for the crews of submarines.
The Scorpion disappears
Five years later, a second U.S. nuclear sub disappeared in the mid-Atlantic. The USS Scorpion was returning from maneuvers in the Mediterranean. As family members waited for their loved ones to arrive at Pier 22 at Naval Station Norfolk, Va., May 27, 1968, naval personnel already suspected the vessel, operating under radio silence, had met a tragic end. Families initially were told the sub was delayed, but early news reports indicated it might have been missing. The Scorpion was declared “presumed lost” June 5.
In October 1968, the USNS Mizar (T-AGOR-11), a Navy oceanographic research ship, found the Scorpion. Unlike the Thresher, the Scorpion’s bow remained somewhat intact. The investigation of the sinking proved inconclusive. Most of the hearings were closed to the public, and given the political tensions at the time, many suspected Soviet involvement.
About two decades later, from 1993-95, Stephen Johnson wrote a series of articles on the tragedy for The Houston Chronicle and examined declassified Navy records for his book Silent Steel (Wiley, 2006). He found that, partly due to Cold War pressures to keep subs on patrol, the Scorpion was given a mini-overhaul rather than a full safety rehab. To what extent that decision led to the tragedy is unknown.
“I conducted interviews with original witnesses to the Court of Inquiry and dozens of other participants in the investigation and pored over official documents, and I still don’t know precisely what happened to the boat,” Johnson says. “It’s a deeply complex story about a series of events with unintended consequences.”
A successful search
A year before the Scorpion was lost, in 1967, then-Army reservist Ballard transferred to the U.S. Navy and began serving as a liaison between the Office of Naval Research in Boston and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Research Institute. After completing his active duty obligations, Ballard joined the Navy Reserve. He obtained a doctorate in marine geology and geophysics and led a team to develop a system of technologically advanced, deep-sea submersible vehicles and remotely controlled robots.
In 1982, Ballard approached Ronald Thunman, then-deputy chief of Naval Operations for Submarine Warfare, for funding to develop and test the new technology he needed to look for the Titanic. The Navy was not interested in the Titanic — but they were interested in using the new technology to investigate the condition of the nuclear reactors on the Thresher and Scorpion. Thurman made Ballard a deal. If he successfully investigated the sub sites, time and funding permitting, he could look for the Titanic.
In the summer of 1985, Ballard located the Thresher and Scorpion, and his data showed the subs’ nuclear reactors were safe and not affecting the environment.
In the 1999 PBS NOVA special “Submarines, Secrets, and Spies,” Ballard explained what he felt when he first discovered the subs. “It was eerie, it was very much like going to a battlefield or going to Pearl Harbor. Something horrible happened here, and a lot of people died. And you sense that.”
Ironically, it was Ballard’s observations of the Thresher and Scorpion wreckage that enabled him to find the Titanic at all, after many had searched before him. In his book The Eternal Darkness (Princeton University Press, 2000), Ballard expresses his surprise that objects from the subs were spread over miles in comet-like trails. It occurred to him that if he looked on the sonar for the Titanic’s debris trail, rather than the ship itself, he might have better luck.
And he did, despite having only 12 days to look before the equipment was scheduled for another Navy project.
Since his landmark discovery in 1985, Ballard has used this technique to find many other important ships, including the German battleship Bismarck, the USS Yorktown (CV-5), and John F. Kennedy’s PT-109.
“We now had a key to unlock other secrets that the world’s vast oceans had been hiding,” Ballard wrote. MO
— Elaine Luddy Klonicki is a freelance writer based in North Carolina. This is her first feature article for Military Officer.
APRIL 2012 MILITARY OFFICER 59
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