Submarine Tragedy

Submariners the world over feel a kinship that transcends nationality. When I heard of the accident aboard the Kursk years ago, I was horrified and followed the story of the rescue efforts closely. The running aground of the U.S.S. San Francisco, while it is fortunately not as serious, has nevertheless resulted in a fatality and many serious injuries.

Back in my days as a submariner, I recall poring over a chart once, seeing sea mounts like the one postulated in this incident, and wondering what the odds were that something like this would happen while I was on board. The surveys that these charts are based upon are pretty good, but a a sea mount here and there is bound to be missed and the fact is that submarines have to drive blind.

The nuclear submarine that ran aground Saturday in the South Pacific hit so "incredibly hard" that about 60 of its 137 crew members were injured and the sailor who died was thrown 20 feet by the impact, according to internal Navy e-mail messages sent by a top admiral.

The messages said the submarine's hull was severely damaged after the head-on crash into what Navy officials believe was an undersea mountain that was not on the navigation charts. One message said the submarine, the San Francisco, was traveling at high speed, and the impact practically stopped it in its tracks and caused flooding in parts of the bow.

The death resulted from an attempted medical evacuation that failed. The story mentions that an admiral is to determine who was responsible for the submarine's running aground. This may seem to contradict the earlier mention of the "uncharted" sea mount. However, such investigations are standard procedure in any grounding. If indeed the mount was uncharted, I'd be pretty surprised to see anyone from the boat take a fall for this. The rest of the report sounds pretty accurate to me. (Oops! I may well be wrong!)

I hope for a safe return home to the crew of the U.S.S. San Francisco and offer my condolences to the family of Petty Officer Ashley.

-- CAV

Updates

1-13-05 corrected typos
1-17-05 linked to update