The loss of the USS Thresher submarine

[Louis]

On the morning of April 10, 1963, at approximately 9:18 a.m., USS Thresher was lost with all 129 crew and civilian riders on board. Thresher had just completed a nine-month overhaul and modernization availability at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in which she received new electronic and sonar equipment as well as other upgrades and repairs.

Conducting several successful shallow dives along the way, Thresher transited east-southeast to her dive point 220 miles off of Cape Cod where the Continental Shelf ends and the ocean’s depth plummets to 8400 feet. As her controlled dive began in 100-foot increments, Thresher sent routine messages to the rescue ship, USS Skylark. At 9:17 a.m., Skylark received a garbled message “…minor difficulties, have positive up-angle, attempting to blow.” Then Thresher went silent. Skylark attempted to regain contact by all means available, but to no avail. Thresher was lost.

From: fosters.com & scottbrowngraphics.com

 

[Louis]

It reminds me of the loss of our ARA San Juan in Nov 2017.

 

[jobu88]

It's a dangerous business and unforgiving of errors, either human errors or design errors. About the only less forgiving environment is in space.

 

[Sgt Joch]

I have always been fascinated by the story of the USS Thresher. The sub was lost when I was a young lad and it spurred my lifelong interest in military history and naval warfare.

The offical story is that a pipe ruptured causing catastrophic flooding, but an alternative theory was put forward a few years ago which to me is more plausible, namely that an electrical short caused the reactor to shut down. Because of the depth, the ballast blower could not overcome the water pressure and the reactor could not be re-started quickly enough before the sub drifted past its crush depth.

http://www.designed4submariners.com/uploads/Docs_Thresher_and_Scorpion_Loss.pdf

 

[Probus]

Was the Thresher a Sturgeon class submarine or is/was there a Thresher class?