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USS SCORPION a Skipjack Class SSN design flaws

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  • #16
    Originally posted by mikethebike View Post
    I was stationed onboard USS orion in 70/71. Heard ALL the rumors of why she went down. My father-in-law was with the US Navy yard in Charleston for 30+ years and was privy to information on the Scorpion and Thresher that was not available to the public back then. On the 10th anniversary of the loss of SSN-589 I asked what he knew about it...his reply:

    "Internal explosion, forward torpedo room. That is all I'm allowed to say....you should be able to figure out the rest."

    In 1971 we had an IC-1 reservist on board for his 2 week summer camp. He had 16 years active duty on pig boats (diesel/electric) and we wondered why you would pack it in that close to retirement. His story was he was in Rota with orders to Scorpion in April 1968. He was due to reenlist for his last 4 years and he told the Yeoman he would not ship over unless they changed his orders to a diesel boat because he KNEW that the crews nickname for Scorpion was 'USS Scrap Iron', that and he didn't want to ride a nuke. The Yeoman said something on the order of 'we got you by the balls, you aren't going anywhere.' Had he not said that the guy would have taken the orders and boarded Scorpion in Rota. He didn't, he flew home and processed out from Norfolk.

    Now, of course this sounded like the ultimate sea story to us...until he produced a copy of the orders.

    I have no doubt the Russians DID NOT attack her. The earthquake theory? Really? Read 'Blind Mans Bluff' by Sherrie Sontag. It tells what my father in law and I believe to be the facts of how she was lost.
    We had a family friend, a young guy my sister knew from high school, who was lost in Scorpion. I also met Sherrie Sontag at a book signing at the Pentagon Book Store that used to exist inside the building back in the late-90s. I did more pleasure reading in that three years than I had in a long time, because I had 44 minutes of quality time on the DC Metro. Not much works in DC, but the Metro is one of them, and I swear by it.

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    • #17
      Originally posted by Tanker View Post
      The torpedo theory got me thinking then I remembered something....this;

      [ATTACH]27872[/ATTACH]

      This photo is where the "alleged" torpedo hit. Notice the window and sail are in the same direction as the one in the lower picture.

      [ATTACH]27873[/ATTACH]

      Notice the hump that Scorpion has? It goes into and is part of the sail in the same spot and in the same shape as the "alleged" torpedo hole.


      I'm going to pass on the torpedo theory...
      The "hump" conceals the exhaust port for the emergency diesel generator. Because they try to minimize the number of through hull protrusions, there are more than a few concentrated in that one area beneath the sail. That it would have been torn off during explosion/implosion is no big surprise as there would have been a lot of air and expanding gases all trying to exit the same weak points in the structure.

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      • #18
        Things that work in DC....

        Sir... You are correct about the Metro!

        During a layover I managed to "drift" into DC the day of the earthquake.
        Landing just :40 minutes after the final tremor vehicle traffic, as usual, was stacked on the "beltway".
        It was the "Metro" that got me to my lodging in Bethesda without further delay.
        The system worked flawlessly to and from the old USN yard everyday!

        My memories of the Metro go farther back to July 1963 when all the streets in DC were tore up.
        The cause of the streets in such disarray, they were building the Metro!

        No one carries books anymore.... everyone has a "tablet" Except me ;)

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        • #19
          Originally posted by blidgepump View Post
          Sir... You are correct about the Metro!

          During a layover I managed to "drift" into DC the day of the earthquake.
          Landing just :40 minutes after the final tremor vehicle traffic, as usual, was stacked on the "beltway".
          It was the "Metro" that got me to my lodging in Bethesda without further delay.
          The system worked flawlessly to and from the old USN yard everyday!

          My memories of the Metro go farther back to July 1963 when all the streets in DC were tore up.
          The cause of the streets in such disarray, they were building the Metro!

          No one carries books anymore.... everyone has a "tablet" Except me ;)
          My wife just bought four Kindles for her and my three kids. Notice there's no fifth one. ;)

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          • #20
            I agree with what generally has been said. I was on the William M. Wood DD-715 at the time. A BUNCH of destroyers were ordered to search for Scorpion at sea, after she did not report in. We were scattered along the east coast, ordered to listen for her, in case she was down off the coast and still alive. What a waste of time !

            Malfunctions of weapons or bad things happening to batteries, (much less nuclear systems), is always a possibility.

            Look at what happened to the Russian submarine Kursk ! They used "cheaper", highly unstable, propellant fuel, and it exploded in the forward torpedo compartment. That warhead was designed to break a US Carrier in two pieces. So when that stuff ignited, . . . Their newer subs will have safer warhead materials, probably solid fuel like on the original Polaris subs.

            Safety has to be deliberate and ongoing. Safety on a warship has to be part of the culture. I guess that was part of the price of learning on Scorpion and Thresher.

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            • #21
              Question about the pictures on the previous page: Did anyone notice that in the two different pictures of the sail, they are reversed? So which one is altered?

              In one, the chunk taken out is on the bottom right, in the other, it's bottom left. Pretty sure they didn't flip it over down there.

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              • #22
                Originally posted by Pacfanweb View Post
                Question about the pictures on the previous page: Did anyone notice that in the two different pictures of the sail, they are reversed? So which one is altered?

                In one, the chunk taken out is on the bottom right, in the other, it's bottom left. Pretty sure they didn't flip it over down there.
                I suspect it's the same reason everyone thought Billy the Kid was left handed due to this picture.



                He was a righty. The negative was mistakenly reversed and the legend of "the left handed gun" was born.

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