US Navy began publishing documents on the death of the Thresher submarine

Yesterday, the US Navy began publishing documents on the investigation of the deadliest submarine disaster in the US stories... The reason for the publication of these materials was the court decision on the claim of a retired officer fleet James Bryant, who declared his legal right to have access to the documents.

This was written by David Sharp in an article published by the Associated Press.

Of the 1700 pages of the investigation, which will eventually be published in full, the first 300 have been made public. According to the US Navy, the documents presented on Wednesday reveal nothing new. These include the chronology of the submarine sinking, lists of evidence, reports, eyewitness statements and various official correspondence. True, you can see that the documents were later amended.

Submarine USS Thresher sank on April 10, 1963. She was the first in her series. Its main advantages over its predecessors operating during the Second World War were its high speed and the ability to dive to great depths.

There are several versions of the reasons for the death of the submarine. The official version says that the accident occurred due to a leak from the seawater pipeline designed to cool the reactor. A crack in the pipe caused water to enter the wiring in the engine room and short circuit, causing the reactor to shut down. As a result, the boat sank below the maximum depth, and its hull burst, unable to withstand the high pressure. The submarine was torn into six fragments and scattered within a radius of 300 meters.

The loss of a state-of-the-art nuclear-powered submarine and the deaths of all 129 people on board during a test dive to extreme depth during the height of the Cold War struck a blow to US national pride and became the impetus for strengthening security measures in the US Navy.

After the death of the submarine, the type of submarines "Thrasher" was renamed, calling it "Permit", like the next ship in this series. The accident investigation helped to reveal a large number of flaws in the design of these submarines, so they decided to suspend the commissioning of 31 new submarines of this type.

Comments

[Mavrikiy]

Each has a skeleton in the closet.

[antivirus]

Each has a skeleton in the closet.
- the skeleton of a cat?
or crocodile skeleton?

[krot]

Pipe crack

This is how a little trifle, it would seem, can lead to disaster!

[The leader of the Redskins]

The profession of a submariner has always evoked respect.
I'm a tanker. In which case you can leave the tank, there are enough hatches. Unless, of course, the bookmaker rushed. But the submariner ...
He has nowhere to go. He can spend days under the water column in a slowly dying boat and understand that nothing can be changed.

[Greenwood]

Quote: Leader of the Redskins

He can spend days under the water column in a slowly dying boat.

As for Thresher, then everything here most likely happened almost instantly.

[Vol4ara]

Quote: Greenwood

Quote: Leader of the Redskins

He can spend days under the water column in a slowly dying boat.

As for Thresher, then everything here most likely happened almost instantly.

I don’t understand how they guessed to test the strength of the hull in a place with such a great depth, they really didn’t find a smaller place.

[Avior]

The destruction of the hull occurred at a depth of over 700 meters, the boat sank 360 degrees.
If the depths were about 500 meters, there would be a chance, if it was possible to repair the damage and blow the tanks. Above was a rescue ship.
On the other hand, it was possible to drown at 100 meters.
The depth of the Kursk tragedy was less than its length.
There is one more problem. According to one of the versions, the accident occurred due to the shutdown of the reactor and power outage.
Was it really difficult to foresee the necessary emergency reserve of energy in a conventional auxiliary battery, like on a DEPL? It would not take up much space, and security would increase dramatically

[garri-lin]

As one friend of a submariner said, sometimes they pray about this. Creepy.

[Alien From]

I agree with you, submariners are akin to astronauts, a difficult and dangerous profession!

[mat-vey]

Quote: Alien From

submariners are akin to astronauts,

Well, when Picard was preparing his voyage on the Ben Franklin mesoscaphe on the Gulf Stream, he seemed to cooperate with NASA - the habitat was like on a space station. The parameters of the life support system, food for astronauts and the psychology of enclosed space were studied ..

[impostor]

I'm a tanker. In which case you can leave the tank, there are enough hatches. Unless, of course, the bookmaker rushed. But the submariner ...
He has nowhere to go. He can spend days under the water column in a slowly dying boat and understand that nothing can be changed.

A fierce warrior can accept death in any environment, including in a tank, observing the contents of his intestines and feeling for some time the burning of his own flesh. This is not the point. A warrior, choosing his destination, always realizes that this is possible, although he drives this thought into the nooks of consciousness. More terrible is another. From the burnt-out tank, you can get the remains and understand how everything happened. But the sea keeps its secrets. It is no coincidence that these guys are often lowered wreaths not on the gravestone, but into the blue abyss ...

[Lionnvrsk]

Quote: Leader of the Redskins

The profession of a submariner has always evoked respect.
I'm a tanker. In which case you can leave the tank, there are enough hatches.

My classmate after the military department left to serve. When crossing the water barrier on the T-62 (at night there was a heavy downpour, the level rose and the current intensified), there was a withdrawal from the direction of movement. As a result, he and the gunner could not leave the tank and drowned.

[antivirus]

acquaintance, director of the company: they offered to cut metal scrap by minus 30 meters (in mines) - it is better at a height of 30 m. did not climb there with the brigade

[K298rtm]

Getting nowhere from the submarine

[Narak-zempo]

Well, how to say, a tanker is more likely to be burned alive despite the fact that after being hit you may well be unable to get out.
In a dying boat, in the absence of hope for salvation and the presence of personal weapons, you can at least shoot yourself.

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: Leader of the Redskins

The profession of a submariner has always evoked respect.

Quote: Leader of the Redskins

He has nowhere to go. He can spend days under the water column in a slowly dying boat and understand that nothing can be changed.

I have a military profession - "from heaven but head to the enemy." I was not afraid to jump, because we lay the domes ourselves. On someone else's styling I would be afraid.

But that's not what I mean. I am essentially your comment. I always knew that you would not fall further than the ground, and while you are falling, there are options. The main thing is not to get confused and so that the body automatically remembers the necessary movements. But I never had to go under water and I would always be afraid - that's why I respect submariners. From there, from the depths, there is nowhere to go. And, indeed, we have, in which case, death is quick. And there...

The late father has a childhood friend, captain of the 1st rank. The kid called all his friends and colleagues "Uncle Vasya", "Uncle Slava", etc. For some reason I always respected this one by name and patronymic ... Somehow I respected him in a special way.

[Mountain shooter]

Submariners are like astronauts. Overboard is an absolutely hostile environment, and in 99% of cases help will not be in time. Heroic profession. Nerves of steel.

[Catfish]

At one time, the American astronaut Malcolm Scott Carpenter said that there is no less unexplored on Earth than in Space and went to work under water with Jacques Yves Cousteau.
“In 1962 and 1963, he oversaw the design and development of the Apollo lunar module and served as Assistant Director of the Manned Space Flight Center in Houston.
During this time he became interested in the underwater work done by the French oceanographer Cousteau in his Conshelf program. He saw many parallels between this work and the work done by the American space program. He received leave from NASA to join the Conshelf program. "(C)

[KVU-NSVD]

ubmarina was torn into six fragments and scattered within a radius of 300 meters.

Of course, I am far from the peculiarities of the submarine, but as a result of crushing, the submarine cannot be torn to pieces, it can be crushed by pressure, but not fragmentarily scattered over a huge radius. Following elementary logic, only an explosion can scatter body fragments - internal, or (unlikely) from an external carrier (torpedo, mine, ram)

[Fantazer911]

The Titanic also fell to pieces and they are not next to each other, due to the immersion of the body in depth, these are the irregularities of the object and its twisting as the speed of diving increases and + underwater marks at different layers of depth, such as it is simple.

[boris epstein]

Steam boilers were not extinguished on the Titanic to the last. Therefore, when immersed in cold water, the boilers exploded.

[Greenwood]

Quote: Boris Epstein

Steam boilers were not extinguished on the Titanic to the last.

If this were so, then the boilers would have exploded when the ship was just beginning to fill with water. To prevent this, the team of engineers gradually extinguished the fire in the furnaces and took the boiler rooms out of work as they flooded. This made it possible to avoid an explosion in the boiler rooms and to maintain the power supply on the ship, so that the lights were on, the telegraph and the pumps that pumped out water were working.

Quote: Boris Epstein

Therefore, when immersed in cold water, the boilers exploded.

There was no boilers exploding. The ship broke due to the weight of the stern sticking out of the water.

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: Fantazer911

The Titanic also fell to pieces and they are not next to each other, due to the immersion of the body in depth, these are the irregularities of the object and its twisting as the speed of diving increases and + underwater marks at different layers of depth, such as it is simple.

The Titanic "fell" about six kilometers, this submarine is much smaller.

[Piramidon]

Quote: KVU-NSVD

The Titanic "fell" about six kilometers, this submarine is much smaller.

On September 1, 1985, an expedition led by the director of the Woods Hall Institute of Oceanology, Massachusetts, Dr. Robert Ballard, discovered the location of the Titanic at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean at a depth 3750 meters.

[Undecim]

Following elementary logic, only an explosion can scatter body fragments - internal, or (unlikely) from an external carrier (torpedo, mine, ram)
Try crushing a nut shell.

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: Undecim

Following elementary logic, only an explosion can scatter body fragments - internal, or (unlikely) from an external carrier (torpedo, mine, ram)
Try crushing a nut shell.

Give at least one example of a submarine that has been proven to be "scattered" by the pressure of the upper layer of water? And the nut, when unclenched by the hand, simply cracks, it scatters only from being hit with a hammer, but this submarine did not instantly hit the extreme depth, it collapsed gradually as it dived (unfortunately for the crew, the kingdom is heavenly ...)

[Undecim]

You are oversimplifying.
Naturally, no one watched the picture of the destruction of a strong submarine hull under the influence of critical pressure.
But the theory of stability of shells and experimental studies in this area allow us to say that, under the influence of external pressure, the loss of stability of the initial form of equilibrium and the subsequent destruction of a strong body in this case occurs suddenly and almost instantly.
In the process of loss of stability of the shells, the internal energy of interatomic bonds is released, which hold the elastic deformations of tension and shear, which accumulate during compression and torsion of the shell due to the Poisson effect and the mutual influence of linear and angular
deformations on top of each other.
This energy is quite significant. It is possible to estimate approximately the energy of destruction of the "Thresher" body through the work of water. If we assume that the hull collapsed at a depth of 600 m and the free internal volume of the hull was replaced by 1500 tons of water, then the work of seawater - the product of pressure and volume, will be equivalent to the explosion energy of two tons of TNT.

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: Undecim

... If we assume that the hull collapsed at a depth of 600 m and the free internal volume of the hull was replaced by 1500 tons of water, then the rakbot of seawater - the product of pressure and volume, will be equivalent to about two tons of TNT.

You plunged straight up to six hundred meters, and then it took and burst? I think leaks would have started much earlier, and then catastrophic leaks. Yes, and following your assumptions, six pieces would not have been enough. After all, the pressure would build up simultaneously throughout the boat, and it would explode like a fragmentation grenade. I think there was an internal explosion.

[Undecim]

Leaks, leaks - they do not affect the destruction of the case. The hull breaks down pressure, which increases with depth.
As for your doubts - you asked, I answered. If you are more savvy in the theory of shell stability - go for it. All the best.

[garri-lin]

To divide into 6 pieces, you need several explosions.

[dauria]

the product of pressure and volume will be equivalent to the explosion energy of two tons of TNT.

Listen to you - so not a single whole boat should not be at the bottom, only lumps. This is how they find completely whole cases.

[Undecim]

Listen to you
So who makes you do not listen. And at what depths are entire submarine hulls found? how did they sink? Not interested?

[Avior]

When immersed, air locks are formed, the air pressure in them increases with depth, possibly destruction occurs due to compressed air under pressure

[KVU-NSVD]

Quote: Avior

When immersed, air locks are formed, the air pressure in them increases with depth, possibly destruction occurs due to compressed air under pressure

But six pieces within a radius of three hundred meters? I saw an oxygen tank exploding. There are only three pieces, and the spread is less than a hundred meters - this is in the air, the water prevents the spread more strongly.

[Avior]

However, in principle, parts can fly under high pressure.
If the boat had a course before the tragedy, then by inertia it continued to move, and breaking apart during submersion, the parts were scattered along the way.
Everything happened in just a few minutes.

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: KVU-NSVD

I saw an oxygen tank exploding. There are only three pieces, and the spread is less than a hundred meters - this is in the air, the water prevents the spread more strongly.

I saw the remains of an oxygen tank that not very smart people put into the fire. See what happens. So there were just two pieces - the bottom was torn off, and the balloon itself was deployed like an orchid. By the way, the bottom hit in the groin of one of the "smart guys", who was standing 25-30 meters away. The nearest hospital was about 80 kilometers away. Not delivered. Darwin Prize ...

As boys, we loved to put cans from "Dichlorvos" into the fire. The point is that inside the pressure from the heat of the fire rises - thermodynamics, Charles's law. And here ... Inside the boat, the pressure is constant, atmospheric. It grows outside. Should flatten - but it was torn. Probably, after all, the submarine did not die because of the sinking crack, but something on board exploded.

Quote: Avior

When immersed, air locks are formed, the air pressure in them increases with depth, possibly destruction occurs due to compressed air under pressure

In an airlock, the pressure is greater than that which is exerted by the water outside ??? If initially it is plus or minus atmospheric? Avior, teach physics. Thermodynamics, 9th grade of the Soviet school curriculum, 1st quarter.

[ghby]

Quote: Zoldat_A

As boys, we loved to put cans from "Dichlorvos" into the fire.

everyone loved, we gave up this occupation when a splinter overhead stuck into a tree.

[Tochilka]

In my case, the "bomb" was an old blowtorch where we poured water and carbide. The cork was plugged and discarded. 5.10.15 minutes nothing happened. How the most daring and stupid went to watch at the same time. He even grabbed the handle to throw it further. Swung, unclenched his fingers, and she zhahnula. Apparently out of fright, I jerked off in the opposite direction. The guys said that they did not see who would run faster than me then. Well, I was fucked up then. Bonus to the absence of brains. Never in my life participated in such events. The lamp, by the way, fell apart into several pieces. And turned the side inside out.

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: Tochilka

In my case, the "bomb" was an old blowtorch where we poured water and carbide. The cork was plugged and discarded. 5.10.15 minutes nothing happened.

We tore glass bottles with carbide, separating, as a moderator, carbide and water with grass.
Once somehow one regular poor bearer in the courtyard did not have enough glass bottle, he found a liter plastic bottle from under "Whiteness". Our bottles exploded a long time ago, but it keeps getting inflated. Well, he decided to use it with a twig ... He didn't suffer much, but he was covered from head to toe in white rubbish, which remains from carbide with water.

[Angelo Provolone]

As boys, we loved to put cans from "Dichlorvos" into the fire.

Dichlorvos has a stamped bottom. He was knocked out and that's it. And then. unless the valve melts first.
From under the deodorant was funnier. There the bottom was cast. They vomited louder. A ragged trail remained.

[Roman13579]

Should flatten - and it was torn apart.

Why would a sphere have to crumple under an equally distributed pressure ??

[Zoldat_A]

Quote: Roman13579

Should flatten - and it was torn apart.

Why would a sphere have to crumple under an equally distributed pressure ??

The submarine is not a sphere. And its strength characteristics in different sections are different. Where it is weaker - on the other side of the pressure and flattened. And the sphere, even though theoretically in all sections has the same characteristics, in practice it does not. Hatches, portholes, etc. Where it is weaker - on the other side and flattened. The strength of a deep-sea vehicle, even a spherical one, does not tend to infinity. Strength, however.

[Crimean partisan 1974]

and something on board exploded ..... what. what. the nuclear reactor is muffled with absorbing rods. but the fission process goes on as usual and if you do not cool the reactor, then it will bang. what happened along the way according to the published data

[Crimean partisan 1974]

water prevents scattering more ... look how the reactors tear ... at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant during a thermal explosion, it exploded so that the pieces were collected in the area of ​​1500 meters, at Fukushima the same garbage ... if we consider that water has a density greater than density 100 times more than air. then here is the solution ..... the reactor banged and that's it

[garri-lin]

And wherever this air goes for an explosive effect. Around the pressure. Quickly water hammer from the fast filling of the compartments.

[Avior]

When ships sink and an airlock forms inside the hull, the pressure rises as they sink, and the deck may explode.
But, however, this is close to the surface, due to the pressure difference in the bottom and in the upper part of the body, at the depth of such an effect may not be, there the difference is weakly expressed.
Perhaps, due to the water hammer and deformation of the hull, the destruction of individual elements occurred.
Who knows. You can hardly find a video of such events, and the destruction of the case into parts is not such a rare phenomenon.

[Wildgoose]

Strong association with the slang word "Garbage".

[Rzzz]

This is from the name of this cute fish:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thresher_shark
I would not brag about my poor knowledge of foreign languages.

[Wildgoose]

I will not argue with you, because you have a painfully scary avatar))) (by the way, I don’t like this movie either)

[Rzzz]

Come on, I'm not scary. Kind usually.
And the avatar is cool, the character itself is cool and the actor is great.

[AML]

Quote: Avior

Was it really difficult to foresee the necessary emergency reserve of energy in a conventional auxiliary battery, like on a DEPL? It would not take up much space, and security would increase dramatically

Everything happens for the first time. There was not enough power to blow the ballast. About Thresher from 5:30

[Avior]

I've read different versions.
Some of them allowed the opportunity to rectify the situation if there was time for it.
In this case, shallower depths could have saved.
In general, it is strange that for diving tests they have not yet come up with additional hinged tanks or pontoons with emergency ascent systems. Boats are quite expensive even for the loss of one of the most of them, not to mention people.

[Liam]

Quote: Avior

pontoons with emergency ascent systems.

The Komsomol member was not much helped by the emergency rescue system.
Do you even know of cases where the crew of a submarine was rescued from any minimum significant depth?

[Avior]

The .USS Sailfish (SS-192), better known as the Squolus, sank in May 1939 at a depth of 74 meters off the Shoals Islands off the coast of New Hampshire.

All the living were rescued with the help of a rescue chamber - 33 people.

... On August 22, 1957, on the Black Sea, when leaving the Balaklava base, while performing the "urgent dive" maneuver, the M-351 submarine of project A615 sank. The cause of the accident was the open slamming of the air supply to the diesels. The emergency blowing of the main ballast tanks did not give any result, as the boat got stuck in muddy ground at a depth of 84 m. The situation was complicated by stormy weather. Defense Minister Marshal Georgy Zhukov called the commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Fleet Admiral Vladimir Kasatonov, and warned: "If you don't lift the boat and people die, we will judge you." Rescue ships approached the scene of the accident, and four days later the submarine was hooked with a cable and literally pulled out from under the water. All 33 submariners survived.

It's strange that the numbers matched. Mystic.
There were other cases when the boats lay down on the ground below the design depth, were repaired and floated.

... L-20 in September 1943 and S-99 in May 1959. In both cases, due to the ingress of water into the solid hull, the boats sank to a depth below the limit. However, thanks to the energetic actions of the crew, the submarines managed to surface and safely reach the bases.

In general, there were chances to emerge on their own.
For example, it was possible to restart the Threscher reactor if the depth was shallower, and so on.

But I'm talking about taking special measures for an emergency ascent specifically for test dives, and not regular means. So far I have not seen such measures.
The cost of the boat and crew clearly justifies the expense.

[Liam]

Aren't you confused by the dates of these miraculous rescues? 30/40 / 50th.
The then and modern submarines are different devices. If, by analogy with airplanes, an airplane of the 30s could land on a clearing or a lawn in case of a technical malfunction, but a modern airliner does not.
Rescue equipment such as you describe them are not made for the same reasons why they are not made on airplanes. In a real emergency, no one will be saved, but there will only be unnecessary costs and will worsen the design.

[Avior]

There are landings and modern liners - both on the river and on the cornfield
There are rescue chambers on the boats, there was also Komsomolets
No one can give guarantees, we are talking about insurance in isolated especially dangerous moments

[Liam]

Quote: Avior

There are rescue chambers on the boats, there was also Komsomolets

But they never helped when needed.
Of the 8 sunken nuclear submarines, 6 are Soviet / Russian. With rescue chambers. And 2 American submarines without. And the last time, 52 years ago. Since then, hundreds of nuclear submarines have been launched and not one has drowned. Pure statistics)

[Avior]

I'm not strictly talking about nuclear submarines, but generally about testing submarines, and other underwater vehicles for ultimate diving.
In normal operation, such measures, of course, cannot be applied, and it is not necessary.

[Fizik M]

Quote: Liam

Of the 8 sunken nuclear submarines-6 Soviet / Russian. With rescue chambers

YksPERD, learn more first

[Liam]

Quote: Avior

There are landings and modern liners - both on the river and on the cornfield

When the plane landed on the river, it did not have any structural destruction, it was manageable and orders of magnitude safer than any hypothetical rescue chamber.
PySy.And the plane ended up in the corn field due to monstrous mistakes of the crew. And in this case, the rescue chamber is also useless.

[Avior]

Any misfortune is individual, as the classic noticed on the example of the Oblonskys' house.

[Fizik M]

Quote: Liam

And the plane ended up in the cornfield due to the monstrous mistakes of the crew.

EXPED however

[Fizik M]

Quote: Liam

The Komsomol member was not much helped by the emergency rescue system.

if YOU are full of boots in the subject, it would be better to keep quiet

[Catfish]

In my youth, the death of Thresher was one of the biggest sensations. And whatever they talked about, to the point that it was ours who sunk the American boat, nonsense, of course.

[Charik]

Interestingly, and then the Americans-Russians accused how we are for Kursk?

[eklmn]

I asked Google how many nuclear submarines had sunk. Only 9 - in the USSR 5, in Russia - 2, the USA -2.
Info with maps here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines#:~:text=Nine%20nuclear%20submarines%20have%20sunk,States%20Navy%20(USN)%20two.
From the article (translated by Google):
“Of the nine sinkings, two were caused by fires, two by weapons explosions, two by floods, one by bad weather and one by flooding from a damaged nuclear reactor. Only the reason for the sinking of the USS Scorpion is unknown. Eight submarines are in the Northern Hemisphere, five are in the Atlantic Ocean and three are in the Arctic Ocean. The ninth submarine, K-429, was raised and returned to service after both sinkings. ”
the Americans did not blame anyone, they found reasons. It is advantageous for Russia to blame the United States for its mistakes - the people are happy to eat this propaganda. And you can cover your ass.

[Narak-zempo]

Quote: Charik

Interestingly, and then the Americans-Russians accused how we are for Kursk?

You are confusing a famous vegetable with a famous organ. In the history of the Kursk, American ears stick out two meters, but here, with all the desire, not a "high" or even "like".

[eklmn]

"The reason for the publication of these materials was a court decision on the claim of retired naval officer James Bryant, who claimed his legal right to have access to the documents."
I asked Google how many nuclear submarines had sunk. Only 9 - in the USSR 5, in Russia - 2, the USA -2.
Curious, is it possible in Russia to demand access to documents?
It sounds funny, of course, but ...
Info with maps here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sunken_nuclear_submarines#:~:text=Nine%20nuclear%20submarines%20have%20sunk,States%20Navy%20(USN)%20two.

[Shadow041]

The Yankees can write no less such publications than Leo Tolstoy. In the United States, they still keep mum about how many accidents with radiation exposure of the crew on the first American nuclear submarine Nautilus. And then they did not know so much about radiation as they do today and could not provide full protection from the radiation of the crew. Nautilus is the hull of a diesel submarine, into which, almost unchanged, a nuclear reactor was stuck. There were also accidents of the reactor itself and its cooling systems, about which the Yankees prefer to remain silent today. So the death of the Thresher nuclear submarine with the entire crew and factory specialists, the death of the Scorpio nuclear submarine with the entire crew, are far from the only shoals of the US Navy.

[Normal ok]

Back in Soviet times, there was a small book: "The Mystery of Thresher's Death."

[Shadow041]

There is also a book, Disasters in the Deep Sea, available on the Internet.