USS Scorpion, SSN-589

RetiredUSNChief

Get over it, snowflake.
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Of all the Sailors to ply the oceans, perhaps none know the ocean is a harsh and unforgiving mistress better than those who serve aboard submarines.

52 years ago today, on May 22, 1968, USS Scorpion was lost with all hands. 99 crewmen on eternal patrol.

She was found four months later in October, approximately 400 nautical miles southwest of the Azores in 9,800 feet of water.

Cause is "unknown", but it's theorized she may have had a hydrogen explosion during a battery charge or a problem with a Mark 37 torpedo (maybe a "hot run"). It's also theorized there may have been flooding via the Trash Disposal Unit or even a Soviet attack.

The second nuclear submarine to be lost by the United States, she and the USS Thresher are often referred to as being on "Port and Starboard watches".

In the macabre humor submariners have, there are times when we're perfectly aware that it's entirely possible to place the Thresher and Scorpion in "three section duty".

You can Google images of the wreckage, but here's one showing the stern which "telescoped" into the engineroom when the hull fractured as the ship passed through crush depth. Note how sea pressure also crushed the stern planes enough to clearly see the underlying ribs.

Fair winds and following seas, shipmates. We'll meet again on Fiddler's Green.

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Subs are a different animal. Was never Navy as I was a Jarhead but worked at the Submarine Base in Groton for 26 years and every sub sailor passed through there at one time or another.
 
I was an Army Combat Engineer but I truly love submarines! Read about them, visit them, watch any documentary about them, just finished another Silent Service on YouTube about the USS Tang. Tough way to make a living!
 
It’s pretty amazing to watch them being built and worked on. I fought a few fires on them. The largest was the USS Miami fire.

ETA: The Miami fire was actually 8 years ago tomorrow.
 
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What got me hooked was reading about the Squalus sinking in the 30s and the Sculpin coming to her rescue. She got to return the favor in WW II after she was renamed the Sailfish and the Sculpin was sunk. She sunk the transport carrying the survivors of the Sculpin. I got to dive on a Japanese R class boat in the Marshall Islands. nothing left of her but the pressure hull. I’m planning a dive on the U85 off the NC coast later this year. I’ve been through about 6-8 WW II boats and would love to go through a new Fast Attack boat sometime. Almost got the chance in Norfolk when my niece was stationed there but it never came about.
 
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They are pretty tight who they let in them as there is a good amount of stuff they don't want out. We all had secret clearance and when we did tours there were some places they didn't want us to go. Not like we would know what we were looking at LOL You should take a trip to Groton sometime and tour the USS Nautilus and go through the Submarine museum. If you are ever in that area stop in.
 
They are pretty tight who they let in them as there is a good amount of stuff they don't want out. We all had secret clearance and when we did tours there were some places they didn't want us to go. Not like we would know what we were looking at LOL You should take a trip to Groton sometime and tour the USS Nautilus and go through the Submarine museum. If you are ever in that area stop in.

I toured the Nautilus the last time I was up there, and got the classified tour through the engineering spaces, as I and the guys I was with were nukes off the Narwhal at the time.

Maybe some day they'll open it up to the public. They have a declassified tour path through the engineering spaces, but NAVSEA 08 still won't allow it to be open to the public.
 
That’s cool they did that. We went through all those spaces on the Nautilus as we ran drills with the crew for fire, rad issues and ems.

My wife’s father actually helped build the Nautilus when he worked at EB.
 
They are pretty tight who they let in them as there is a good amount of stuff they don't want out. We all had secret clearance and when we did tours there were some places they didn't want us to go. Not like we would know what we were looking at LOL You should take a trip to Groton sometime and tour the USS Nautilus and go through the Submarine museum. If you are ever in that area stop in.
I want to do that, plus visit the Olympia, U.S.S. Massachusetts and the U.S.S. New Jersey, but you have to go NORTH to do it. I’m just not sure I want to go out of the country! I’ve heard you have to have a passport to get back into NC from there!
 
I toured the Nautilus the last time I was up there, and got the classified tour through the engineering spaces, as I and the guys I was with were nukes off the Narwhal at the time.

Maybe some day they'll open it up to the public. They have a declassified tour path through the engineering spaces, but NAVSEA 08 still won't allow it to be open to the public.
Really!? 1950s technology? Must be some good stuff! But there again that’s state of the art for North Korean subs and most Chinese subs as well!
 
LOL yup you got to cross the Mason Dixon and show your papers to get back but it's worth it. ;)

There is still an active reactor on the Nautilus so even with 50's tech they don't want people just walking through. You never know what people have in their mind.
 
Really!? 1950s technology? Must be some good stuff! But there again that’s state of the art for North Korean subs and most Chinese subs as well!

Yes, really.

The reason why is because the actual layout of the propulsion plant itself on a submarine has a lot to do with sound silencing, and sound silencing is paramount in the Silent Service.
 
LOL yup you got to cross the Mason Dixon and show your papers to get back but it's worth it. ;)

There is still an active reactor on the Nautilus so even with 50's tech they don't want people just walking through. You never know what people have in their mind.

The core has long since been removed, and the primary system itself is almost entirely contained in the shield Reactor Compartment. People would not be be getting access to the RC anyway.

As for radiation levels, they could remove the shielding on the side of the submarine today, if they wished.
 
Hmm we ran radcon drills there like it was still a reactor in there as we ran them on other boats and were told there is one but glad there isn't. One less thing to worry about on the waterfront.
 
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