Damage To Submarine Believed Severe

Since 01-13-05

Excerpted from NSL UPDATE 01-12-05

USS San Francisco Back In Guam Homeport
By Robert A. Hamilton, New London Day, 11 Jan 05

Photographs of the USS San Francisco returning to Apra Harbor in Guam Monday show the submarine's sonar sphere and forward ballast tanks were heavily damaged when it hit an undersea mountain, experienced submariners said. One man was killed in the collision, and 23 others, about one of every six crewmen on board, were injured and evacuated from the submarine, making the incident one of the most serious undersea accidents in memory. "This is the first time in my memory that anyone was ever killed in one of these accidents," said retired Navy Capt. John W. "Bill" Sheehan of Waterford, who commanded a submarine in the 1970s.

The bow of the submarine normally rides high in the water, but the San Francisco's was steeply angled down as the submarine passed the Orote cliffs in Guam, Navy photos showed. That indicated it was carrying many extra tons of water. Sources said the sonar sphere was cracked, which would allow in about 20 tons of water. The ballast tanks were cracked and flooded as well, the sources said, and portions of the hull near the bow were buckled.
 

SSN 711 coming into pierside and close up of bow lower than normal in the water

Left:  Sail and forward deck      Right:  Upper Rudder at Stern

Retired submariners said the sonar dome, which is always flooded, probably absorbed enough of the impact to keep the pressure hull from cracking, allowing the crew to save the ship. The reactor, located amidships, and the rest of the propulsion plant in the rear of the ship were undamaged, the Navy said.

Navy sources said the ship was traveling more than 500 feet below the surface at more than 30 knots, about 35 mph, when it collided with the sea mount about 350 miles south of Guam. Retired Navy Capt. John C. Markowicz of Waterford said the injuries were not surprising. "Put yourself in an automobile going 35 mph and you hit a brick wall without even having a seat belt on," he said. The crewman who was killed, Machinist Mate 2nd Class Joseph A. Ashley, 24, of Akron, Ohio, died from a head wound he sustained when he was thrown against a pump in the machinery spaces.

***During the Cold War, the Navy focused on charting the Atlantic because of the threat the Soviet Union posed from that direction. Submariners said that until recently some of the Pacific Ocean charts carried warnings based on soundings made by Captain Cook in the 18th century, and even modern charts can be based on soundings taken 20 miles or more apart. Local submariners say the area where the sub was traveling is notorious for no-warning sea mounts; the water depth can change 1,000 fathoms in seconds. "We know more about the backside of the moon than we do about the bottom of the ocean," said retired Navy Capt. James Patton, president of Submarine Tactics and Technology in North Stonington.

The area in which the San Francisco was traveling, through the Caroline Islands chain, is one of the worst, with dozens of islands rising out of the water and many more uncharted seamounts between them. "It's just bad water," Patton said. Submariners said that if the navigation team was operating a Fathometer, the San Francisco probably would have had time to change course no matter how steep the seamount. But if it thought it was in deep water, it might not have been running that piece of equipment.

"The Fathometer sends a signal out, and you can be tracked when you're sending that signal," said retired Navy Capt. Raymond D. Woolrich of Waterford, a previous commander of the Undersea Surveillance Program in the Pacific. "One of the things I found running the undersea surveillance system is that earthquakes happen all the time in the Pacific, and that's how the earth changes," Woolrich said.

"Could there have been an unknown, uncharted seamount? Sure there could have been." Markowicz recalled that during a transit to the North Pole, passing near Iceland, where a lot of volcanic activity occurs, the water depth could shift hundreds of fathoms in four or five seconds, which would not have been enough time to turn a 7,000-ton submarine traveling at 35 mph. "The slope comes up very quickly," Markowicz said.

"You have very little reaction time, and you may not even have as much warning in the Pacific (where the slopes can be even steeper.) I'm sure that the board of investigation will look at the situation very carefully."