I'll be checking back to see if someone knowledgeable will explain how this might have happened. Bad navigation? Unexpected sandbar? And how does a submarine free itself - can you just put it in reverse?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is a lot depends on tides and currents and the structural integrity of the boat. I am sure so ex-dolphins will be by shortly to give you a much better explanation.
I'm a submarine veteran.
There aren't enough facts in the article to make a hypothesis. Have to wait for more to come out.
Were they submerged when they ran aground? Or on the surface? 350 miles from Guam tells me they were most likely submerged, but there is no way of knowing. A submerged collision with the sea floor is a serious thing, especially if they were going at high speed.
I dont think this is the result of hitting a sand bar. Too many injuries and too much damage.
As has been mentioned... "that depends" on what "run aground" means. But in general, if the ship isn't damaged they have lots of options. Remember that running aground in a surface ship is tough because you aren't afloat any longer. Getting off involves a lucky tide, and/or an application of power (that may or may not work). A submarine has an additional option caused by the fact that it isn't left high and dry. It can always just increase it's buoyancy and surface (again presuming a lack of crippling damage). It would really take an interesting collision to "trap" the sub in three dimensions.
Surface ships don't have an "up" option when run aground.
I suspect this is a bottom collision, because the article says the boat was underway on its own power and heading into port with damage, and it was 350 miles from port and thats a long way to do a surface transit.
Lots of reasons a boat can strike something submerged. It may be a submerged object that is floating on the currents, or they may have struck the ocean floor in a shallow area.
Depending on the speed, the sonar may or may not be useful.
The shaft does turn in both directions, so yeah, that's a possibility.
Poorly charted water. A coral mount that wasn't supposed to be there, but was. The fathometer won't warn you about those. (And neither will sonar).
And how does a submarine free itself - can you just put it in reverse?
Yep. Blow ballast tanks and backup --unless you think you breached the pressure hull, then you stay put and wait for rescue.
There's a few ways to do it. There was a boat coming into Little Creek that ran aground on a sandbar once. Since it happened at low tide, all they had to do was wait for the tide to come in, which floated the boat again and they got right out of there. Sometimes tugs have to pull you out. It all depends on the situation.
About 40 years ago, the Nathan Hale was racing to get home when they ran aground off the British Isles. I never heard the real reason for what happened, but speculations were about their 'dead reconing' being off, not paying attention, bad charts of the area, etc. Basically, somebody did something dumb.
Truth was the boat was making 'all ahead frantic' on their way into Holy Loch, Scotland when they actually collided with the continental shelf outside the Firth of Clyde. They had planned on steaming another tweny minutes before slowing and surfacing, but clobbered the bottom instead.
The collision all but destroyed the bow compartment. Fortunately for them, it was a glancing blow that knocked them toward the surface. A big block of granite lodged in the hull, however, and came clear through the pressure hull and the ballast tanks into the bow compartment. There were three people in that compartment at the time. They simply shut and dogged the watertight door to the rest of the boat and put a pressure in the compartment. The air pressure forced the water back out the hole. The rumor was that those three guys sat in there and used that boulder as a table while they played a little poker. It would be just like those idiots to do just that.
The injuries were only minor, I believe. Guys got banged around a little is all. The boat surfaced immediately and radioed in. The base at Holy Loche had the dry dock ready for them and they just drove right into it. After some patch work, they sailed the boat back to Groton, CT, and had Electric Boat weld a new bow compartment on.
That was when I showed up. The XO asked if I was going to let a little thing like my new boat having bounced off the bottom bother me. I said, "Are you kidding, XO? Damn right I am!" So they transfered me to the FS Key.
That's pretty much how I got the handle 'neversweat'. :-)