I haven't heard too much about this story. How did the sub hit the underwater mountain? Is the captain facing charges?
Put "submarine" in search title/date on the top of the browse page. Many threads/articles on this .
I haven't heard too much about this story
You can also click on 'usssanfrancisco' (under Keywords) near the top of the page. That will bring up several articles.
I hope he will not face charges. That he and his crew saved the ship and themselves AND got it back to port is nothing short of heroic and he deserves the Medal of Honor for it.
An extensive accounting of the original story, along with a running Q&A and discussion by Freeper/Submariners (there are a number of us!), will give anyone interested a good education. The thread is at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316627/posts
A thread on the navigation aspects of this near disaster is at:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1321233/posts
The very short answer to your specific questions is that they were submerged at about 500 feet, going Ahead Flank (30+ knots or more than 35 mph) and they hit an uncharted seamount, not quite head on. Their speed was nearly instantaneously reduced to about 4 knots and they made an emergency surface successfully and managed to drive the sub back to Guam (some 300+ miles) under their own power.
The current charts they were using showed nothing but deep water (6,000 feet or more)anywhere near their desired track. But this region of the world's oceans has not been surveyed to great detail - unlike areas that contain major sealanes, or areas near the continental coasts and most of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, which saw plenty of cold war sub activity.
The skipper, CDR Kevin Mooney, has been 'reassigned' but has NOT been charged with anything. The reassignment is pretty standard in a major event like this, as the skipper will need to devote a ton of time in the months to come to the thorough investigation which will be made. Since being a captain of a US Navy ship is a 24/7 job in and of itself, it would be idiotic to expect him to handle both tasks at once.
As stated elsewhere in this thread, in my opinion everyone on this boat - including the skipper - were both incredibly lucky and oustandingly trained and commanded, to have survived this event! 15 or 20 feet to the left and that seamount would still be unknown; 15 or 20 feet to the right, we would have lost one submarine and its entire crew... and we still might not know there was an underwater mouintain there.
- One more Freeper submarine veteran.