Navy Releases Photos of Crash Damage to Nuclear Submarine

NY Times ^ | January 28, 2005 | CHRISTOPHER DREW

[jonascord]

This guy's premiums are going WAY up...

I would say that boat is lucky it didn't hit it head on. As it is, the trip back to port must have been one long pucker.

[satchmodog9]

Looks like my wife was driving it.

[OneTimeLurker]

Looks like it was hit by an SUV!

[Danae]

"Holy Cr$# That is a LOT of damage. I would like to know what really happened and HOW it happened! These things are expensive!!.

Now this is a rather hmmn... ignorant comment. The life that was lost is both priceless and irreplacable. The cost of the ship is due to the fact that the lives of the personel manning it are just as priceless. The years of training and experience necessary to living and working aboard one of these ships is worth tens of Millions of dollars. That being said, the boat saved them in turn. If she had not been so beautifully designed, built, and cared for, she would be at the bottom. She served her purpose, she saved their lives.
All in all, the men aboard any US Submarine is worth the cost of the ship hundreds of times over.
IMHO, every man abord that boat deserves an Admiral's Commendation. The fact that that boat is in dry dock at all is something of a major miracle, and that was created in whole by the personel that saved her. The cost of the Boat is nothing compared to the value of the crew.
God Bless the Crew of the San Francisco!!!

[OneTimeLurker]

The mountain will win every time

[al baby]

did the airbags go off if so its totaled buy a new one

[jonascord]

I'm betting the tarp is there to hide from prying eyes what some Clinton appointee has already sold to the Chinese

[Danae]

I know I shouldn't, but I'm laughing at the fact that they put a $30 dollar tarp on a multi-million dollar piece of equipment. Don't want all of the destruction to get wet, I guess...
Nope, the Sonar equipment is classified. They don't want pictures taken of it. No need to let prying eyes know what's what. Besides, that tarp is HUGE, it ain't no 30$ jobbie!

[rottndog]

Further proof that two units of mass cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

[KneelBeforeZod]

what no posts yet about "oh no someone is going to see our top secret submarine design!!"

[El Gran Salseron]

The tarp is to cover up classified equipment for the cameras.

[Danae]

Inertia sucks as much as gravity...

[SmithL]

The writer of this story, Christopher Drew, along with Sherry Sontag, wrote Blind Man's Bluff. It's worth reading, and no tin-foil hats are needed. Those Cold-War warriors pulled some pretty amazing feats of underwater espionage.

Nevertheless, this kind damage wasn't caused by anything sinkable. Besides, the San Francisco undoubtedly brought back samples of whatever they hit. The Navy knows exactly what it was. We're free to guess, but my money is on an uncharted undersea mountain, hit during a high-speed deep transit.

[TaMoDee]

This whole thing reminds me of a scene in the 1957 movie
"The Enemy Below".

The U-Boat Commander Stolberg (Kurt Jurgens) says to his First Officer Heinie Schwaffer (Ted Bikel), after the
U-Boat survived a depth charge attack:

"Yah Heinie, we build them good!"

[MJY1288]

I believe the Navy said the Captain of the Submarine would not be held responsible for the accident because the Charts he was navigating by did not show the underwater maountain he struck

[al baby]

30 dollars at home depot 3300 dollars at the tarp contractor

[hatfieldmccoy]

Oh Oh Time to call Maaco

[mhking]

See what happens when they let the new guy drive?

(More seriously, I'm truly astounded that only one sailor died, especially with that kind of damage)

[longtermmemmory]

You break it you bought it.

[lotusblos]

The sub survived hitting a mountain 500 feet deep, going in excess of 30 knots. Makes me proud to be an American. Our boat yards really know how to put them together.