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You are absolutely correct that they were lucky to surface. Moments after they broke water, the HP air piping in the forward compartment (where the Batt fire was) started to rupture.

Had it happened submerged they may not have had the air to blow the MBT's with. Though they may have been able to pump variable ballast and drove to the surface, for as long as the aft battery held out. Then they could have evacuated as many as possible, while the ship remained broached.

Everyone else? Probably would have joined their shipmates from Thresher and Scorpion. Yes, damned lucky is right.

If the boat went down, there would have been no chance of an SRC or DSVR rescue, as the water was deep enough that it would have imploded the hull before she hit bottom.

112 posted on 12/30/2004 1:36:20 PM PST by 7mmMag@LeftCoast ("....to defend the Constitution of the United States, against all enemies, foreign and domestic")

Yup. Good point. Since the ship I served on was built in the 1940s, it was geared towards subs that had less diving depths... about 850 feet. I took the 800-foot plunge in that SRC... THAT was a blast...

So, since we weren't really needed for sub rescue (though we did drill and drill and drill...) we spent our time doing dive ops, torpedo recovery, Trident II missle launch security... ya know, the usual ;0)