USS San Francisco (SSN-711)
Posted on 01/08/2005 3:19:47 AM PST by Jet Jaguar
HONOLULU (AP) - A nuclear submarine ran aground about 350 miles south of Guam, injuring several sailors, one of them critically, the Navy said.
There were no reports of damage to the USS San Francisco's reactor plant, which was operating normally, the Navy said.
Jon Yoshishige, a spokesman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet based at Pearl Harbor, said the Friday afternoon incident is under investigation and the 360-foot submarine was headed back to its home port in Guam.
Details on the sailors' injuries were not immediately available. The sub has a crew of 137, officials said.
Military and Coast Guard aircraft from Guam were en route to monitor the submarine and assist if needed, the Navy said.
Guam is a U.S. territory about 3,700 miles southwest of Hawaii.
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On the Net:
U.S. Pacific Fleet: http://www.cpf.navy.mil
AP-ES-01-08-05 0343EST
USS San Francisco (SSN-711)
Heh! NOW think about squeezing 5 or 6 men at a time in that escape trunk, if it ever came down doing the old 'blow & go' to escape the boat! That was the drill, so you could evac the max number of crew with the least cyclings of the trunk.
Smut-mouth! Do you actually eat with that thing?
(((PING!)))
- Ex-nuke; never failed an ORSE board and thank my luck stars I didn't!
You're on...like it or not :)
Except boomers...(couldn't resist)
Consider yourself added.
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'. :-)
What? No pic of the 333 1/3?
Maybe on 688's. Many have tried, yet none succeeded in holding a trim party on a Trident.
Well the story as was told was that the boat was transiting in the Western Pacific and and got a "red sounding". The OOD ordered a depth change and slowed. The depth went from >500 Fathoms to 0 in seconds. The boat hit a glancing blow on the sea mount.
Like I said, this was "Pogy-lore" so I can't say it's 100% accurate.
Wouldn't the submerged portion of a tsunami be a shock-wave? Given the fact that water's not compressible, I would imagine it would cause enormous damage, sort of like an underwater explosion. Any physicists here?
As you say, Mark, water is essentially incompressible. However, away from the epicenter of the quake the tsunami wouldn't arrive as a shock (i.e. 'pressure wave), but rather as a sea wave with a wave length on the order of kilometers and a wave height of a few inches to a few feet - the sub would hardly feel it. So where's the energy? the energy of a wave is (simplified here) wave height x wave speed. So given that, as Ern said, the wave speed is several hundred mph in the open ocean the wave packs a tremendous amount of energy.
When the tsunami reaches relatively shallow water and starts to 'feel' the bottom, friction slows it down. Since energy must be conserved, if the tsunami slows down then the wave height increases to keep the product of the 2 factors constant. If the sub was very close to shore in these circumstances... yep, it'd be a BIG deal.
Now, let's consider the impact on a sub that was at the epicenter. A tsunami is generated when the seabed moves vertically, as a result of earthquake or undersea landslide, anywhere from a few inches to to 10s of feet - thus displacing the entire water column above the movement either up or down... nearly instantaneously! Since the water is incompressible, a sub suspended in it would move suddenly up or down the same amount the seabed did. If this was any more than a foot or 2 it would indeed be a really BIG deal.
You left out the part about flooding the trunk before opening the upper hatch.
Prayers are always appreciated.
The prefered format (ending every service at the Academy):
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/e/t/eternalf.htm
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who biddest the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy Word,
Who walked on the foaming deep,
And calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
Most Holy Spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee,
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our family shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect us wheresoever we go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Hi pepperdog, Could you imagine what I would have done in that sub? You know I can't stand even to have my feet covered.
Bert and I had a good laugh over the image of you jumping out of the sub.
We had another definition for "Trim party". :-)
Thank you very much!! I have saved that for future use!
That was an old pic from June of last year; that's a big lei that is draped over the front of the sail. Pretty common when returning from long runs.
SINS is no longer in use. It was last used on the 637 Class and was replaced in 92-93 with ESGN (electrically suspended gyro navigation)
Not the way the system works at all. Seawater and reactor plant completely isolated from each other. Can't go into details, but I will say have been nuc submariner the last 28 years.
The systems are separate but the steam cycle is only about 35% efficient so if the propulsion and electrical generation systems are used, then that excess heat has to be removed. If the heat can't be removed, then the propulsion and electrical systems can't be used and the reactor system is of course reduced to a very low power or shutdown. Reactors have decay heat that must also be removed and a separate emergency cooling system is provided.
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