Makes it sound like he needed permission to search for something in international waters. Pay for it yourself and you don't even have to tell anyone what you're up to. But when you take their funding you play by their rules.
The story I heard was the torpedo battery design was poor, such that there was a risk of it overheating or maybe starting up the torpedo such that the drill was to get it overboard. That the torpedo would go active and start searching for the nearest contact, and out in the middle of nowhere that would be the sub.
Do torpedoes then have to be sensored ‘on’, or could you just push them out in a dead sensor/seek setting?
Did we have wire guided torpedoes then? I don't think so.