The "Thresher Shark" nuclear submarine was the first class of the first class of the United States to be equipped with the most elite armament in the 60s of the 20 th century. The boat was completed in July 1960 and commissioned in August of the following year. The "Thresher Shark" has a total length of 84.9 meters, a width of 9.65 meters, a draft of 7.9 meters, a light load displacement of 3,526 tons on the surface, a normal displacement of 3,750 tons, and an underwater displacement of 4,310 tons, and can carry a nuclear warhead with a TNT equivalent of 20,000 tons and attack sea targets underwater. It can be said that it integrated the advanced technology of the United States at that time, and its performance was very superior, and it was once known as a "foolproof" warship. However, on April 10, 1963, while conducting diving tests in the eastern waters of the United States, the Thresher Shark mysteriously sank to a depth of 2,300 meters, taking the lives of 129 crew members on board. This is the first nuclear submarine shipwreck in history, and it is also the most serious tragedy in the history of nuclear submarines.
At 7:15 a.m. on April 9, 1963, the USS Thresher Shark nuclear submarine set sail from Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire, USA, and sailed all the way through the mouth of the Piscada River to the open sea to begin its trial voyage. The purpose of this sea trial was to check the quality of the overhaul and determine the effect of the new equipment. (On June 5, 1962, the boat collided with a tugboat, and the crack in the hull was 1 meter long.) The first overhaul was carried out at the Portsmouth Navy Yard in New Hampshire on July 16, 1962. ）
At that time, a total of 129 people were involved in the trials, including 12 officers and 96 sailors, 1 staff officer of the submarine forces, 3 officers and 13 civilian officers of the shipyard, 1 technical specialist of the naval arsenal and 3 representatives of civilian contractors. The main project of this sea trial is to dive to the water column below 300 meters to test the effect of equipment. According to US Navy regulations, any nuclear submarine must be escorted by a surface ship with close speed, strong self-defense capability, and good underwater survey and communications equipment during sea trials. The Thresher Shark was selected to escort a submarine rescue vessel called the Skylark. The Skylark is equipped with a large diving lifebell, which is capable of rescuing the Thresher if it encounters difficulties on the continental shelf at a depth of no more than 200 meters.
At 9:49 a.m. on April 9, the two ships rendezvoused and maintained contact during a test of shallow underwater diving. It was agreed to meet 200 nautical miles east of Cape Cod on the morning of the second day to prepare for a deep dive test in the deep waters of the continental shelf there.
In the early morning of April 10, the Lark and Thresher Shark rendezvoused in the designated area 200 nautical miles east of Cape Cod. At 6:35, the two ships communicated for the first time after the rendezvous. Captain Tanley Kech, captain of the "Lark", and Lieutenant Commander Wesley Harvey, captain of the "Thresher", exchanged information with each other and sent each other sincere wishes.
One hour later, Thresher Shark sailed 10 nautical miles away from the Skylark and completed its preparations for a deep dive into the sea.
"Prepare to dive!" the captain ordered, and all the crew took their positions, "Dive 20 meters underwater!" Seawater quickly poured into the submarine's ballast tank, and with the sharp rotation of the engine, the submarine gradually dived.
At 7:47, Captain Harvey ordered: "Dive to 130 meters underwater, and dive at an angle of 5 degrees." At this time, the "Skylark" also received the news that the "Thresher Shark" had begun to dive. "'Skylark', I'm 130 meters underwater for a watertight check now, and everything is normal. Captain Harvey's call was indistinct to Martin, the Skylark's operator. Those familiar with the Thresher know that its ballast tanks have never been tested at a depth of 130 meters. Due to its small ballast tank volume, it is worrying whether it can adapt to Shenzhen Airlines. When Martin, the operator, heard a vague, faint signal, he suddenly had a sense of foreboding.
At 8:10 a.m., the Thresher Shark sent a report informing it that it had dived to 198 meters and was continuing to move underwater at a speed of 10 knots per hour.
At 8:35 a.m., the Thresher Shark was 91 meters away from the test depth.
At 8:53 a.m., Thresher reported that it was approaching the depth of the test. As the Thresher Shark went deeper, the signal received by the Skylark became more and more blurry, and it was now difficult to distinguish.
At 9:12 a.m., the crews of the two ships conducted a routine communication inspection in accordance with the prior agreement. By this time, Thresher was approaching the depth of the test it had booked. The message "Successful dive" has been prepared and will be sent in a few minutes...... Suddenly, a loud noise erupted in the cabin. "Not good!" Captain Harvey quickly rushed to the engine room after hearing the sound, only to see a stream of seawater breaking through the wall outside the boat, and some wires leading to the nuclear reactor had been submerged in the water, and the situation was very serious.
"Captain, plug the loophole and turn off the reactor first. The Captain's suggestion was immediately agreed by the Captain. Subsequently, the propeller of the Thresher Shark stopped rotating, its speed slowed down, and the plugging and drainage were still ongoing.
At 9:13, the "Skylark" received the last intermittent signal from the submarine: "...... Running into a minor problem...... Prepare to drain the water and ascend ......" Then, the slightest sound was heard in the cabin of the nuclear submarine, and the crew of the "Skylark" thought it was the sound of compressed air in the ballast tank.
Four minutes later, the Skylark suddenly heard a muffled sound underwater, followed by silence. The sound is like the sound of a crackling sound coming from the water when hitting a target in the anti-submarine warfare in the Atlantic Ocean in the 40s of the 20th century. The captain of the "Skylark" suddenly realized that the "Thresher Shark" had exploded, and all the people and boats had died.
Immediately, the "Skylark" began to search for traces of the "Thresher Shark", but found nothing. It was not until 10:58 that the captain of the "Skylark" Tanley gave the order for the pontoon and reported the accident to the command of the nuclear submarine fleet in New London.
When the telegram arrived at the Atlantic Fleet Command in Norfolk, Virginia, Vice Admiral Wallace Bickley immediately ordered the nuclear submarine USS Seawolf, the conventional submarine USS Seahawk, the salvage ship USS Recovery, and the submarine frigate USS Sunbird to participate in the search. At 15:40, there was still no further news from the Thresher Shark. Apparently, it can be assumed that the submarine was already in distress. Admiral Andersen, Chief of Naval Operations, upon learning of this unfortunate incident, telegraphed to President Kennedy.
That afternoon, the U.S. government appointed a commission to investigate the causes of the crash. Vice Admiral Bernard Austin, President of the Naval Academy, is chairman of the committee. The assistant was Rear Admiral Lawrence Daspit, former commander of the submarine forces of the Atlantic Fleet.
U.S. President John F. Kennedy personally inquired about the accident and remedial measures.
Early the next morning, the US Navy authorities sent out the deep-sea submersible "Quster" to participate in the search. It was not until August 24 that the "Quster" dived into the deep sea for the eighth time, and finally salvaged a 1.42-meter-long piece of broken steel at a seabed 2,560 meters above the sea surface, which was engraved with the word "593" -- this is the boat side number of the "Thresher Shark" nuclear submarine. Other than that, it is difficult to find a more complete housing or device. While collecting a large number of pieces of metal and debris, search and rescue personnel found a yellow-colored rubber galoshoe among the debris. Such galoshes are only used when the reactor compartment of a nuclear submarine is working, and it is usually organized into a box, so it does not run into the deep sea on its own for no reason. Search and rescue crews also found that a galoshoe with the word SSN5 printed on it was the shoe cover used by the "Thresher Shark" crew. In the end, the search and rescue team confirmed that the "Thresher Shark" nuclear submarine exploded and slept at 2,560 meters of seabed along with the 129 people on board.
After the incident, the US Navy rushed to salvage the "Thresher Shark" for investigation, and even put the car into the sea to simulate the sinking path, and after six months, the "Thresher Shark" was finally found, but it had turned into a pile of debris.
A detailed investigation of the cause of the "Thresher Shark" crash revealed that the root cause may have been the frenzied arms race between the United States and the Soviet Union at that time, and that the submarine was built in a faster and more convenient way, sacrificing quality management, which eventually caused tragic consequences. The Navy believes that the explosion of the "Thresher Shark" was due to a problem in a certain part of the seawater system, which caused the seawater around the submarine to pour into the cabin under the action of huge pressure, causing the transmission network to fail and causing the submarine to lose power, and finally causing the "Thresher Shark" to sink into the deep sea. After repeated analysis of the debris that sank to the bottom of the sea, the experts finally determined that the submarine encountered strong internal waves when it was sailing in the water, which made it unable to withstand the pressure and exploded, and finally sank to the bottom of the sea.
The accident was the first sinking in the history of a nuclear submarine. The Thresher class was originally planned to build 17 units, and since 3 of them were converted into Lafayette-class strategic nuclear submarines, 14 were actually built in the Thresher class. The first boat, the Thresher Shark, was wrecked and sunk during a deep diving test, and in order to eliminate the adverse psychological effects of the disaster on the crew, the boat was renamed the Big Trevally class. The US Navy made changes to the design of the last 3 boats, the length of the boat was increased to 89 meters, and the displacement was also increased.