When Thresher was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on 16 April 1963, the class name was changed to that of the second boat, Permit, and Thresher is now officially referred to as a Permit-class submarine.The contract to build Thresher was awarded to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on 15 January 1958, and her keel was laid on 28 May 1958.She was launched on 9 July 1960, was sponsored by Mrs. Mary B. Warder (Thresher conducted lengthy sea trials in the western Atlantic and Caribbean Sea areas in 1961–1962. After it became apparent that the generator could not be fixed before the battery was depleted, the crew tried to restart the reactor, but the remaining battery charge was insufficient.The captain, returning to the ship from a shore function, arrived just after the battery ran down.

Thresher painting, song recording and website created by Lori Arsenault, daughter in loving memory of Tilmon J. Arsenault Chief Engineman UNITED STATES NAVY USS Thresher, SSN 593 … All rights reserved.

At 18:30, the Commander, Submarine Force Atlantic, sent word to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to begin notifying next-of-kin – starting with Commander Harvey’s wife, Irene Harvey – that Thresher was missing.By morning on 11 April, all hope of finding Thresher was abandoned, and at 10:30 the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) Admiral George W. Anderson Jr., went before the press corps at The Pentagon to announce that the submarine was lost with all hands.The Navy quickly mounted an extensive underwater search using the oceanographic ship Mizar and other ships; they soon found shattered remains of Thresher’s hull on the sea floor, some Most of the debris had spread over an area of about The bathyscaphe Trieste, then in San Diego, California, was alerted on 11 April and loaded aboard the large landing ship Point Defiance and brought through the Panama Canal to Boston.Trieste was deployed for two series of dives on the debris field: the first series on 24–30 June, and the second series in late August/early September.It found and photographed major sections of Thresher, including the sail, sonar dome, bow section, engineering spaces section, operations spaces section, and the stern planes.One aspect of the search conducted that summer by Mizar involved the use of highly sensitive proton magnetometers furnished by the Instrument Division of Varian Associates, Palo Alto, California, and shipped aboard Mizar before her departure from Suitland, Maryland.The magnetometers were used in conjunction with underwater video cameras and suspended on the same electrical line used to tow the video cameras themselves.
Trieste II was Commanded by Lt Comdr. The bathyscaphe was placed on board USNS Private Francis X. McGraw and also shipped, via the Panama Canal, to Boston.Additional operations were conducted at the loss site of Thresher that was commenced by the first Trieste the year before. These tests allowed a thorough evaluation of her many new and complex technological features and weapons.She took part in Nuclear Submarine Exercise (NUSUBEX) 3–61 off the northeastern coast of the United States from 18–24 September 1961.On 18 October 1961, Thresher, in company with the diesel-electric submarine Cavalla, headed south on a 3-week test and training cruise to San Juan, Puerto Rico, arriving 2 November.Following customary procedure while in port, her reactor was shut down.

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She returned briefly to New England waters, after which she proceeded to Florida for more SUBROC tests.While moored at Port Canaveral, Florida, the submarine was accidentally struck by a tug which damaged one of her ballast tanks. From 1915 to 1963, the U.S. Navy lost a total of 16 submarines to non-combat accidents.Since the inception of SUBSAFE only one submarine has suffered a similar fate, and that was Subscribe to our mailing list and get history updates to your inbox! Created specifically to find and destroy Soviet submarines, the ship boasted a new sonar system whose passive and active modes could detect other vessels at greater range, and she was intended to launch the U.S. Navy’s newest anti-submarine missile, the SUBROC.Shortly after her loss, the Commander of Submarine Force Atlantic wrote in the March 1964 issue of the U.S. The monitoring data confirm that there has been no significant effect on the environment. | {"cookieName":"wBounce","isAggressive":false,"isSitewide":true,"hesitation":"","openAnimation":"wobble","exitAnimation":false,"timer":"","sensitivity":"","cookieExpire":"15","cookieDomain":"","autoFire":"","isAnalyticsEnabled":false}We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. This was done to prevent an over-rapid cool-down of the reactor.Thresher’s Reactor Control Officer, Lieutenant Raymond McCoole, was not at his station in the maneuvering room, or indeed on the boat, during the fatal dive.McCoole was at home caring for his wife who had been injured in a household accident – he had been all but ordered ashore by a sympathetic Commander Harvey.McCoole’s trainee, Jim Henry, fresh from nuclear power school, probably followed standard operating procedures and gave the order to isolate the steam system after the scram, even though Thresher was at or slightly below its maximum depth.Once closed, the large steam system isolation valves could not be reopened quickly.

On April 10, 1963, the USS Thresher sank with 129 men on board, 250 miles off Cape Cod in the Wilkinson Deep.
This caused an immediate reactor scram, resulting in a loss of propulsion.Thresher could not be deballasted because the ice had formed in the high-pressure air pipes, and so she sank.In addition to the SOSUS data that does not record any sound of flooding, the crew of Skylark did not report hearing any noise that sounded like flooding, and Skylark was able to communicate with Thresher, despite the fact that, at test depth, even a small leak would have produced a deafening roar.Additionally, the previous commander of Thresher testified that he would not have described flooding, even from a small-diameter pipe, as a “According to Rule, the SOSUS data indicates an implosion of Thresher at 09:18:24, at a depth of 2,400 feet (730 m), 400 feet (120 m) below her predicted collapse depth.The implosion took 0.1 seconds, too fast for the human nervous system to perceive.When the Court of Inquiry delivered its final report, it recommended that the Navy implement a more rigorous program of design review and safety inspections during construction.That program, launched in December 1963, was known as SUBSAFE. The boat remained in port through the end of the year and spent the first two months of 1962 evaluating her sonar and Submarine Rocket (Off Charleston, South Carolina, Thresher undertook operations supporting the development of the SUBROC anti-submarine missile.

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