The USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines. Built by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Commissioned on 3 August 1961, she featured an advanced Sonar Suite and the Submarine-delivered Rocket (SUBROC). After extensive workups and a return to the shipyard, Thresher put to sea on 10 April 1963 for deep-diving exercises. Fifteen minutes after reaching her assigned test depth, the submarine communicated with Skylark (ASR-20) by underwater telephone, apprizing the submarine rescue ship of difficulties. Garbled transmissions indicated that--far below the surface--things were going wrong. Suddenly, listeners in Skylark heard a noise "like air rushing into an air tank"--then, silence. Efforts to reestablish contact with Thresher failed. Thresher was officially declared lost in April 1963. Photographs later taken by bathyscaph Trieste proved that the submarine had broken up, taking all 129 hands on board to their deaths in 5,500 of water, some 220 miles east of Boston. Her loss at sea was the watershed event in the implementation of the rigorous submarine safety program SUBSAFE. #cold_war #fast_attack #nuclear #Nuclear_Power #ssn #submarine #subsafe #sunken_ship #US_Navy #USN
- Comments
