In May of 1968, the USS Scorpion nuclear-powered attack submarine
was conducting a last mission near the Mediterranean when she suddenly disappeared.
The ship was surveilling Soviet activity in the area and was expected to return to
port at Norfolk, Virginia, within days, but after a final message indicating that they
were closing in on a Soviet vessel, the crew was never heard of again.
A massive search operation was then launched, but subsequent investigations
revealed a series of mishandlings from the Navy, including a potential cover-up and
a rushed overhaul procedure that could have cost the lives of almost a hundred sailors.
Dan Rogers, an electrician’s mate on the submarine, requested a transfer
and tried to warn them: (QUOTE) "I didn't know it was going to sink,
but I was absolutely uptight after having been on there and seeing the things I had seen.
I was just unable to deal with going to sea again on the Scorpion."
This resolution would ultimately save his life, but his comrades weren’t so lucky...
Early Career
USS Scorpion was one of six Skipjack-class nuclear-powered attack submarines.
The class introduced a tear-drop-shaped hull that allowed for high speeds of 34 knots,
or 38 miles per hour, while submerged.
She was built by General Dynamics Electric Boat,
and her keel was laid down on August 20, 1958, in Groton, Connecticut.
Launched on December 19, 1959, she was not commissioned until half a year later.
Scorpion was then assigned to Submarine Squadron 6, Division 62. In late August,
she departed from New London, Connecticut, and was deployed to Europe for two months,
where the submarine participated in exercises with the 6th Fleet and other NATO-member navies.
Then, in October, she returned to New England and began training along the
eastern seaboard for roughly half a year. Scorpion then moved to Norfolk,
Virginia, and earned a Navy Unit Commendation the following year.
For the remainder of her career, Norfolk became Scorpion’s port.
She specialized in nuclear submarine warfare tactics and participated in
exercises along the Atlantic, as well as in Bermuda and Puerto Rico. Then,
from June 1943 to May 1964, she remained at Charleston while undergoing an overhaul.
As she resumed duties in the late spring,
her regular assignments were interrupted to carry out a transatlantic patrol that lasted two months.
She would eventually conduct a similar patrol in European waters.
In 1966, her commanding officer, Norman B. Bessac, received a Navy Commendation
Medal for his outstanding leadership, foresight, and professional skill.
Several other officers and crewmen were also cited for meritorious achievements.
It is said that Scorpion entered an inland Russian sea in 1966 during a “Northern Run” in which she
was able to film a Soviet missile launch through her periscope just in time to flee from the enemy.
As part of the Navy’s SUBSAFE safety program, launched after the loss of USS Thresher,
Scorpion underwent extensive routine testing and overhaul. The program required thorough testing
of all surfaces and components with ultrasounds to certify the vessel and validate her integrity.
In February of 1967, the submarine entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard, but submarine operation
demands were at their peak, and instead of receiving a desperately needed overhaul,
she was only given emergency repairs to get her back on duty as soon as possible.
While SUBSAFE quadrupled overhaul times,
the Chief of Naval Operations authorized a so-called experimental accelerated procedure,
and safety checks and the installation of improved components were bypassed.
Moreover, repair crews were arguably overworked, and they relied on jury-rigged spare parts to
complete repairs, many of which were found to be defectively welded pipes. Hence,
Scorpion was forced to maintain a diving limit of barely 110 meters, much shallower than normal.
The submarine returned to operational status after merely seven months, but she was not awarded the
SUBSAFE certification, one of only four submarines in the Atlantic Fleet that failed to receive it.
No Sign of Scorpion
After refresher training and weapon tests in late 1967,
Scorpion headed towards the Mediterranean Sea under new commander Francis Slattery.
Then, in February of 1968, she transited to a naval base in Rota, Spain.
The submarine was in poor conditions despite the recent overhaul,
and those circumstances forced two crew members to leave.
According to letters from several submariners on board, Scorpion was suffering severe
mechanical breakdowns, including a leak on her propeller shaft, worrying oil leakage in the
hydraulic systems, leaks of poisonous Freon, and unstable control surfaces.
She even had an electrical fire near the Trash Disposal Unit.
Still, the impaired vessel departed from Rota en route to the Azores Islands to
surveil Soviet ships and hoped to eventually return home to Norfolk.
At midnight on May 21, Slattery transmitted a confirmation that they had located a Soviet
submarine. The message was able to reach a Navy communications station in Nea Makri, Greece,
which forwarded it to COMSUBLANT.
The crew was closing in on the Soviet submarine at 15 knots steady at 110 meters deep and was:
(QUOTE) “To begin surveillance of the Soviets.”
Scorpion was overdue at Norfolk six days later,
but that message was the last time the crew communicated with the exterior world.
The US Navy soon launched a search mission,
employing dynamic Bayesian statistical methods to optimize the search pattern.
The area was narrowed down based on recordings obtained by a Navy station in the Canaries.
The recording had captured 15 acoustic events over 190 seconds,
which appeared to come from an underwater explosion.
On June 5, Scorpion and the 99 men on board were declared presumed lost,
and her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register by the end of the month.
Several reports indicated that three days before Scorpion was expected back from patrol,
a huge and secretive search attempt was launched. Along with other declassified information,
this account implies that the Navy knew Scorpion had been destroyed
before the public search was set in motion.
However, it took months to locate the wreck. In late October, the oceanographic search and
rescue vessel USNS Mizar found Scorpion’s remains 460 miles southwest of the Azores.
Using an underwater towed camera-sled,
the 77-meter long hull was found laying on the seabed at 3,000 meters of depth.
Because of the underwater pressure, the submarine had plowed a deep trench across the ocean floor,
and her sail was torn off because the ship’s operation center collapsed inward.
Also, one of her running lights was open as if it had been deployed at the time of the accident,
though the shock might have also caused it.
In 1969, a secondary investigation was conducted using extensive photographic
and video inspections, as well as eyewitnesses. It was determined that
implosion forces crushed the hull and the vessel consequently sank below crush depth.
Despite being pinched by excessive outside pressure,
the torpedo room was intact except for a missing hatch in the forward escape trunk.
Furthermore, the submarine was broken in two by massive hydrostatic pressure at an estimated depth
of 470 meters. The propulsion shaft came out, and the engineering section also collapsed inward.
Still, the precise cause of the incident couldn’t be determined.
Theories Galore!
A court of inquiry was eventually assembled to look into the matter,
and a report was made public in late January of 1969. It stated: (QUOTE) “The certain
cause of the loss of the Scorpion cannot be ascertained from evidence now available.”
Several theories have surfaced since, and numerous books have treated the incident in depth.
A theory proposed by Vice Admiral Arnold Schade and former-Scorpion mechanic Dan Rogers
claimed that the submarine sank due to a faulty Trash Disposal Unit.
The malfunction would have allowed a flood of seawater into the batteries,
which would have produced hydrogen gas that may have incapacitated the crew.
This series of events might have led to an explosion in the center of the submarine.
Another explanation pointed towards charging batteries at
periscope depth and how Scorpion might have suffered a hydrogen explosion.
The charging process could have channeled excessive energy into individual cells,
which could have potentially released enough hydrogen gas to cause an explosion.
Such problems with overcharged cells were common among US submarines at the time.
However, some theories were more sinister in nature.
Several books, such as ‘All Hands Down,’ ‘Red Star Rogue,’ and ‘Scorpion Down,’ allege that
Scorpion was sunk by a Soviet submarine, or perhaps a torpedo launched by a helicopter.
Still, these theories are only based on conjecture and anonymous sources.
It was disclosed decades later that the Navy actually had its own theory about the cause of
the sinking. The organization had concluded that a defective Mark 37 torpedo warhead had detonated,
and that the 330-pound mine could have been accidentally launched or jettisoned.
As the weapon did not find any other target in the area, it could have circled back and hit Scorpion.
In fact, the Mark 37 was infamous for using silver-zinc batteries prone to overheating
or even combusting. The book ‘Blind Man’s Buff’ proposes the theory that a hot-running
torpedo battery caused a fire that subsequently detonated the torpedo and ruptured the hull.
Unresolved Business
Crewmember Dan Rogers had abandoned Scorpion months before because he deemed her unsafe.
Backed by Stephen Johnson, an investigative journalist from the Houston Chronicle,
they dug out documents that pointed directly towards the detrimental state of the ship.
Letters from the crew also confirmed the submarine was in less-than-ideal conditions.
Furthermore, the submarine’s involvement in a secret program
cut off the necessary maintenance needs of the ship, not to mention a reduced budget.
Meanwhile, co-authors of the ‘Blind Man’s Bluff,’ Christopher Bluff and Sherry Sontag,
maintained that the Navy ignored previous issues and warnings about the torpedoes.
While they could not confirm the theory, they assured the danger was palpable.
To this day, the exact reasons behind the sinking of the USS Scorpion have not been
determined. However, the US Navy never again rushed an overhaul procedure after the loss,
and revised the Mark 37’s design. The wreck is also routinely surveyed for radioactive leakage.
Ultimately, Scorpion was the second nuclear submarine the US Navy lost.
She was also the last.
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