SwiftVets.com

[Schadow]

Here are some pre-drydock photos of the damage. Good grief. It's a wonder they got back. Some pressure hull penetration compensated by a slow blow in the forward end. Click on the individual shots for enlargement:

http://queenfish.org/noframes/sfodamage.html

I understand there are drydock photos but I haven't found them yet.

Schadow
_________________
Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54

[Me#1You#10]

Here's one of several more...



from: Navy Newsstand

[wwIIvetsdaughter]

Is there a preliminary explanation for how the San Francisco could of run into an underwater mountain? I seem to recall several sailors were injured, any updates on their status? It seems to me that the crew's diligent training prevented the loss of the boat.

[Schadow]

[SBD]

I am curious if anyone finds the report that the sub was travelling 30 knots when it hit the mountain as peculiar. I asked my Uncle whi was a captain of a tuna fishing boat about this and he said he would find it remarkable if the sub hit a mountain at 30 knots and didn't end up looking like a crushed tin can. Since I am sure some on this board know exactly how fast 30 knots really is, I thought maybe someone can give their thoughts on this.

Navy believes submarine hit undersea mountain, at 30 knots

By Christopher Drew
New York Times

A nuclear attack submarine that ran aground Saturday in the South Pacific, killing one sailor and injuring 23 others, appears to have smashed into an undersea mountain that was not on its charts, Navy officials said Monday.

The submarine, the USS San Francisco, was cruising at high speed -- about 30 knots -- and was more than 400 feet below the surface when the accident forced it to blow air into its emergency ballast tanks to surface.

Some of the tanks were damaged by the impact.

The accident occurred 350 miles south of Guam, and the vessel returned to its base there under its own power Monday. The Navy is investigating the crash.

The dead sailor was identified as Joseph Ashley, 24, of Akron, Ohio, a machinist's mate second class. Officials said he was thrown forward during the accident and hit his head on a metal pump casing. He died Sunday.

Other sailors were treated for broken bones, cuts and bruises.

Navy officials said the vessel's hull was damaged but did not rupture. The nuclear reactor, which is in the back, was not damaged.

Similar accidents have happened before, in part because submarines typically do not use their active sonar systems, which emit loud pings, to navigate.

Instead, submarines try to operate silently, relying on undersea charts, checks with navigation satellites and passive sonar systems that pick up the noises of other vessels.


SBD

[baldeagle]

30 Kts = 35 MPH = 56 KPH.

To envision what it was like, imagine putting 20 or 30 people in a Winnebago, moving around, unsuspecting, doing whatever, and running into a brick wall at 35 MPH.
_________________
"In a word, I want an American character, that the powers of Europe may be convinced we act for ourselves and not for others; this, in my judgment, is the only way to be respected abroad and happy at home." --George Washington

[HOV1]

Received the following forwarded from others from an old Navy buddy
JFM

To All,
I thought that I would put out a note since a lot of you have been calling and writing to find out how things are and if I'm OK and what happened.

If you hadn't heard, my boat hit a uncharted submerged sea mount at the highest speed we can go at about 500ft below the surface. There were about 30 of us that were seriously hurt and unfortunately one of my shipmates didn't make it.

First off I am OK. I am pretty beat up with my entire left side and butt as one big bruise. My shoulder is separated and may require surgery. They will evaluate later this week. I am very fortunate that I hit the wall and didn't go down a ladderwell that was right next to where I hit. If I had gone down that, I would have got really messed up. I took a tremendous shot to my left thigh from something. If it had been slightly lower in the knee
area it would have been really ugly. But all in all I am in good shape.

We hit it at about noon right after field day (where all of us clean the boat for several hours). Thank God we didn't hit while we were doing this
or it would have been much worse. We would have had flying deck plates through the air and such. Not good. As it was, it happened while chow was going on and most people were either sitting and eating or on watch.

I don't remember much of the collision. People describe it as like in the movie the Matrix where everything slowed down and levitated and then
went flying forward faster that the brain can process. My mind has blanked it out exactly what happened. Adrenaline kicked in and I have no real memory of how I got down to middle level or what I did immediately following. I helped carry several shipmates to the crew mess deck (adrenaline is a wonderful thing - my shoulder was wrecked and I had no idea until about 4 hours later). I sat with several of my junior guys that had bad head wounds and talked with them to keep them conscious until doc could see them.

It seemed like an eternity but I'm sure wasn't that long. For those Navy folks that ever wondered why Chief's stomp around and preach "Stow for Sea" This was a perfect example. It definitely saved lives. I am extremely proud of the crew to do damage control, help the wounded and get the boat safely to the surface (for the boat guys we blew the tanks dry on the emergency blow but unbeknownst to us we were missing some ballast tanks/some didn't have integrity). The ship's control party did every thing exactly right even though they were hurt as well. The Diving Officer of the Watch had just unbuckled his belt to update a status board and hit the Ship's Control Panel hard enough to break some of the gauges. To add insult to injury his chair came up right behind him.

Several people were injured in the Engine Room Lower Level area. Lots of metal and sharp edges in the area as well as that's were the boat's smoking area is at. Several crew members are reevaluating that habit now.

Once again we got lucky in the fact that we had an extra corpsman onboard. One of our officer's was a prior enlisted corpsman that was a Fleet Marine Force medic so he was a Godsend for us. Our Corpsman did an outstanding job getting everyone stabilized and did the best he could for our fallen shipmate. I am surprised that he got him to hold on as long as he did.

Our corpsman is definitely a hero in my book. He didn't sleep for 2 or 3 days. We finally put him down when the SEAL docs helicoptered in to help.

Like I said, I am extremely proud of my crew and how they handled themselves.

My Chief of the Boat was an inspiration of what a leader should be and my Captain was as well. My XO took out an EAB manifold with his back but still managed to help coordinate things. No matter what happens later, these men did a superior job under difficult circumstances. I am humbled by the entire crew's performance from the CO down to the Seaman that I was checking in two days before.

For those of you wondering, I am sure there will be an investigation into what happened and no I was not part of the navigation preps for this
voyage. I work on the inertial/electronic navigation and interior communications part of my rate and didn't have anything to do with the conventional navigation part of it. I will be lending support to my comrades who were to help them prepare for the pending investigation.

I thank you all for you concern and appreciate your prayers not only for myself, but for my shipmates. We are doing well, we band of brothers
and will pull through just fine.

Thanks,
Brian Frie
Chief Electronics Technician Submarines
USS San Francisco SSN 711
_________________
USN 78-84 STS1(SS) USS George C. Marshall SSBN 654(G)



HOV1

[Me#1You#10]

HOV1...

Thanks for sharing that with the forum.

[greasepaint]

What is the longitude - latitude of this newly discovered seamount?

[GoophyDog]

Looks to me like the sonar dome area acted like a giant water-filled bumper otherwise the damage would have been much worse.

There was some definite outstanding DC work done to bring that lady home. All I can say is amen for buttercup!
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Why ask? Because it needs asking.