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Search For RMS Titanic Was a Cover Story
wiredog writes "According to National Geographic, Robert Ballard's search for the RMS Titanic in 1985 was a cover operation for the real search: They were looking for the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion, two US nuclear submarines that sank during the Cold War." ABC News also has a story on this two-fer undersea search.
I remember hearing about this quite a few years ago, so this really isn't ground breaking news. I wish I could name a source....probably the Discovery Channel. I saw the special on the National Geographic Channel about this last night. The part that amazes me is that Ballard was able to keep his French partner in the dark about searching for the Scorpion.
If you post as Anonymous Coward, don't expect a reply.
The remotely-controlled drone that Ballard used to search for the Thresher, Scorpion, and Titanic is an excellent example of a piece of dual-use equipment.
More recent exploration of the Titanic's wreckage with remote drones and two-man submarines indicates that the edge of the iceberg that the Titanic hit may have been somewhat "crowbar" shaped, with a vertically-oriented escarpment below the surface puncturing the ship from underneath, in addition to gashing it open from the side. This may help explain why the Titanic sank so rapidly, since the side-hull tears didn't seem to be large enough to account for the volume of water pouring into the ship.
They had only used towed cameras to photograph Scorpion before. The Thresher was visited by the Trieste and they had recovered some parts.
The Thresher did go down during sea trials after an overhaul. There were several factors that sank her, too many for here. One soul actually called the depth every 50 ft as they sank, no panic just steady data. He knew what was coming!
The Scorpion was sunk by a battery malfunction in a Mark 37 electric torpedo. The battery got hot enough to set off the warhead or exploded and set it off. Then the rest of the torpedo warheads detonated.
Electric torpedoes have sunk more of our subs than enemy vessels. The MK18 in WWII sank the Tang and several other boats as they had a tendency for circular runs. If anyone ever proposes another electric fish he should be shot!
A cold war Sub sailor.
Professional Politicians are not the solution, they ARE the problem.
Probably the most interesting thing about that mission was the real reason behind it...
The Russian sub had left its assigned patrol area without leave. It surfaced and may have attempted a rogue missile launch against Hawaii. A failsafe or tamper-proofing or other failure caused the missile to self-destruct inside the launch tube. The sub then sank.
In the salvage effort the Americans weren't aiming to learn anything about Soviet nuclear sub construction. Rather, they wanted to prove (to the Russians) the suspicion that the sub's officers had gone rogue. This information was a powerfully upsetting revelation to the Russian military command, because it meant they did not have reliable control over their boomers.
John Craven, one of the guys who worked on the salvage project eventually wrote a tell-some book about it. Fascinating stuff.
FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
Realistically, it reduces to two things:
1) When the Main Seawater Pipe shears, the boat sinks. Period. The engine room has too much volume to be lifted to the surface by any combination of blowing ballast and driving up, even ignoring that you lose the main engines when the MSW shears.
2) The High Pressure Air system iced up. The air in the tanks wasn't dry enough, and when it expanded, it froze out until the pipes were blocked. Which pretty much prevented blowing ballast.
Everyone who goes down in one of the boats knows. There's always the chance of taking the Thresher and Scorpion out of Port and Starboard when you go down, and any sane sailor knows it. Any experienced sailor knows how many times his boat has come closer than he'd like to doing it (mine, once while I was on it, once before that), and worries every time he goes down.
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Used in that way, it refers to watchstanding. Normally, a Sailor stands one watch in three. Occasionally, for whatever reason, you find yourself standing one watch in two. Which means you are Port and Starboard with the other guy who stands your watch while you sleep.
The Thresher and Scorpion are on a Port and Starboard watch at the bottom, waiting for someone to come along and put them on a three-watch rotation...
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"