USS Stickleback

1958

Oahu exercise, rammed amidships, no casualties Location: Pacific Ocean, off Oahu, Hawaii · Coordinates: 21.22°N 158.12°W · Casualties: 0 · Survivors: 82 · Depth: 5,400 m · Cause: collision — Rammed amidships by the destroyer escort USS Silverstein during a submarine warfare exercise off Oahu at 18:16 on 28 May 1958 after an inadvertent surface. Her pressure hull was ruptured; she flooded progressively over six hours. All 82 crew were taken off. · Fate: abyssal · scuttled position · Type: submarine · Balao class · Tonnage: 1,500 tons · Crew: 82 · Flag: United States · Launched: 1944 American Balao-class submarine, on a Cold War training exercise off Pearl Harbor. Made an inadvertent broach during an emergency surface and was rammed amidships by the destroyer escort USS Silverstein at 18:16 on 28 May 1958. All 82 crew taken off before she sank six hours later. No casualties, a near-miss in the long post-war record of submarine training losses. The Vessel USS Stickleback (SS-415) was an American Tench-class submarine of the United States Navy, built at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard at Vallejo, California between 1944 and 1945 and commissioned on 29 March 1945. She was 95 metres long, 1,570 tons surfaced displacement (2,415 tons submerged), and armed with ten 21-inch torpedo tubes plus one 5-inch deck gun. The Tench-class was the final development of the American Balao-class fleet submarine design that had dominated the Pacific War. Her wartime service was minimal: commissioned in the final weeks of the Pacific War, she had conducted one war patrol (August 1945) before the Japanese surrender on 2 September 1945. Her subsequent postwar service through 1952 was as a Pacific Fleet training and experimental submarine. She had been selected in 1952 for GUPPY conversion (Greater Underwater Propulsion Power Program), the US Navy's modernisation programme for Second World War-era submarines. The GUPPY conversion involved substantial modification of the ship's hull form, propulsion systems, and accommodation: streamlined hull lines, increased battery capacity, improved air-conditioning, and enhanced sonar equipment. The GUPPY-III conversion that Stickleback received was the most comprehensive version of the programme. By May 1958, Stickleback had been a GUPPY-III submarine since her 1953 conversion. Her operational role in the late-1950s US Navy was as a front-line Pacific Fleet submarine: fleet exercises, anti-submarine warfare traini The Disaster At approximately 18:25 on 28 May 1958, with Stickleback substantially below the surface and drifting with residual speed, the submarine unexpectedly broke the surface directly in front of the approaching USS Silverstein. The sudden emergency-surface was a consequence of Stickleback's residual ballast-tank emergency blow combined with her drift speed; the submarine had become positively buoyant and had risen to the surface under her remaining momentum. Silverstein was approaching Stickleback's presumed position (based on sonar tracking) at approximately 15 knots, conducting a simulated attack run. The specific bearing of the approach was directly at Stickleback's surfaced position; the relative speed of closure was approximately 20-25 kilometres per hour. The specific collision occurred at approximately 18:27 on 28 May 1958. USS Silverstein's bow struck USS Stickleback's port side amidships at approximately 3-4 knots relative impact speed. The collision was severe: Silverstein's bow penetrated approximately 1 metre into Stickleback's hull; the damage opened a breach approximately 1.5 metres wide in the submarine's pressure hull; sea water began entering the submarine immediately. Harris's immediate response was to order emergency evacuation of the submarine. The collision had damaged the submarine's systems sufficiently that continued underwater operation was impossible; the specific breach was in the submarine's pressure hull and was progressively flooding her forward compart