11.Steele, Seadragon, 134.
12.Ibid., 138–39.
13.Ibid., 140.
14.Ibid., 140–41.
15.Leary, Under Ice, 195; Steele, Seadragon, 20.
16.Leary, Under Ice, 195.
17.Steele, Seadragon, 148.
Chapter 9. Through the Northwest Passage
1.The author was a watch officer throughout Seadragon’s survey of the Northwest Passage, and remembered much of what we accomplished, However, he found his commanding officer, Cdr. George P. Steele’s book, Seadragon, invaluable for the reconstruction of dates, times, and some very important quotes.
2.Ibid., 153, 156, 158.
3.Ibid., 160.
4.Holland, Arctic Exploration and Development, 185.
5.Steele, Seadragon, 161.
6.This paragraph is based on, and quotes are taken from, ibid., 164.
7.Ibid.
8.Ibid., 165.
9.Ibid.
10.Ibid., 168–69.
11.One fathom equals six feet, so this was a depth of 420 feet.
12.Steele, Seadragon, 174.
13.Ibid., 179.
14.Ibid., 181.
15.Ibid., 182.
16.Ibid., 182–83.
17.Ibid., 184–85.
18.Ibid., 186.
19.Ibid., 187.
20.Ibid., 185. Interestingly, fifty-four years later the Northwest Passage has become navigable during the summer months due to the warming of the seas during the past several years. However, no Arctic communities to date are provided heat and power by nuclear power, nor do any nuclear submarine cargo vessels and tankers ply the waters. Finally, the Northwest Passage is still far from becoming a major thoroughfare.
21.Ibid., 187.
22.Ibid., 189–91; Leary, Under Ice, 197.
23.Steele, Seadragon, 189.
24.Ibid., 192; Holland, Arctic Exploration and Development, 203.
25.Steele, Seadragon, 193–94.
26.Ibid., 194.
27.Ibid., 199–200; McClure, The Discovery of the North-West Passage.
28.Steele, Seadragon, 200. Polynyas were circular or oval in shape, leads were long and thin, and skylights were either of these covered over with thin ice.
29.Ibid., 201.
Chapter 10: Surfacing at the Pole
1.Ibid., 202–3.
2.Ibid., 203–5.
3.Ibid.
4.Ibid., 206.
5.Ibid.
6.Bob Doelling had an interesting background. It was said that his father had been a German U-boat commander during World War I and apparently remained in the German navy after the war, where he once served as a naval attaché in the United States. Bob was born in the States but grew up in Argentina, where his family finally settled following his father’s retirement from the German navy. He later entered the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated with the class of 1953.
7.Steele, Seadragon, 206–7.
8.Ibid., 207.
9.Ibid., 209.
10.Ibid., 211.
11.Ibid., 214–15.
12.Ibid., 216–17.
13.This was the first U.S. South Pole station that was built during the International Geophysical Year in 1956–57. The original station was abandoned in 1975.
Chapter 11. The Bering Strait and Nome
1.Howard Newmann, “The North-Pole Drifting Stations and the High-Latitude Air Expedition of 1954” (Air Intelligence Information Report IR-226-55, AF-656791, 1955), http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/IPY/IPY_020_pdf/G630S65N481955.pdf.
2.Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov,” by Luce-Andrée Langevin, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/346787/Mikhail-Vasilyevich-Lomonosov; “World University Rankings 2013–2014,” TimesHigherEducation.co.uk, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/world-university-rankings/2013-14/world-ranking; “Further Education Programs at MSU,” Lomonosov Moscow State University, http://www.msu.ru/en/science/further.html.
3.Encyclopedia Britannica, http://britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/346795/Lomonosov-Ridge
4.A. P. Crary, R. D. Cotell, and T. F. Sexton, “Preliminary Report on Scientific Work on ‘Fletcher’s Ice Island,’ T3,” ARCTIC 5, no. 4 (1952): 211–23, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.14430/arctic3913.
5.Throat singing begins deep in the abdomen and thorax and consists of rhythmic grunts emitted at various pitches; there are often two or more singing at the same time.
Chapter 12. Pearl Harbor at Last
1.USS Sargo (SSN 583), USS Halibut (SSGN 587), and USS Swordfish (SSN 579) preceded us.
2.Cdr. George P. Steele, USN, Commanding Officer, USS Seadragon (SSN 584). Lieutenant Alfred S. McLaren, USN, Fitness Report, 27 May 1961.
Chapter 13. A New Commanding Officer
1.I was to hit on the solution many years later as commanding officer of USS Queenfish: I had the navigator compute the number of miles to our first checkpoint of many across the Pacific, and then determine how many hours this would require if Queenfish were to proceed at flank speed immediately following our dive beneath the surface shortly after exiting the Pearl Harbor channel. For both six-month deployments to WestPac during my four-year command, we found that we could depart at 1:00 a.m. the following day. This gave everyone not on duty an extra thirteen hours with their family and an opportunity to be seen off with late evening toasts of champagne courtesy of Queenfish’s captain and our squadron commander. It also meant that those not on duty could immediately hit the sack and sleep away what had been the most painful hours—the ones immediately following our departure. My crew and their families loved it, and we all parted company in much better spirits than we would have if we had left earlier and lost the best of one last beautiful day at home.
2.Roy A. Grossnick, Dictionary of American Naval Aviation Squadrons, vol. 1, The History of VA, VAH, VAK, VAL, VAP and VFA Squadrons (Washington, DC: Naval Historical Center, 1995), 295–96, http://www.history.navy.mil/download/dictnry//Chapter3.pdf.
3.Seadragon had conducted the SDGE test without difficulty under Captain Steele’s command during the spring of 1961. I was officer of the deck at the time and hence was not overly concerned that we would have any difficulties.
4.At this early point in the Cold War, U.S. nuclear attack submarines, from the Nautilus to the newly launched Skipjack class, had not yet achieved the degree of sound quieting that would become standard for later Thresher- and Sturgeon-class submarines.
5.“Seadragon History SSN 584,” Seadragon Alumni Association, http://ssn584.homestead.com/HISTORY1.html.
6.Ibid.
7.“USS Seadragon (SSN 584),” NavySite.de, last accessed April 30, 2014, http://navysite.de/ssn/ssn584.htm.
Chapter 14. First Months on Board
1.Nimitz was later to become a fleet admiral and commander of American forces in the Pacific theater during World War II.
2.NavSource Online: Submarine Photo Archive, Skipjack SSN 585, http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08585.htm.
3.USS Albacore (AGSS 569) was basically a full-sized undersea test vessel whose numerous undersea tests over a period of six years, beginning in 1954, proved that a round-nosed, tear drop–shaped hull was hydrodynamically superior to that of all previous U.S. submarines. The Albacore could go twice as fast as a GUPPY sub under water, with less than half of the GUPPY’s shaft horsepower. The S-5-W nuclear power plant was eventually to be used in ninety-eight U.S. nuclear submarines and the first British nuclear submarine, HMS Dreadnought (S-101).
4.“Cuban Missile Crisis,” GlobalSecurity.org, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/cuba-62.htm.
5.Senior Submarine Force authorities speculated that rupture of one or more sil-brazed joints in an engine room seawater system led to the loss of USS Thresher (SSN 593) on 10 April 1963.
6.Submarine Squadron Ten, based on the submarine tender USS Fulton (AS 11), comprised four nuclear and five diesel attack submarines at this time.
7.“NATO Code Names for Submarines and Ships,” AIS.org, Association for Information
Systems, http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/nato-shp.htm; NATO designation. Soviet Project “627.” “November-class Submarine Project 627,” Federation of American Scientists, https://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/row/rus/627.htm.
8.“NATO Code Names for Submarines and Ships,” NATO designations, Soviet Projects, “613,” “641,” and “611,” AIS.org, http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/nato-shp.htm. The diesel is used when surfaced and when snorkeling at periscope depth. The battery or electrical power is used when submerged or at periscope depth (except when snorkeling).
9.“Project 613,” Russian-Ships.info, http://russian-ships.info/eng/submarines/project_613.htm; “Project 641,” Russian-Ships.info, http://russian-ships.info/eng/submarines/project_641.htm; “Project 611,” Russian-Ships.info, http://russian-ships.info/eng/submarines/project_611.htm.
Chapter 15. In the Mediterranean
1.They were later determined to be Foxtrot diesel attack submarines armed with nuclear torpedoes. William Burr and Thomas Blanton, editors, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 75, 31 October 2002, The Submarines of Ocrober, U.S. and Soviet Naval Encounters During the Cuban Missile Crisis, http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB75/.
2.“Inflation Calculator,” DollarTimes, accessed 30 April 2014, http://www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm.
Chapter 16. Home Port in New London
1.Emergency drills were eventualities, such as fire, flooding, collision, both submerged and while on the surface.
2.Harry Aisncough, “USS Thresher: The Loss, the Inquiry and the Lessons Learned,” EB News, March 2013, 6–7, http://www.gdeb.com/news/ebnews/PDF/ebnews_2013_03.pdf.
3.“History of USS Thresher (SSN-593),” Navy.mil, http://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/t/thresher.htm.
4.Loran is short for long range navigation, a low-frequency radio shipborne navigation system, that enabled a submarine to receive bearing or direction information from Loran transmitting stations.
5.Omega was a shipborne very low-frequency radio navigation system that enabled a submarine to receive bearing or direction information from Omega transmitting stations. A Radio Direction Finder was a shipborne navigation equipment that provided bearings to/from high and medium frequency radio transmissions received from both shipborne and shore based stations.
6.Burnout of the uranium fuel core was never really achieved, and as Skipjack’s engineer I can report that, at the time we entered Charleston Naval Shipyard in April of 1965, Skipjack could still make some twenty-two knots at only 17 percent power. She didn’t dare slow down for too long, however, because a buildup of xenon 131 within the reactor core would increasingly absorb neutrons such that the reactor would go subcritical and shut down.
7.“Parhelion,” Encyclopedia Britannica, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/443546/parhelion.
Chapter 17. Evaluation of the Nuclear Attack Submarine
1.Chief of Naval Operations to Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet, 31 January 1949, Submarine Warfare and Tactical Development 50th Anniversary Symposium: A Look: Past, Present and Future 1949–1999 (Groton, CT: Naval Submarine Base New London, 1999), 124–25.
2.Benson was later to be promoted to admiral and to become ComSubPac.
3.Chief of Naval Operations to Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Atlantic Fleet and Commander Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, 11 March 1949, Submarine Warfare and Tactical Development 50th Anniversary Symposium, 128–31.
4.A conformal long-range passive array sonar.
5.Frank Andrews, “My View—Submarine Development Group Two,” May 1999, Paper prepared for the 50th Anniversary of Submarine Development Group Two, http://www.pdfio.net/k-34642702.html.
6.Ibid.
7.J. R. Potts, “USS Tullibee (SSN 597) ASW Fast Attack Submarine (Nuclear),” MilitaryFactory.com, http://www.militaryfactory.com/ships/detail.asp?ship_id=USS-Tullibee-SSN597. The AN/BQQ Sonar System was subsequently installed on both the new SSN 594 Permit and SSN 637 Sturgeon-class nuclear attack submarines. The AN/BQQ-2 is a low-frequency spherical bow passive array sonar.
8.D. W. Mitchell, United States Navy, Submarine Development Group Two and Submarine Development Squadron Twelve, A Royal Navy Perspective, 1955 TO DATE (unpublished monograph, Submarine Force Museum Archives, Groton, CT, March 2003, revised June 2007).
9.Potts, “Tullibee.”
Chapter 19. One More Cold War Mission and a Change of Command
1.Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Barents Sea,” http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/53189/Barents-Sea.
2.“NATO Code Names for Submarines and Ships,” AIS.org, http://www.ais.org/~schnars/aero/nato-shp.htm. Soviet “Project 629.” Thirteen Golf I–class diesel electric SSBs were converted from an original twenty to accommodate the more advanced SS-N-5 ballistic missile. Ibid. Soviet “Project 658.” Eight (possibly nine) were built originally as the nuclear-powered Hotel I and converted to Hotel II to accommodate the more advanced ballistic missile SS-N-5.
3.John Berg, The Soviet Submarine Fleet: A Photographic Survey (London: Jane’s Publishing, 1985), 64.
4.Ibid., 62.
5.The late steward’s mate, SDC Peter William Ungacta Sococo, was one of the finest men I had the pleasure of serving with in the U.S. Navy. He was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word and an exemplary role model for both officers and crew alike. He was born in Guam in 1921, enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939, and served thirty-one years in the submarine force.
Chapter 20. England and Then Home
1.Fred Jr. later was awarded a full four-year NROTC scholarship to Villanova, where he majored in mathematics. Although he qualified as a diving officer of the watch on board the USS William H. Bates (SSN 680) during his final summer as a Midshipman, USNR, he decided to take a commission as a second lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps upon graduation. He served as an infantry officer for thirteen years, achieving both platoon and company commander, at which time he resigned to join the civil service.
2.“Skipjack (SSN-585),” NavSource.org, http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08585.htm.
Index
A3D-2 Skywarrior, 126–28
Adams, Paul, 88
Advanced Nuclear Power School, 57–58, 61, 65, 70, 71, 129, 175
Air Force Station, Royal Canadian (RCAF), 88
airless surface, 27, 192–93
Alaska, 71, 108, 110, 198. See also Nome
Albacore (AGSS 569), 142, 185, 193
Alderson, Valdo J., 55–56
Aleutians, 114
Alexander, Donald C., 69
Amerasian Basin, 109
Amundsen, Roald, 90
Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, 104
AN/BQQ Sonar School, New London, Connecticut, 218
AN/BQQ-2 long-ranging sonar system, 186
AN/BQR-4 large passive sonar array, 184
AN/BQS-4 sonar, 83
Andrews, Frank, A., 185, 189. See also Tactical Analysis Group, Submarine Development Group Two AN/SQS-4 sonar, 83
anti-submarine warfare surface vessel, 11
Arctic, 69, 70, 100; archipelago, 71; Basin, 66, 80, 81; Circle, 79; icepack, 71, 73, 96, 99, 111; islands, 11; regions, 71
Arctic Ocean, 66, 67, 68, 71, 81, 94, 95, 98, 110, 138, 173, 198; Expedition (1970), 219
Arctic Submarine Laboratory, San Diego, 11, 69
ASW: aircraft, 18, 26, 54, 115, 144, 182–84, 188; destroyers, 59, 192; exercises, 11, 159, 162, 175, 182, 187, 189, 191–92, 206, 208, 213; forces 54, 119, 123, 144, 159, 174, 182, 191, 202, 206, 208; performance assessment, 185; services, 54, 58, 115, 123–25, 128, 184; ships, 57, 144, 174, 191; sponsored research, 185; surface units, 11, 54, 115, 162, 191, 202, 206, 208; tactics, 202; target services, 123, torpedo, 182, 191; units, 115, 125, 129, 162, 208; vessels, 11, 20, 59, 173; weapon, 174
Atlantic Fleet, 95, 144
Atlantic Ocean, 7, 10, 61, 115, 121, 151, 167, 174, 182, 192
Atomic Submarine and Admiral Ri
ckover, The (Blair Jr.), 58
Baffin, William, 78
Baffin Bay, 65, 66, 72, 78, 81, 82, 84, 86, 87; icepack, 79–81
Baffin Island, 78, 79, 82, 84, 86
Baffin Island current, 84
Balao-class diesel electric fleet submarines, 7
Balestrieri, Anthony, 83
Banks Island, 95
Bannon, John M. “Jack”, 9
Barbel class, 23
Barents Sea: 177–79, 197; description of, 198
Barracuda (SSK-1) (formerly K-1), 184
Barrow, John, 94
Barrow Strait, 66, 72, 89, 90, 92, 93, 94
Baseball Hall of Fame, 108
Bathurst Island, 90
battery-powered emergency propulsion motors (EPMs), 132, 134
Battle Efficiency “E”: for Greenfish, 61; for Skipjack, 199
Bay of Biscay, 208, 209
Bear Island, 180
Beaufort Sea, 11, 66, 95, 108, 110
Becuna (SS 319), 67
Behrens, William W., Jr., 143, 144
Benson, Roy S., 115, 184
Bering Sea, 66, 114
Bering Sea Hotel, 111
Bering Strait, 11, 66, 81, 95, 108–10, 198
Big Daddy submarine-versus-submarine exercises, 185, 189, 213. See also submarine-versus-submarine exercises
Blanchard, Carol, 9
Blanchard James W. “Doc,” Jr., 7–9
Bloodworth, William T. “Bill,” 73
Blue Crew: of FBM, 189–91; of Theodore Roosevelt, 199
Bremerton, Washington, Nuclear Powered Ship and Submarine Recycling Program, Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, 138, 215
Brewer, Glenn M., 69, 71, 85, 101, 103, 109
Briggs, Edward, 105
British Naval Northwest Passage Expedition, 78, 89
Burkhalter, Edward A. “Al,” Jr., 68, 82, 91, 92, 95, 106, 123, 129
Byam Martin Island, 90
Bylot, Robert, 78
Calvert, James F., 65, 96
Canadian: Archipelago, 71, 89; Arctic islands, 11; High Arctic, 72; icebreaker, 69, 90; navy, 69; Northwest Territories, 94
Cape Hurd, Devon Island, 89
Captain’s Mast, 22, 82, 211
Carlson, Owen, 83
Centro Historico de Marinha, Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil), 62
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