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- Newsgroups: sci.military
- Path: sparky!uunet!psinntp!ncrlnk!ciss!law7!military
- From: megazone@obsidian.WPI.EDU (MegaZone23)
- Subject: Re: Rickover - plus or minus / Thresher alos
- Message-ID: <By6JBB.IM4@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Sender: military@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Sci.Military Login)
- Organization: WPI USAF -- United Society of Animation Fans
- References: <Bxq1r4.uq@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> <BxvFFx.8r9@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> <By0tpv.96o@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 17:30:47 GMT
- Approved: military@law7.daytonoh.ncr.com
- Lines: 50
-
-
- From megazone@obsidian.WPI.EDU (MegaZone23)
-
- In article <By0tpv.96o@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM> bphdarcy@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Sean J. Roc D'Arcy) writes:
- >What was the speed of the Thresher when she sunk? I know she was down
- >deep, but was she doing speed trials at the time or just diving. The
-
- I understand that she was on a depth test dive as she just came out of refit.
- All that I have read indicates that the most commonly suspected cause, and the
- one favored by the USN, was that a cooling water inlet pipe was not welded
- properly and gave way under the extreme pressure on the trials. Whether this
- was the inlet for the condensor or some other system I'm not sure. It seems to
- be hinted that it was the condensor in a few things that I have read. This is
- part of the nuclear system, but not actually part of the radioactive loop.
-
- The stern quickly flooded and power was lost and the reactor scrammed. The
- Thresher was crushed as she sank, apparently striking tail first from the
- photos. But she was pretty broken up by the time she came to rest....
-
- It took the Alvin to reach the wreck, I seem to recall the Trieste visited the
- scene too, but I may be blending the nuke bomb search in with the wreck search
- as I sometimes have faulty recollection...
-
- Now, anyone know anything about the Scorpion? I believe that is the name of the
- other nuke sub that we lost near bermuda/Florida.
-
- [mod notes -- I just finished reading _The Rickover Effect_ by Theodore
- Rockwell, who worked with Rickover at Naval Reactors from when it was
- started until the mid 60s.
-
- From the book, the conjecture that some sort of seawater fitting gave way,
- sprayed into the engine room, and shorted out some control systems.
- However, the fitting that probably gave way was not part of the reactor
- itself (or any part of it that NR would have had control over). In
- addition, the pipe joints are generally not welded, but brazed.
-
- _The Rickover Effect_ is a very interesting book, well written. There are
- a couple of neat pictures in there -- one of the Mark I prototype reactor
- at Arco Nevada, and another one of the U.S.S. Enterprise (CVN-65) in a
- high-speed turn. It looks like it rolled 20 or so degrees and has the helm
- hard over. There is a rooster tail from the bow, and quite a big one from
- the stern
-
- Steve]
-
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