A Submarine's Close Call

With the planned closing of the Groton, Conn. submarine base and the transfer of a half dozen boomers to Guam, this NYT story about the USS San Francisco nearly going down after hitting an uncharted undersea mountain off Guam is a signal for sending mapping ships to the area.

One crewman died in the incident and 98 were injured.

My dad was a submariner in the Pacific in World War II and off Cuba at the height of the Cold War. (Thanks for your service, Dad. As your mind slips away more and more, I miss that strong young man in uniform all the more!) This story is a good, long read for anyone who, like me, loves the romance and mystery of those great, stealthy, lethal boats and cares about their crews. Here's a description of the impact as an enticement for you to read the entire piece:

Then "came the real deal," he said, a thunderous blast and what felt like a warp-speed gale whipping through the submarine as it froze in its tracks.

The force spun his body around - like Spiderman twisting against a wall, he said - and his hand punched through a plexiglass gauge cover. His seat ripped out of its runners and crushed his leg. Then one of the quartermasters, who had been monitoring the charts 15 feet away, came catapulting into view. He ended up knocked out on the floor, blood pouring from his forehead.

A few feet away, three more men were unconscious. One - the junior officer who had just suggested the extra sounding - was bleeding from his head and leg, and could hardly breathe. Commander Carlton, who was still in charge, had been thrown into a passageway, and blood streamed from the right side of his face as he scrambled back to the command center.

In the wardroom, Commander Mooney had been pinned into his seat, while a cook came over his shoulder and crashed into a television screen 10 feet away, cracking it in two places. Within seconds, the captain was rushing up a ladder to the control room, where the effort to blow the submarine to the surface had just begun.

Hundreds of papers that had popped out of binders were streaking dark red on the floor, and the microphones were crackling with injury reports.