US nuclear submarine SCORPION SSN589 and 99 crew lost at sea 49 years ago today. The cause?

[Jonathan]

US nuclear submarine SCORPION SSN589 and 99 crew lost
at sea 49 years ago today. The cause?
https://twitter.com/CavasShips/status/866651540320387072



USS Scorpion (SSN-589)
From Wiki


USS Scorpion (SSN-589) was a Skipjack-class nuclear submarine
of the United States Navy and the sixth vessel of the U.S.
Navy to carry that name. Scorpion was lost on 22 May 1968,
with 99 crewmen dying in the incident. USS Scorpion is one
of two nuclear submarines the U.S. Navy has lost, the
other being USS Thresher.[3] It was one of four mysterious
submarine disappearances in 1968, the others being
the Israeli submarine INS Dakar, the French submarine
Minerve and the Soviet submarine K-129.


Theories about the loss



Accidental activation of torpedo


Explosion of torpedo

In his book The Silent War, he recounts running a simulation with
former Scorpion executive officer Lieutenant Commander Robert
Fountain, Jr. commanding the simulator. Fountain was told he
was headed home at 18 knots (33 km/h) at a depth of his choice,
then there was an alarm of "hot running torpedo". Fountain
responded with "right full rudder", a quick turn that would
activate a safety device and keep the torpedo from arming.
Then an explosion in the torpedo room was introduced into
the simulation. Fountain ordered emergency procedures to
surface the boat, stated Dr. Craven, "but instead she
continued to plummet, reaching collapse depth and imploding
in ninety seconds — one second shy of the acoustic record
of the actual event."



Malfunction of trash disposal unit



Soviet attack



U.S. Navy conclusions


The results of the U.S. Navy's various investigations into
the loss of Scorpion are inconclusive. While the court
of inquiry never endorsed Dr. Craven's torpedo theory
regarding the loss of Scorpion, its "findings of facts"
released in 1993 carried Craven's torpedo theory at the
head of a list of possible causes of Scorpion's loss.


Hydrogen explosion


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Scorpion_(SSN-589)