My small USS Thresher group

[Patchcollector]

Good morning everyone.Here are some USS Thresher items from my collection.

Included is a plaque,a Thresher patch,and a brochure from the Navy League of the United States,Boston council,detailing their Portsmouth Naval Shipyard visit.

The USS Thresher sank with all hands lost,and this April 10th will be the 50th anniversary of her loss.Rest in Peace to all of the fine people that died in the tragedy.

 

 

 

At 9:18 a.m. on April 10, 1963, sonar operators aboard the U.S. Navy submarine rescue ship Skylark, which was accompanying the nuclear attack submarine Thresher, heard a chilling sound “like air rushing into an air tank,” and Thresher was no more. Its deep-dive trials southeast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, had come to a cataclysmic end and all 129 men aboard perished in 8,400 feet (2,560 meters) of water.

Five minutes prior to the implosion, Thresher had radioed that it was having minor problems. Skylark received several fragmentary, garbled messages, followed by silence. Moments later the chilling sounds of a submarine breaking apart and imploding were heard.

According to U.S. military reviews of the accident, the most likely explanation is that a piping joint in a sea water system in the engine room gave way. The resulting spray shorted out electronics and forced an automatic shutdown of the nuclear reactor.

 

When she was created,Thresher was the most advanced sub in the US arsenal,and she was staffed with some of the best sailors in the Navy.

Here is some info that was written at the time:

USS Thresher (SSN 593), is the lead ship of the world’s most advanced class of nuclear submarines. Thresher, which is similar in construction to other recent submarines, has a Westinghouse S5W reactor plant, a single propeller driven by a geared turbine and an ALBACORE teardrop-shaped hull. However, with her “built in” silent quality, she is one of the most effective anti-submarine weapons in the Navy arsenal. She has the ability to operate deeper as well as more silently than her predecessors, thus making her detection extremely difficult. The advanced sonar board is the most comprehensive detection system ever devised for underwater craft. She is equipped to fire the Navy’s newest submarine weapons.

Thresher was sponsored by Mrs. Frederick B. Warder who christened the ship in a unique bow first launching on July 9, 1960, at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Here are some facts about Thresher that I found online:

 

USS Thresher

 

A class of shark which is harmless to man and easily recognizable because its tail is longer than the combined length of body and head.

(SSN-593: displacement 3,700 (surfaced), 4,300 (submerged); length 278 feet 6 inches; beam 31 feet 8 inches; speed 20+ knots; complement 100; armament 4 torpedo tubes; class Thresher)

 

The second Thresher (SSN-593) was laid down on 28 May 1958 by the Portsmouth (N.H.) Naval Shipyard; launched on 9 July 1960; sponsored by Mrs. Frederick B. Warder; and commissioned on 3 August 1961, Comdr. Dean W. Axene in command.

 

Following trials the nuclear attack submarine took part in Nuclear submarine Exercise (NUSUBEX) 3-61 off the northeastern coast of the United States from 18 to 24 September.

 

On 18 October; the submarine headed south along the east coast. After calling at San Juan, Puerto Rico, she conducted further trials and test-fired her torpedo system before returning to Portsmouth on 29 November. The ship remained in port through the end of the year and spent the first two months of 1962 evaluating her sonar system and her Submarine Rocket (SUBROC) system. In March, the submarine participated in NUSUBEX 2-62, an exercise designed to improve the tactical capabilities of nuclear submarines , and in antisubmarine warfare training with Task Group ALPHA.

 

Off Charleston, the ship undertook operations observed by the Naval Antisubmarine Warfare Council, before she returned briefly to New England waters from whence she proceeded to Florida for SUBROC tests. However, while mooring at Port Canaveral, the submarine was accidentally struck by a tug which damaged one of her ballast tanks. After repairs at Groton, Conn., by the Electric Boat Company, the ship returned south for more tests and trials off Key West. Thresher then returned northward and remained in dockyard hands through the early spring of 1963.

 

In company with Skylark (ASR-20), Thresher put to sea on 10 April 1963 for deep-diving exercises. In addition to her 16 officers and 96 enlisted men, the submarine carried 17 civilian technicians to observe her performance during the deep-diving tests.

 

Fifteen minutes after reaching her assigned test depth, the submarine communicated with Skylark by underwater telephone, apprizing the submarine rescue ship of difficulties. Garbled transmissions indicated that far below the surface things were going badly wrong. Suddenly, listeners in Skylark heard a noise "like air rushing into an air tank"--then, silence.

 

Efforts to reestablish contact with Thresher failed, and a search group was formed in an attempt to locate the submarine. Rescue ship Recovery (ASR-43) subsequently recovered bits of debris, including gloves and bits of internal insulation. Photographs taken by bathyscaph Trieste proved that the submarine had broken up, taking all hands on board to their deaths in 5,500 of water, some 220 miles east of Boston. Thresher was officially declared lost in April 1963.

 

Subsequently, a Court of Inquiry was convened and, after studying pictures and other data, opined that the loss of Thresher was in all probability due to a silver-brazed piping joint welding failure that flooded the engine room with water. Salt water spray on electrical components caused short circuits, reactor shutdown and loss of propulsion power. The main ballast tank blow system then malfunctioned, most probably owing to ice formation in the piping, and the inadequate blow rate could not overcome resulting in flooding in the engine room.

 

Thresher is in six major sections on the ocean floor, with the majority in a single debris field about 400 yards square. The major sections are the sail, sonar dome, bow section, engineering spaces, operations spaces, and the tail section.

 

Owing to the pressurized-water nuclear reactor in the engine room, deep ocean radiological monitoring operations were conducted in August 1983 and August 1986. The site had been previously monitored in 1965 and 1977 and none of the samples obtained showed any evidence of release of radioactivity from the reactor fuel elements. Fission products were not detected above concentrations typical of worldwide background levels in sediment, water, or marine life samples.

Some more info and specs:

Built as the first ship in her class, the USS THRESHER was the Navy's second ship to bear the name. Lost on April 10, 1963, during diving tests about 220 miles east of Boston, her class was subsequently named after the second ship - the USS PERMIT (SSN 594). USS THRESHER was stricken from the Navy list on April 10, 1963.

General Characteristics:

Awarded: January 15, 1958

Keel laid: May 28, 1958

Launched: July 9, 1960

Commissioned: August 3, 1961

Lost: April 10, 1963

Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Portsmouth, N.H.

Propulsion system: one S5W2 nuclear reactor

Propellers: one

Length: 278.5 feet (84.9 meters)

Beam: 32.15 feet (9.8 meters)

Draft: 28.9 feet (8.8 meters)

Displacement: Surfaced: approx. 3,640 tons Submerged: approx. 4,300 tons

Speed: Surfaced: approx. 20 knots Submerged: approx. 30 knots

Armament: four 533 mm torpedo tubes

Crew: 12 Officers, 91 Enlisted

[Patchcollector]

Group photo

[Patchcollector]

A photo of the brochure,and the patch that came with it.

[Patchcollector]

A view with the flash off,shows a bit more detail on the patch

[Patchcollector]

A closeup photo of the brochure

[Patchcollector]

That is all I have.Unfortunately,authentic Thresher items are very difficult to come by.I invite anyone that has any Thresher items to post them in honor of the 50th anniversary of her untimely demise.

[Terry K.]

Nice collection!

50 years, WOW!

I remember her sinking like yesterday. I was very young but followed her sinking and subsequent investigations. You have to remember this was in the middle of the Cold War. There was speculation that the Commies had done something. If I remember correctly, Look or Life magazines had the story and pics.

Terry

[RustyCanteen]

That is all I have.Unfortunately,authentic Thresher items are very difficult to come by.I invite anyone that has any Thresher items to post them in honor of the 50th anniversary of her untimely demise.

 

 

Nice items, I never did pick up a patch.

 

I'll re-post this, from another thread: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/158804-famous-ships-post-militaria-related-to-famous-and-infamous-ships/

 

This is a cropped image of an envelope, from around the time the Thresher was commissioned.

[Patchcollector]

Nice collection!

50 years, WOW!

I remember her sinking like yesterday. I was very young but followed her sinking and subsequent investigations. You have to remember this was in the middle of the Cold War. There was speculation that the Commies had done something. If I remember correctly, Look or Life magazines had the story and pics.

Terry

 

 

Hi Terry,thanks,yes 50 years!I was around at the time,but too young to remember anything.Thresher was one of the "stars" of our military effort during the cold war era.She was a significant step forward in the evolution of sub technology.Sadly,one of her components failed during tests and she was lost,which was a huge blow because of the human loss factor of course,but also to our prestige and military standing during the incredibly tense time of the early 60's.

[Patchcollector]

 

 

Nice items, I never did pick up a patch.

 

I'll re-post this, from another thread: http://www.usmilitar...infamous-ships/

 

This is a cropped image of an envelope, from around the time the Thresher was commissioned.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting the envelope pic and the link,that is a very interesting thread.I like your Scorpion patch!

[Patchcollector]

Here is a proclamation of the 50th anniversary of Threshers' loss by the state of Maine.

[ww1collector]

I was an engineer working on the Thresher at Electric Boat in the 60's. We instrumented the boat for noise and shock tests. The tests were done off the coast of Florida. The "shock tests" were done by steaming past depth charges that were set off and acceleromters on various parts of the machinery monitored the effects. The after test results, some of which I still have, showed numerous cracks throughout the boat. The Thresher and the Scorpion both underwent these kinds of tests and were the only subs that were sunk. Coincidence?

 

I still have a hand written note from John Lyman, the ship's engineer, and a casualty. I knew a lot of the crew. A classified video was shown to us that showed the retreival of parts on the bottom. All parts were marked to identify the boat they came from.

 

The casualty was caused by a leak in the sea water system that utimately caused an electrical failure that caused the reactor to scram. Once scrammed, there is no propulsion system that can take it to the surface in a flooding situation. The high pressure air that is used to blow ballast had a casualty that doomed the boat. There were air strainers in the lines that froze due to the air expanding and therefore prevented a succesful emergency blow. It was a really unnecessary tragedy. Dave

[Bluejacket]

On April 10 the Mariner's Museum in Newport News is hosting a talk about the USS Thresher. The link is; http://marinersmuseum.org/calendar/lecture-series/lecture-series-death-uss-thresher Bluejacket

[USMCR79]

I have always been interested in the USS Thresher items. The medal group belonged to TM 1/C Raymond C. Mattson - he was sick on 4/10/63 so he was one of 2 or 3 of the crew that was not on the final dive.

 

The letter opener was a "plank owner" item.

 

Bill

[USMCR79]

Other items

[dave peifer]

some really great history here and thanks to dave for the interesting insight on the thresher...............dave

[Patchcollector]

On April 10 the Mariner's Museum in Newport News is hosting a talk about the USS Thresher. The link is; http://marinersmuseu...th-uss-thresher Bluejacket

 

Thanks for the heads up and link on the talk Bluejacket!

[Patchcollector]

I have always been interested in the USS Thresher items. The medal group belonged to TM 1/C Raymond C. Mattson - he was sick on 4/10/63 so he was one of 2 or 3 of the crew that was not on the final dive.

 

The letter opener was a "plank owner" item.

 

Bill

 

 

Very nice Thresher group Bill!Glad to hear this guy survived,what a blessing for him,wow!

[Patchcollector]

Other items

 

 

That letter opener is just plain cool!

[Patchcollector]

I was an engineer working on the Thresher at Electric Boat in the 60's. We instrumented the boat for noise and shock tests. The tests were done off the coast of Florida. The "shock tests" were done by steaming past depth charges that were set off and acceleromters on various parts of the machinery monitored the effects. The after test results, some of which I still have, showed numerous cracks throughout the boat. The Thresher and the Scorpion both underwent these kinds of tests and were the only subs that were sunk. Coincidence?

 

I still have a hand written note from John Lyman, the ship's engineer, and a casualty. I knew a lot of the crew. A classified video was shown to us that showed the retreival of parts on the bottom. All parts were marked to identify the boat they came from.

 

The casualty was caused by a leak in the sea water system that utimately caused an electrical failure that caused the reactor to scram. Once scrammed, there is no propulsion system that can take it to the surface in a flooding situation. The high pressure air that is used to blow ballast had a casualty that doomed the boat. There were air strainers in the lines that froze due to the air expanding and therefore prevented a succesful emergency blow. It was a really unnecessary tragedy. Dave

 

 

 

 

I was an engineer working on the Thresher at Electric Boat in the 60's. We instrumented the boat for noise and shock tests. The tests were done off the coast of Florida. The "shock tests" were done by steaming past depth charges that were set off and acceleromters on various parts of the machinery monitored the effects. The after test results, some of which I still have, showed numerous cracks throughout the boat. The Thresher and the Scorpion both underwent these kinds of tests and were the only subs that were sunk. Coincidence?

 

I still have a hand written note from John Lyman, the ship's engineer, and a casualty. I knew a lot of the crew. A classified video was shown to us that showed the retreival of parts on the bottom. All parts were marked to identify the boat they came from.

 

The casualty was caused by a leak in the sea water system that utimately caused an electrical failure that caused the reactor to scram. Once scrammed, there is no propulsion system that can take it to the surface in a flooding situation. The high pressure air that is used to blow ballast had a casualty that doomed the boat. There were air strainers in the lines that froze due to the air expanding and therefore prevented a succesful emergency blow. It was a really unnecessary tragedy. Dave

 

 

Interesting.One of my jobs in the Air Force was an NDI tech,so I know about stress cracking.So the Thresher and the Scorpion were the only two boats to ever have the depth charge tests,or were other subs given the same test too?

I'm wondering too about the other two incidents that occurred with the Thresher.Could they too have contributed?Hmm...

 

Here they are:

 

 

 

Accidents aboard USS THRESHER:

Date Where Events November 2, 1961 San Juan, Puerto Rico

During her seatrials, the USS THRESHER is docked at San Juan, Puerto Rico, with her reactor shut down and a diesel generator providing electricity to perform the usual docking procedures. After about 7 hours the diesel generator breaks down. While sailors are working to repair the generator, electricity is provided by an electric storage battery. However, the generator takes much longer to repair and sp the decision is made to restart the reactor. But since a nuclear reactor takes several hours and considerable electricity to restart and the THRESHER's battery is depleted before the reactor becomes critical. With no electricity to keep the ventilation system going, the submarine starts to heat up. Temperatures in the machinery spaces reach approx. 140 degrees Fahrenheit and some men are ordered out suffering from the heat and fumes, and the captain fears the heat and humidity could damage electrical equipment and lead to a general evacuation. Finally, the problem is solved by hooking up electrical cable to the diesel-electric powered submarine CAVALLA (SS 244) which is moored alongside early the next morning. With electricity from the CAVALLA, the THRESHER's reactor is able to be restarted. June 3, 1962 Port Canaveral, Fla.

USS THRESHER is damaged in a collision with a commercial tug berthing her at Port Canaveral. The collision results in a three-foot gash in the submarine's ballast tanks about one foot below the waterline. The THRESHER subsequently proceeds to New London, Conn., under her own power for repairs.

 

[JDK]

Nice stuff guys! Thanks for sharing!

 

JD

[Jumpin Jack]

While not related to the sinking of the Thresher, I do have a piece related to its name sake. It's an official announcement of the commissioning of the original Thresher, and a first day cover posted on the date of commissioning. Jack Angolia

[ww1collector]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting.One of my jobs in the Air Force was an NDI tech,so I know about stress cracking.So the Thresher and the Scorpion were the only two boats to ever have the depth charge tests,or were other subs given the same test too?

I'm wondering too about the other two incidents that occurred with the Thresher.Could they too have contributed?Hmm...

 

Here they are:

 

 

 

 

Accidents aboard USS THRESHER:

Date Where Events November 2, 1961 San Juan, Puerto Rico

During her seatrials, the USS THRESHER is docked at San Juan, Puerto Rico, with her reactor shut down and a diesel generator providing electricity to perform the usual docking procedures. After about 7 hours the diesel generator breaks down. While sailors are working to repair the generator, electricity is provided by an electric storage battery. However, the generator takes much longer to repair and sp the decision is made to restart the reactor. But since a nuclear reactor takes several hours and considerable electricity to restart and the THRESHER's battery is depleted before the reactor becomes critical. With no electricity to keep the ventilation system going, the submarine starts to heat up. Temperatures in the machinery spaces reach approx. 140 degrees Fahrenheit and some men are ordered out suffering from the heat and fumes, and the captain fears the heat and humidity could damage electrical equipment and lead to a general evacuation. Finally, the problem is solved by hooking up electrical cable to the diesel-electric powered submarine CAVALLA (SS 244) which is moored alongside early the next morning. With electricity from the CAVALLA, the THRESHER's reactor is able to be restarted. June 3, 1962 Port Canaveral, Fla.

USS THRESHER is damaged in a collision with a commercial tug berthing her at Port Canaveral. The collision results in a three-foot gash in the submarine's ballast tanks about one foot below the waterline. The THRESHER subsequently proceeds to New London, Conn., under her own power for repairs.

 

 

 

I did not know about the incidents that happened earlier to the Thresher. As I said, both Scorpion and Thresher were subjected to depth charge shock tests that could have left a latent defect. Conspiracy theory says that Scorpion was sunk by the Soviets, but who knows? Those submarines had silver brazed salt water piping in the hull. Testing was of those joints was not really perfected in those days, so the theory is that one of those joints failed in Thresher. Salt water piping in the engine room was all welded per Naval Reactors specs. The forward part of the ship had the sil-brazed joints. At test depth pressures (about 1000 feet) there would be little chance to survive a major salt water leak.

[wolfbay]

I went to an estate sale last year here in Pensacola and picked up a group of 21 official 8x10 Navy Photos of the Wreck site and the memorial service at the site. The man who's estate they came from was involved somehow with the operation. Each photo has a description on back as to photo content. Will post soon, as I need to shrink them so I can post.

 

Try to see how this looks

[Patchcollector]

I went to an estate sale last year here in Pensacola and picked up a group of 21 official 8x10 Navy Photos of the Wreck site and the memorial service at the site. The man who's estate they came from was involved somehow with the operation. Each photo has a description on back as to photo content. Will post soon, as I need to shrink them so I can post.

 

Try to see how this looks

 

 

 

 

 

Oh wow,sounds great,love to see the photos.The one's that you posted were a bit small,I could'nt read the writing on the back of them.Hope that you can increase the size of them!