Medford mail tribune., December 29, 1963, Image 41

wreckage probably would prove so little?
First, we felt an obligation to confirm, as
much as possible, our reconstruction of the trag
edy and learn whether anything could be added to
our conclusions. Secondly, the Navy believed it
was time to develop deep-sea search techniques for
future emergencies. Someday we might be called
on to find and study for research purposes a
missile or spacecraft lost at sea. Right now a
nuclear reactor from Thresher lay at the bottom
of the sea. It was not contaminating the water
with radioactivity, but scientists wanted to know
what effects the sea was having on it
When I arrived at Woods Hole, a series of
photographs from the Atlantis II camera was on
display. They didn't create the feeling of un
qualified success. I made out a couple of sea
urchins and unidentifiable foreign material.
"But remember," Molloy said, "we spotted this
material not far from where Skylark saw an oil
patch after the last message."
True but, nevertheless, the Navy had to label
the findings "inconclusive." We went back to
work, although this time we did narrow our
search to a 2-by-2-mile square area in Delta. At
least we knew that beneath it was something that
nature had not put there.
Now the sciences of precise navigation, elec
tronics, and oceanography went on attack
abetted immensely by luck. On Hay 28, Conrad,
a research ship of the Lamont Geological Labora
tories, began deep dredging and dragged up a
packet of 15 enveloped "O" rings. These are
gaskets used on pipes carrying fluids under high
pressure, such as. those on Thresher. Our hopes
had never been higher, and we sent the rings
to the court of inquiry at Portsmouth, N. H.
The preliminary report came back: "Yes, they
could have come from Thresher. Also from any
large airplane, aircraft carrier, or similar craft."
The strike, however, inspired Fritz Hess
on the Atlantis II. He fashioned a do-it-yourself
dredge of coat hangers and wire that looked
something like a kitchen dish-drying basket. He
pulled up rocks, sea life, and some derisive com
ments. Then one day he appeared in my cabin and
put two corroded plates on my desk.
"You've dredged up something from power
batteries all right," I said. "Could be from an
automobile, though." Hess thought otherwise,
however, so I put them in a box and sent them
to Portsmouth. This time the report came
back: "The battery plates appear identical with
those of the Thresher's the grids, chemicals,
electrodes."
Now we were ready for Trieste! Or were we? ,
Some experts felt so. I didn't. Dredging had
come up with light debris, but the hull itself
might be hundreds of yards away. We needed a
more confined target area before sending down
the Trieste, a craft never before used in this type
of work and capable of covering only a small
area of ocean floor about one knot in three or
four hours. Discussions converted neither side,
so we decided to take our individual arguments
to Washington for a decision.
On May 30, I received a phone call in Wash
ington from my Annapolis classmate and op
ponent in the following morning's debate Capt
C. B. Bishop. He told me he had just received a
report by radio-telephone. "Conrad has photo
graphed the actual hull!" he informed me.
We immediately released the news to the press,
and when I flew north the next morning the
headlines blared: "THRESHER FOUND!" It
was a great day until I saw Dr. J. L. Worzel,
chief scientist on Conrad, come down the gang
plank that afternoon. His face was gray.
"Why did you tell the papers?" he asked.
"You had photographed the hulk," I reminded
him. "It was positive identification."
"We photographed something all right," Worzel
replied. "We accidentally photographed our own
camera equipment!"
During World War II, I got a few medals for
combat experience, but the experience of a press
conference June 1 seemed as tough an action as
I'd ever faced. We had made mistakes not only
in photography but in releasing the information
without thorough checking. We had to admit the
error. The press was kind; we appreciated it
Worzel did more. While the Trieste debate re
sumed, he went doggedly back to work. During
every available hour, Conrad photographed in
"Delta" area. On June 14 Worzel vindicated us all.
Conrad's camera clearly photographed an oxy-
A clue to the lost sub's location was this oxy
gen bottle photographed by a submerged camera.
gen bottle used on subs, a sonar hydrophone simi
lar to that used in submarine construction, and
a chunk of metal plate covered with insulation.
We had no doubt now that we were closing in on
the Thresher and could send down the Trieste.
Lieut Comdr. Donald Reach is in charge of
the Trieste, and he began the first of two series
of dives in late June. They were not particularly
conclusive because of monumental navigation
problems. Remember, we were 220 miles from the
nearest land, trying to pinpoint a two-mile-square
area with sonar beams. And while we
would lower the Trieste at one specific point,
we had no idea how far it might drift in sub
surface currents. Once on the ocean floor, with
limited visibility, Reach faced another problem:
in which direction did he inch along? Was he
headed for Thresher or away from it?
The bathyscaph could not locate the wreckage
we had photographed, although Reach did see
light debris on his first dives. One encounter was
particularly poignant Looking through the thick
survey window, Keach spied something yellow
on the smooth sand surface: the lettering
"SSN." It was a bootee a nylon shoe-rover ing
which sailors use for protection when working in
the radiation compartment "SSN-593" was
Thresher's designation, but the numbers appar
ently were on the underside of the bootee.
Trieste completed five dives before power trou
ble caused us to return it to Boston for repairs.
We realized time was running out for us when
Keach began his second series of dives Aug. 23.
Soon autumn storms, including hurricanes, would
be whipping up the East Coast. But we had a
couple of weeks and we were so close.
Keach went down this time with a piece of
equipment he had never used before, a mechanical
arm with which he hoped to pick up debris. Big
pieces would be too heavy to lift at that depth,
but some pipe or plate might be salvaged.
The first dives discovered little, but on Aug. 28
Keach headed along a south line, and our frustra
tions turned to high hopes. "It looks like I'm
going through an automobile junk yard," Keach
reported. "There's everything down here-heavy
stuff, too." With the mechanical arm, Keach
latched onto a hunk of pipe and brought it up.
When we developed Reach's pictures, we knew
five months' work was about.to pay off. We stood
looking at photos of an internal watertight hatch,
large strips of rockwool insulation, and a large
fragment with numbers, "4 . . 3 . . . 0," the
Thresher's bow waterline markers.
How close had we come? Eighty yards, 150
yards? I was sure Thresher's hulk was within
that radius. Keach would have to strike out in
various directions from his "junk yard," but one
certainly would be the payoff.
We had almost forgotten the pipe. I put it in
a glass display case in the ship's store: the men
had worked tirelessly on this expedition, and I
wanted them to see some tangible result At night
we sent it to the radio shack and that seemed to
be that except for a young sailor with sharp eyes
who scrutinized the corroded pipe.
"-ommodore," I was told the next morning.
V"A sailor claims there's lettering on that
pipe." Hundreds of pairs of eyes had missed it,
yet some shipyard worker had used a drill to etch
identifying marks, including "593 Boat"
On Aug. 29 Keach dove for the ninth time and
headed south. The trail petered out. We were get
ting more anxious: we had come bo far in what
had seemed at times an impossible assignment.
Now we worried about weather and the Trieste.
Its power was erratic again, and it had sprung
a minor leak. With all this in mind, we sent Keach
down Sept 1. There was little doubt now that
Keach was closing in on Thresher. Then, just as
he was so close, Trieste's power failed again.
We knew now that the search for the Thresher
had ended. The Trieste would have to be com
pletely overhauled and that would take months.
When we headed for Boston Sept. 3, I suppose
we had mixed feelings. Against needle-in-hay-stack
odds, we had come within yards of success;
in a matter of days we would have found Thresh
er's compartments. With the disappointment was
a compensation, though.
This spring we expect to be back out there
with all our hard-won knowledge and more. We
will improve our equipment this winter and then,
within a few months, return to the previously
unexplored depths of the Thresher area.
So winter for us is a time to wait, work, and
anticipate calmer seas. It probably will not be
long before we again will be over the area, work
ing on an integral part of the Navy's research
and development program.
Family Weekly. Dtrfmber 29. Itei
9