Search for the Thresher^ 



By F. N. Spiess 

 Marine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography 



and 



A. E. Maxwell 



Geophysics Branch, Office of Naval Research 



[With 4 plates] 



On the morning of April 9, 1963, the nuclear-powered attack sub- 

 marine Thresher steamed out of Portsmouth Navy Yard toward a 

 nearby submarine operating area. Her purpose was to conduct the 

 usual series of check dives which follow any major overhaul period 

 for submarines of our Navy. With her, to provide escort and commu- 

 nication contact, was the rescue ship Skylark. As soon as the Thresher 

 was clear of the shipyard, the crew rigged for dive and check-dived 

 the boat in shallow water, following procedures developed over many 

 years of submarine operations. At 0745 the following day, she sent 

 her routine diving message to Skylark and to submarine force head- 

 quarters, then shortly after disappeared into the sea on her dive to 

 test depth. About an hour and a half later a routine report was made 

 by sonic telephone to the escorting ship — all was going well except 

 for some minor difficulty. Then there was a more hasty, garbled 

 report indicating more severe trouble; this was followed by noises 

 resembling, it seemed to the sonar man on the Skylark^ sounds associ- 

 ated with the breakup of a sinking ship. The Thresher^ with all 

 hands, was lost. 



This ship (pi. 1, fig. 1) was the first of our Navy's newest class of 

 attack submarines, the 15th nuclear-powered undersea craft of about 

 60 that have been in operation since the commissioning of the Nautilus 

 in 1954. The niunber of innovations which have been brought to 

 reality in these boats is so great that experienced submariners of 

 World War II would scarcely recognize these craft as related to the 

 wartime submarines except for the cylindrical hull and ballasting 



1 Reprinted by permission from Science, vol. 145, No. 3630, pp. 349-355 ; copyright 

 1964 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



766-746 — 65 28 373 



