~~~~~~~~
The crew of the USS Stickleback
didn’t expect things to end this way—rising from the depths on May 28, 1958,
only to be broadsided by the hull of a friendly American destroyer, the USS
Silverstein. The Stickleback sank to the bottom, an 11,000-foot
journey to nowhere.
Now, 62 years since the sub
disappeared from any radar screen—and became one of only four U.S. Navy
submarines lost since the end of World War II—it’s been found again.
The sub—named for a spiny, scaleless
fish native to many northern waters—was found off the coast of Oahu, Hawai’i,
by the Lost 52 Project, an independent initiative to
find the 52 American submarine wrecks from the World War II era.
The great depth of the wreck (over
two miles beneath the surface), and the fact that its precise resting place was
unknown, allowed the submarine to elude discovery until now. The project found
the sub by cross-referencing old records with modern sonar technology and
remote submersibles, which eventually located the ship split in two at the
bottom of the sea.
Subs are solo actors in naval
warfare, says Tim Taylor, head of the underwater-technology firm Tiburon Subsea
and founder of the Lost 52 Project, who recently spearheaded the team that
identified the Stickleback. Unlike ships, he says, “when they went
missing, there was no fleet close [by] to witness and record the loss.”
The Lost 52 Project, Taylor says,
often finds itself parsing flawed wartime data to decipher the location of
wrecks. Ironically, the sonar technology used to find the Stickleback
was developed largely due to the advent of submarine warfare—the same reason
the Stickleback existed in the first place.
For Taylor and his team, challenges
abound. “We have many items to overcome [in our work], such as international
permits, weather, mechanical, and technical issues that arise on all
expeditions of this nature,” Taylor says. “The [biggest] challenge is looking
for lost ships using limited 75-plus-year-old data.”
The Stickleback’s sinking
could have been far worse. It occurred in 1958, after the sub had come out of
decommission—ship retirement—to serve in the Korean War. A training exercise
gone awry had caused it to plummet through the depths; when the sub managed to
resurface, it found itself in the path of the Silverstein. A collision
was unavoidable, yet no one was hurt, and the Stickleback’s crew
scrambled onto the friendly destroyer before the sub foundered and slipped
below the waves, this time for good.
The Stickleback is a rare
example of a submarine wreck without any casualties. “Submarines are built to
keep water out,” Taylor says. “What they also do, by virtue of that, is they
keep men in. For a [wrecked] submarine, it guarantees those men are in there.”
Without a soul on board, the sunken
submarine off the Hawai’ian coast is a piece of human history that exists in a
very different environment than, say, a history museum.
“The ocean floor at these deep
depths [is an] alien environment,” says Robert Neyland, the head of underwater
archaeology for the Naval History and Heritage Command. “I think
people are really attracted to something they can recognize there, and the
sacrifices people have made in the past.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I suspect neither skipper came away unscathed - we used to say that a collision at sea can ruin your entire day! No mention of what might have happened to them, but fortunately, there were no casualties!
Stay safe, kind readers, shelter in place, and for God's sake, wash your hands - often.
Until next time,
Fair winds,
Old Salt
