That... Is Gonna Leave a Mark !

   In a previous post I teased about the sinking of the USS GUITARRO (SSN-665)   Here, now, that story...

  First and foremost, I was NOT involved. The 'sinking' was not my fault !  I was aboard the Gutfish from February of 1975 thru October of 1980... The 'Incident' occurred in 1969, I would have been thirteen years old.

 The USS GUITARRO sinking was determined to be due to Shipyard error while tied up to the pier at Mare Island Naval Shipyard in San Fransisco, CA. The 'boat' (we don't refer to a submarine as a ship)        In a nutshell the sinking was a direct result of testing certain water tanks, forward and aft of the boats centerline. Water was being pumped into ballast and WRT tanks (water around torpedo) and the 'yardbirds' left for dinner break leaving the situation unsupervised. You just can't make this stuff up. So without observation the water exceeded the tank volume and started to flood the torpedo room and forward compartment, drastically changing the draft (how a vessel sits in the water). The water level eventually reached a point of no return as the forward compartment access hatch was below the level of the wave action in the bay causing catastrophic flooding and situational loss of the entire boat.

  The keel of the nuclear powered Guitarro rest on the bottom of the Napa River, still moored to the pier. The boat wasn't even commissioned yet (commissioning was supposed to take place in 1970)

Change Of Command Ceremonny

 The Gutfish was raised three days latter but   the damage had already been done... some 20 million dollars worth. It was the largest insurance claim at the time. Turnover to the United States Navy finally took place on 9 September 1972 under the command of Cmdr. Alvin H Pauole, a most excellent tactician and CO (Skipper) 

  I was honored to serve under his command for the first two years of service on the Guitarro (named after the Guitarfish under a classification of Rays). The 665 was the second submarine named Guitarro, the first being the WWII diesel boat SS-363 (1944 - 1954)

  Two major components of the stricken Guitarro, affected as a consequence of the sinking were the SINS (Ships Internal Navigation System) and the MRG (Main Reduction Gear) and after inspection the NAVY assumed the liability for these two essential items.

SINS Binnacle 

  The Ship’s Inertial Navigation System (SINS) is a highly accurate, all-weather, self-contained navigation system used in aircraft carriers, submarines, and surface combatants equipped with Tomahawk weapons systems. It is a type of inertial navigation system (INS) which is a navigation device that uses motion sensors (accelerometers), rotation sensors (gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity (direction and speed of movement) of a moving object without the need for external references.

  When asked how it works, crews would say, "The SINS knows every point on the face of the Earth. It subtracts all places it knows you aren't and determines where you are, If I told you any more, I would have to kill you!"

Naval Reduction Gear

  The MRG (Main Reduction Gear) is a massive piece of gear installed in the engine room before the hull is completed. A submarine reduction gear is a critical element of a boat’s propulsion system, the function of which is to connect a ship’s steam generator (reactor) to its propeller shaft. The main reduction gear (MRG) is a mechanical complex of pinions and gears that is used to convert high energy, high rotations per minute (RPM) main engine steam turbines’ motion into a high-torque, low RPM shaft rotation ending up at the big spinning thing outside the back of the people tank (Hull). This was located in a sweaty area known as the engineering spaces.

 STURGEON CLASS FAST ATTACK

  The engine room was where the NUKES (Pushers) hide, lurking under the deck plates, waiting to devour any unsuspecting 'forward person' (PUKE) venturing beyond Frame 57 (the reactor compartment) usually being beset upon while attempting to glean the required knowledge to become 'Qualified In Submarines' and earn their coveted 'DOLPHINS' -Submarine Qualification Insignia. (above - right)

  It should be noted that the USS Guitarro was the only Sturgeon class submarine to never experience a failure of the main reduction gear even after a bath in the muddy Napa River.

  The SSN-665 was decommissioned and cut into razor blades in 1992... an ignominious end to a noble fighting unit of the United States Pacific Submarine Command. 

  The Guitarro was impressive in its role as a 'deterrent' - "Keeping the Sea Lanes Clear of Communist Aggression".   We had a MS, Mess Specialist (Cook), from somewhere in the South who couldn't either remember or comprehend the term 'deterrent' instead referring to it as a 'detergent' believing we were to "keep the sea lanes clean..." close enough, we eventually stopped correcting him.

USS Guitarro (SSN-665) hosting the first tour of a US nuclear submarine by high-ranking Russian officials: (The late General Colin Powell is in the rear of the group)

"When in Doubt - Mumble"

-  Old Naval Command Axiom