The search for USS Thresher

Trieste (the Thresher search) · 1963 CE · Earth

Find, photograph and identify a nuclear submarine lost with all hands at 2,560 metres.

Historical context

On 10 April 1963 the nuclear attack submarine Thresher was lost with all 129 aboard, 112 naval personnel and 17 civilians, on deep-diving trials some 220 miles east of Cape Cod. By the account of George Martin, a Trieste pilot, the only craft in the search that could carry human observers to the floor where she lay, 8,400 feet down, about 2,560 metres, was the bathyscaphe Trieste: designed by Auguste Piccard, built in Italy, bought by the United States Navy in 1958, and in 1960 the craft that had carried Jacques Piccard and Don Walsh to the bottom of the Challenger Deep. Shipped from San Diego to Boston, it made ten dives in June and August, photographed debris and brought up a brass pipe marked 593 Boat. It was the original Trieste's last work; its sphere went into a new float as Trieste II. The loss itself gave rise to SUBSAFE, the Navy's programme to keep its submarines watertight.

The voyage, step by step

1. Trieste arrives in Boston

   26 April 1963

   On 26 April 1963 the bathyscaphe Trieste reaches Boston from San Diego, shipped through the Panama Canal in the well of the dock landing ship Point Defiance, and is moored at the South Boston annex of the naval shipyard.

2. Towed out to the search area

   20 June 1963

   On 20 June 1963 Trieste is towed out of Boston for the search area. The Navy has announced that the bathyscaphe will dive where new photographs show debris on the floor.

3. Over the site

   1963 CE

   Two hundred and twenty miles east of Cape Cod, near 41 degrees 46 minutes north, 65 degrees 3 minutes west, where Skylark waited on 10 April, the floor lies some 2,560 metres down, 8,400 feet in the Navy's figure.

4. Five dives in the dark

   24 June 1963

   From 24 to 30 June 1963, in perfect weather, Trieste makes five dives, numbers 119 to 123 in its log. On two of them its crew sights and photographs debris from Thresher.

5. Debris photographed

   24 August 1963

   On 24 August 1963, in its second series of dives, Trieste photographs a section of a sonar dome from the bow of a submarine of Thresher's class, and rockwool thermal insulation.

6. 593 Boat

   1963 CE

   On dive 126, its pilot, Lieutenant Commander Donald Keach, brings a section of pipe up to the surface with the manipulator. It is brass, and its inscription ends with the words 593 Boat.

Outcome

In ten dives in June and August 1963 the bathyscaphe photographed debris from Thresher on five, and on dive 126 the bathyscaphe brought up a brass pipe whose inscription ended 593 Boat. The main sections of the wreck were found in 1964 by the search ship Mizar, and Trieste II, rebuilt around the old sphere, recovered pieces that fixed the remains as Thresher's.

Trieste (the Thresher search)

The bathyscaphe that had carried two men to the bottom of the Challenger Deep in 1960, sent in 1963 to look for a nuclear submarine lost east of Cape Cod.

Read on Wikipedia

Sources

• Trieste (bathyscaphe) — Wikipedia
• USS Thresher (SSN-593): summary history and selected imagery with 1963 captionsNaval History and Heritage Command
• Trieste—The First Ten YearsGeorge W. Martin, Lieutenant, U.S. Navy · U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings, vol. 90/8/738 (August 1964) · 1964
• Record of Proceedings of a Court of Inquiry … into the circumstances of the loss at sea of USS Thresher (SS(N)593), volume I, pages 1–280: findings of fact, opinions and recommendations (released 2020 under the Freedom of Information Act)Court of Inquiry, Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin, president · Department of the Navy FOIA reading room · 1963
• Public relations aspects of a major disaster: a case study of the loss of USS Thresher (M.S. thesis)Joseph William Stierman · Boston University · 1964
• Thresher II (SSN-593), 1961–1963Robert J. Cressman · Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command · 2021
• Trieste I (Bathyscaphe)Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command
• Trieste II (Bathyscaphe)Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command
• Point Defiance (LSD-31)Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, Naval History and Heritage Command
• USS Preserver (ARS-8) — Wikipedia
• Photograph 330-PSA-110-63 (USN 711302): debris photographed by Atlantis II, released 22 May 1963, with its captionU.S. Navy; National Museum of the U.S. Navy · 1963
• Photograph 330-PSA-191-65 (USN 711344): battery parts recovered by Trieste, 24–30 June 1963, with its captionU.S. Navy; National Museum of the U.S. Navy · 1963
• Photograph 330-PSA-191-65 (USN 711346): external portion of a sonar dome photographed by Trieste, 24 August 1963, with its captionU.S. Navy; National Museum of the U.S. Navy · 1963
• Photograph 330-PSA-191-63 (USN 711350): the brass pipe recovered by Trieste, released 13 September 1963, with its captionU.S. Navy; National Museum of the U.S. Navy · 1963
• Photograph 330-PSA-192-63 (USN 711351): 'Commended for Thresher Search', 6 September 1963, with its captionU.S. Navy; National Museum of the U.S. Navy · 1963
• Statement of Rear Admiral Paul E. Sullivan before the House Science Committee on the SUBSAFE ProgramPaul E. Sullivan · U.S. Navy (29 October 2003) · 2003
• USS Thresher (SSN-593) — Wikipedia

Continue exploring

• Challenger Deep diveJacques Piccard · 1960 CE
• Calypso in the Red Sea and Indian OceanJacques Cousteau · 1955 CE
• Trieste's first deep divesAuguste Piccard · 1953 CE – 1958 CE
• The Galápagos Rift hydrothermal expeditionJack Corliss and the Alvin team · 1977 CE