[Bert68]

We were stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hi and most of the time on daily ops training missions. We were in port at the time for 2 weeks up keep and we got some news from Bu Ships to try and enlongate our service time before having to go into the shipyard for our 18 month updates on equipment as this was to save money. I was a second class Engineman at the time transfered to the Auxilary gang for which we were in charge of the hydraulic systems, scopes, high pressure air systems and refrigeration plus all of the super structure valves.

The chief engineer and I were to inspect the main vent valves, and under the main deck piping that extended from the main induction valve to the engine rooms. The main induction was a huge 3' valve 9' tall with these 3 lines going to the engine rooms. One each in diameter of 22" to each engine room and one 18" line to the forward engine room for the ventilation system. Total weight filled with water would equal 55,000 lbs of water. We had at mid ships a 55,000 lb capacity safety tank just in case this system ever collapsed. This tank was modified to hold fresh water at the time. The valves at the bottom of the tank had been welded shut and the main vent valves disconnected to prevent them from being opened. The old subs had really bad capacity for making fresh water and most of the water that was made had to be used for the batteries as this was almost a daily chore for the electricians to top these batteries off because of charging them all of the time.

So the Chief and I opened all of the deck hatchs to look and crawl into the super structure with a 4 lb. hammer and try and beat the hell out of the pipes to see if any of them collapsed. Needless to say there sure as hell was no room to even get at 30% of them to see what we could do with the hammering and visable inspection. All of the pipes looked to be in good shape, no visable rust or dings or signs of collapsing as these pipes were always full of air. The pipes were 1/4" thick and of course circluar and bracketed in place and very close to the main hull.
So you can see our position of trying to inspect them.

Monday morning we left port for daily ops and motored out to our designated area and submerged. We were suppose to do some shallow running until the ASW teams found us then do some different levels of diving to see if the spotters could pick us up from the plane. They would then drop these 25lb. explosives on us for simulated bombs. Some were close, some missed and of course we were taking manuvering actions to prevent them from finding us. They also had these sona bouys they would drop to pickup our position, these were like a minature sonar with a radio transmission to the plane.

At around 11:30 we dove on down to our test depth of 412'. This subs main hull was only 15/16" thick metal, welded plates and with the interior support beams made of I-beam material, I would say these were 3/8" thick 6x6, not sure about this but close. Also this ship was built in 1944 but did see some action and had a nice battle flag and some shipping sunk and mine laying in harbors. I have no idea what the test depth of those new ships would have been but when I talked to some of the WW2 guys they said they took these ships down to 700' many times for evasion. The ship was 309' 6" long, weight around 1700 tons, widest part was mid ships with 17' inside diameter and with a crew of around 90 people.

I was on the 8 to 12 watch and my duty station was the high pressure air manifold for blowing the ship to surface. I got relieved at 12, went and had my lunch then went to the forward torpedo room to lay down at around 12:30. The spotters must have had a good bearing on us as they were dropping those mini bombs and getting pretty good contact even at that depth. They had just dropped a pair of them when I heard this God Awful KABOOM. I heard the Captain yell to send up a red flare to the forward torpedo room so I knew something bad had happened. They also ordered rig for collapse so I jumped out and headed for the control room as I had to go thru the forward battery compartment to the control room they had started to dog the passage way hatchs shut. I had just made it to the bulk head door and pushed it open to get into the control room.

As there were orders flying like crazy, ahead flank, full rise on bow and stern planes, blow the bow tank, blow all main ballast. I looked at the guy who had relieved me and he was in a stage of wholly fear and had frozen, he had not opened one damn valve. I looked at the depth gauge and we were passing 550' so I promtly knocked his ass out of the way and started cranking open all of the valves. Normally when blowing the main ballest and bow tanks you only opened the high pressure valves about a 1/2 turn for the 3000 psi to enter the tanks. You can believe me I cranked those damn valves as wide open as I could get them. Couse like I said the safety tank was full of fresh water and that could not be blown. I looked again we were passing 600', no response from blowing then one hellish crack from the hull around the scope area, KAPOW, I thought that was the end of us, also the water depth was 2 miles deep. The radio room was also in the after part of the control room and out run the radioman when this happened. Where was he going I asked him as we were in the same compartment. Anyway I looked again we were passing 650', a few more seconds we were passing 700', looked again and we hit 750' and the ship started shuttering and then we hit about 775' and finally started some up bubble and depth rise. This old boat was groaning and moaning but we were headed up finally. Whew, but not out of danger yet, then the ship started really gaining up rise and quickly passed the 400' mark and we began to breath a sigh of relief. At 200' we secured blowing of the tanks, at 100' we flooded negative tank to help stop the fast uprise, slowed to 1/3 head and we surfaced as normal, I started the low pressure blowing system to stablize the port and starboard tanks and put us on a even keel. We went top side to see what happened, and the deck was ripped open from the collapse of those lines running to the engine rooms about 100' long. Needless to say we ended up in the shipyards for repairs and Bu Ships cancelled any long delays for repairs to other subs.
I can only say this, If I had not went to the control room more than likely I would not be typing this adventure here.
Jim Gilbert, EN1(SS)