Quote:
|
It is all well and good having the filtered reports, but it would be nice to know what happened. Something like this has not happened since the loss of this boat (thank god). If the problem was with the torpedo batteries why has there not been a repeat explosion, that hopefully would not take a boat down.
|
there were other incidents of the suspect torpedo malfunctioning that thankfully did not lead to the loss of other submarines.
The problem was that there was a design flaw leading to the membrane separating the battery components breaking, allowing the chemicals to start reacting, which released a large amount of heat. In the case of the scorpion, it is postulated that this heat reached the warhead and started a low-order detonation. In at least one other boat, the crew reacted in time and contained the heat by pouring vast amounts of water on the torpedo until the reaction ended.
The torpedoes were shortly after this event withdrawn from service and redesigned, which explains why there were no more incidents like this.
The USS Scorpion at the time of the incident was long overdue an overhaul, and had on the previous leg of the journey experienced a severe phase of shaking. This shaking could easily have broken the flawed membrane.
----------------
an explanation for why the boat was heading the wrong way is that the overheating torpedo could have been interpreted as a hot-running torpedo, which is when the torpedo motor starts running while in the storage rack - also a highly dangerous event. The recommended action at this point is to conduct a rapid 180 degree turn, which will lead to the torpedo gyrocompass triggering the emergency shutoff, which i guess is a safety mechanism to prevent circlerunning incidents.