[joegrundman]

It is a great story, but it is also worth mentioning the incident that provoked the whisky challenge. Actually, the way i recall the story it was a case of Chivas Regal, not Jack Daniels. Well, it doesn't matter - they are both well overrated anyway.

The reason that the challenge was made was because the USS Gudgeon (Guppy2) had had a harrowing experience off the Soviet Pacific Coast.

She was lurking near some Soviet naval activity when she was detected (thought some part of the conning tower broached the surface). She tried to evade the Soviet ASW, but they had a very good fix and started lobbing practice depth charges at the Gudgeon. The Gudgeon tried for 48 hours to shake off the ASW, almost succeeding at times, but always the Soviets found her again and rained more practice charges (these practice charges had about the power of a hand grenade - enough to make a loud pop, not enough to damage the hull)

After 48 hours with air and batteries exhausted she was forced to surface, engage diesels and run for it. The hope was that the distance and a small profile would help the escape go unnoticed.

It didn't, and the soviets sent the message "Thanks for the ASW practice, have a safe trip home" or something to that effect.

It was treated as a bit of an embarrassment to be kept quiet, the USS Gudgeon was transferred to the Atlantic, and the Chivas Regal/Jack Daniels challenge was laid to encourage a retaliation, and the winner was the submarine you mention above.

The event had a big effect on the US decision to adopt an all-nuclear submarine force, and was also one of the biggest early events of the Cold War under the sea. For the Soviet ASW it was probably invaluable experience.