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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 851
| Subject: 5-13/14 history
Pacific 05/14/78: While surfacing in the western Pacific the USS Darter (SS-576) suffers flooding when about 45,000 pounds of seawater enter the engine room after a snorkel head valve fails. The USS Schofield (FFG-3) escorts the submarine toward Yokosuka, Japan.It arrives 19 May for repairs.
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Master and Commander
Posts: 1576
Location: Wollongong, NSW | Subject: RE: 5-13/14 history
Found this one hard to digest. A snort induction system should not be pressurised external to the hull. Can't understand why a surfacing submarine would have the induction system opened up for surfacing unless it was a surfacing on the low pressure blower. 550 gallons of water at PD coming through a relatively small diameter hole takes a while to ingress. |
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COMSUBBBS
Posts: 3666
Location: Kansas City Missouri | Subject: RE: 5-13/14 history
This site states "While on one of these in 1978, the head valve failed to close while snorkeling, and the ship had to emergency surface among U.S. surface units participating in an ASW exercise." |
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Great Sage of the Sea
Posts: 539
Location: Palm Bay, Florida | Subject: RE: 5-13/14 history
Interesting incident. In '69 during Gudgeon's transit to WestPac we also had the head valve freeze open and took quite a bit of water into the engine room. Had to divert to Guam for voyage repairs.
The reason for the casualty turned out to be that the grease fitting for the head valve operating shaft had been faired over by Mare Island during the recent overhaul and had never been located by the crew. |
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