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Silent Steel: The Mysterious Death of the Nuclear Attack Sub USS Scorpion
Praise for Silent Steel
"The magnitude of the tragedy of the USS Scorpion is matched only by the depth of the mystery surrounding her loss. Stephen Johnson has done a remarkable job of shining new light on this dark moment in U.S. submarine history."
--Sherry Sontag, coauthor of Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
"What happened to the USS Scorpion? The question has vexed submariners for almost four decades. Now, with meticulous research and incredible attention to detail, Stephen Johnson examines and dissects one of the most tragic and mysterious submarine accidents in U.S. Navy history."
--Douglas Waller, author of Big Red: Inside the Secret World of a Trident Nuclear Submarine
"Stephen Johnson has crafted a forensic masterpiece that leads the reader back through time to unravel the gnawing enigma of the tragic 1968 loss of the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion. Sifting through a maze of conflicting theories, he meticulously lays out a tale of undersea detectives searching for conclusive evidence to one of the most baffling mysteries of the cruel sea."
--Rear Admiral Thomas Evans, author, analyst specializing in submarine history and operations, and former officer on the Scorpion
"The manuscript arrived with yesterday's afternoon mail. I finished reading it by nightfall. It's that good! Thoroughly researched, impeccably documented, with an appealing and literate style, Silent Steel should become essential reading for submarine enthusiasts and for anyone else who enjoys an engaging and informative yarn."
--A. J. Hill, author of Under Pressure: The Final Voyage of Submarine S-Five
"The magnitude of the tragedy of the USS Scorpion is matched only by the depth of the mystery surrounding her loss. Stephen Johnson has done a remarkable job of shining new light on this dark moment in U.S. submarine history."
--Sherry Sontag, coauthor of Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage
"What happened to the USS Scorpion? The question has vexed submariners for almost four decades. Now, with meticulous research and incredible attention to detail, Stephen Johnson examines and dissects one of the most tragic and mysterious submarine accidents in U.S. Navy history."
--Douglas Waller, author of Big Red: Inside the Secret World of a Trident Nuclear Submarine
"Stephen Johnson has crafted a forensic masterpiece that leads the reader back through time to unravel the gnawing enigma of the tragic 1968 loss of the nuclear attack submarine USS Scorpion. Sifting through a maze of conflicting theories, he meticulously lays out a tale of undersea detectives searching for conclusive evidence to one of the most baffling mysteries of the cruel sea."
--Rear Admiral Thomas Evans, author, analyst specializing in submarine history and operations, and former officer on the Scorpion
"The manuscript arrived with yesterday's afternoon mail. I finished reading it by nightfall. It's that good! Thoroughly researched, impeccably documented, with an appealing and literate style, Silent Steel should become essential reading for submarine enthusiasts and for anyone else who enjoys an engaging and informative yarn."
--A. J. Hill, author of Under Pressure: The Final Voyage of Submarine S-Five
304 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2005
1 person is currently reading
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About the author
Steven Johnson
18 books2 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
August 30, 2017
1968 was not a good year: riots in the cities, multiple assassinations, and perhaps coincidentally four submarines were lost that year: one French, one Israeli, one Russian (K-129 see Project Azorian), and the USS Scorpion. The year's only redeeming feature was that I got married in August.
The USS Scorpion, an attack sub, had just been in dry-dock for several months while they refueled the nuclear reactor a complicated process that requires cutting a hole in the sub and then welding it shut. It passed all the requisite tests afterwards (the whole refit process was to come under review following the disaster,) and so was released for active duty where it was to act first as the "rabbit" for surface ships and other attack subs, i.e. the target during exercises. That was not its original mission, but it was replacing the USS Seawolf that had been severely damaged, almost sunk, after a collision with an underwater obstacle. If you remember The Hunt For Red October, you will remember the scene where they are steering through a large deep basin near Maine that required numerous turns that had to be done exactly in order to avoid a collision. The assumption was they had great charts. Nice fiction. The deep basin the Navy was using was very poorly charted as the USS Seawolf discovered, smashing the bow and stern. It was very lucky and survived only by emergency blowing the tanks. It needed to be towed back to base. (Something that surprised me was the number of underwater collisions suffered by U.S. nuclear subs. Of course, after recent events, we now know that Navy ships collide with things on the surface, too.)
Arriving in Rota, Spain, the Scorpion had a substantial list of work that needed to be done, not including huge hydraulic leaks they had managed to fix while in transit. The private contractor which had done the refit in Norfolk refused to cover any of them under warranty so all the fixes had to be done by the sub tender at Rota. They had a long list of problems that needed fixing. One serious one required the sailors to scrounge Freon from as many other ships as possible. Their own antiquated refrigeration systems was leaking substantial amounts. Freon by itself isn't particularly hazardous, but in a closed environment it displaces the air and if it accumulates in a small space it can cause asphyxiation. Normally they would expect to los about 75 lbs per month. They were losing ten times that and would ask for some from every ship they encountered. They were also having considerable communications equipment problems. On the way back it sank without a trace.
The search for the sub is described in detail (John Craven who was also involved in the search for K-129, developer of the Bayesian Search Theory and the super secret spy submarine the Halibut played a prominent role.) After discovery of the location and with analysis of thousand of photographs, the reasons were almost as numerous as those doing the analysis. The major ones seemed to be blown up by one of its own torpedoes (lots of things to go wrong), defective battery causing a fire (the batteries used in the torpedo were often defective), a stuck plane forcing the boat down faster than they could recover before hitting crush depth and others. (Interestingly, you'll learn that submariners don't drown when a submarine reaches crush depth, to put it bluntly, they are squashed instantly.) One peculiarity was that the periscope and communications antennas were in the upright position as if they were close to the surface when something happened. Another possibility was that the TDI, trash disposal unit, ball valve had failed leading to catastrophic water intake.
Whether the fast refit had left some lingering problems was another concern. Following the loss of the Thresher, which had sunk because of a bad weld that broke letting in high pressure sea water, the Navy embarked on an ambitious program to make subs safer. The problem was that for a variety of reasons, refits were dragging on for as long as 36 months. At one point 40% of the nuclear attack subs were in drydock. That was unacceptable. So they were going to try and speed things up, going to sea with known issues, limiting maximum submerged, and ignoring problems that could be fixed later.
No spoilers here. A terrific read.
The USS Scorpion, an attack sub, had just been in dry-dock for several months while they refueled the nuclear reactor a complicated process that requires cutting a hole in the sub and then welding it shut. It passed all the requisite tests afterwards (the whole refit process was to come under review following the disaster,) and so was released for active duty where it was to act first as the "rabbit" for surface ships and other attack subs, i.e. the target during exercises. That was not its original mission, but it was replacing the USS Seawolf that had been severely damaged, almost sunk, after a collision with an underwater obstacle. If you remember The Hunt For Red October, you will remember the scene where they are steering through a large deep basin near Maine that required numerous turns that had to be done exactly in order to avoid a collision. The assumption was they had great charts. Nice fiction. The deep basin the Navy was using was very poorly charted as the USS Seawolf discovered, smashing the bow and stern. It was very lucky and survived only by emergency blowing the tanks. It needed to be towed back to base. (Something that surprised me was the number of underwater collisions suffered by U.S. nuclear subs. Of course, after recent events, we now know that Navy ships collide with things on the surface, too.)
Arriving in Rota, Spain, the Scorpion had a substantial list of work that needed to be done, not including huge hydraulic leaks they had managed to fix while in transit. The private contractor which had done the refit in Norfolk refused to cover any of them under warranty so all the fixes had to be done by the sub tender at Rota. They had a long list of problems that needed fixing. One serious one required the sailors to scrounge Freon from as many other ships as possible. Their own antiquated refrigeration systems was leaking substantial amounts. Freon by itself isn't particularly hazardous, but in a closed environment it displaces the air and if it accumulates in a small space it can cause asphyxiation. Normally they would expect to los about 75 lbs per month. They were losing ten times that and would ask for some from every ship they encountered. They were also having considerable communications equipment problems. On the way back it sank without a trace.
The search for the sub is described in detail (John Craven who was also involved in the search for K-129, developer of the Bayesian Search Theory and the super secret spy submarine the Halibut played a prominent role.) After discovery of the location and with analysis of thousand of photographs, the reasons were almost as numerous as those doing the analysis. The major ones seemed to be blown up by one of its own torpedoes (lots of things to go wrong), defective battery causing a fire (the batteries used in the torpedo were often defective), a stuck plane forcing the boat down faster than they could recover before hitting crush depth and others. (Interestingly, you'll learn that submariners don't drown when a submarine reaches crush depth, to put it bluntly, they are squashed instantly.) One peculiarity was that the periscope and communications antennas were in the upright position as if they were close to the surface when something happened. Another possibility was that the TDI, trash disposal unit, ball valve had failed leading to catastrophic water intake.
Whether the fast refit had left some lingering problems was another concern. Following the loss of the Thresher, which had sunk because of a bad weld that broke letting in high pressure sea water, the Navy embarked on an ambitious program to make subs safer. The problem was that for a variety of reasons, refits were dragging on for as long as 36 months. At one point 40% of the nuclear attack subs were in drydock. That was unacceptable. So they were going to try and speed things up, going to sea with known issues, limiting maximum submerged, and ignoring problems that could be fixed later.
No spoilers here. A terrific read.
February 9, 2010
I guess there is something about submarines (like 8000m mountains) that both repels and fascinates me. Personally I can imagine few things I would find worse than spending time in a submarine - sounds like the worst parts of flying in a far more hostile environment.
There is therefore something uniquely horrific about a sub that sinks below its crush depth and implodes several thousand feet under the sea, what a way to go. This is the story of the loss of the USS Scorpion in just such circumstances, although the exact cause of the accident remains a mystery to this day.
It must be a challenge to write a such a book since there is no obvious conclusion. It would be more satisfactory to be able to solve the mystery, but this sad story doesn't lend itself to that. Perhaps we will never know the cause.
However this doesn't detract from a compelling read. Johnson does an admirable job of examining the facts that are known and of piecing together the last voyage of the Scorpion. He also brings the human interest element in without making it seem mawkish - ultimately this is a human tragedy with 99 lives lost.
There is therefore something uniquely horrific about a sub that sinks below its crush depth and implodes several thousand feet under the sea, what a way to go. This is the story of the loss of the USS Scorpion in just such circumstances, although the exact cause of the accident remains a mystery to this day.
It must be a challenge to write a such a book since there is no obvious conclusion. It would be more satisfactory to be able to solve the mystery, but this sad story doesn't lend itself to that. Perhaps we will never know the cause.
However this doesn't detract from a compelling read. Johnson does an admirable job of examining the facts that are known and of piecing together the last voyage of the Scorpion. He also brings the human interest element in without making it seem mawkish - ultimately this is a human tragedy with 99 lives lost.
January 17, 2019
Unlike a few other books on this topic, this one eschews conspiracy theories and casts doubt on hyper-dramatic scenarios. It just sticks to the facts and, when the facts run out, explores arguments for and against each likely explanation for what happened. Most admirably, Stephen Johnson introduces us to the lost crew and the lives they led aboard this ill-fated boat. It’s a human story above all, not a technical one. I’m sure a lot of readers skip the preface. In this case that would be a mistake. Johnson lays out the plan he had for the book very clearly, and once you begin the actual chapters, you will see how well he stuck to it.
May 16, 2016
Interesting treatment of a forgotten maritime mystery.
August 18, 2021
Most interesting here is that the author makes no mention, none, of the premises propounded in Blind Man’s Bluff<\i>, though the liner notes of this work state that he “assisted documentary makers and authors researching the disaster, including the authors of the bestselling Blind Man’s Bluff.<\i>”
In this work, the Scorpion’s loss remains firmly in the realm of, as the subtitle puts it, the mysterious<\i>.
What is now an unsolvable mystery to me is whether I would have volunteered with such alacrity to take the plunge had I had even the faintest of inklings of the problems described here of the submarine service’s parts and repair departments.
The people running the show seem mostly to have cut their teeth in the corner-cutting WWII years and had no problem continuing to “defer but not cancel” planned maintenance and safety upgrades.
Well, I survived. Not so, the Scorpion<\i>’s ninety-nine crew members.
In this work, the Scorpion’s loss remains firmly in the realm of, as the subtitle puts it, the mysterious<\i>.
What is now an unsolvable mystery to me is whether I would have volunteered with such alacrity to take the plunge had I had even the faintest of inklings of the problems described here of the submarine service’s parts and repair departments.
The people running the show seem mostly to have cut their teeth in the corner-cutting WWII years and had no problem continuing to “defer but not cancel” planned maintenance and safety upgrades.
Well, I survived. Not so, the Scorpion<\i>’s ninety-nine crew members.
June 20, 2022
Maybe 2.5 stars. Very technical and like the Navy report says “unknown “. It could have been 10 different things and maybe as simple as a trash compactor ejection unit faulty valve.
I probably shouldn’t have read this because I hate books that you have to draw conclusions. No one will ever know what happened to the dinosaurs because we weren’t there. No one will ever know what sunk this submarine because we weren’t there. All theory until someone has a new theory
I probably shouldn’t have read this because I hate books that you have to draw conclusions. No one will ever know what happened to the dinosaurs because we weren’t there. No one will ever know what sunk this submarine because we weren’t there. All theory until someone has a new theory
December 9, 2020
I enjoy reading about subs. I did not know about the USS Scorpion, so I was very interested in this book. Not as exciting as some sub books, especially ones serving during WWII, but still a good read.
February 27, 2024
Great telling of what probably happened with the USS Scorpion. Detailed and well researched.
August 28, 2016
As far as the American public knows, the US Navy has lost two nuclear powered submarines, the Thresher in 1963 and the Scorpion in 1968. Both were losses of crew as well as the ships. In the case of the USS Scorpion, the crew numbered 99 submariners, and for nearly 25 years after the tragedy the Navy said little about how the crew and boat perished in the Atlantic Ocean. Then, in 1998, the Navy lifted the secret classification of the final 1970 report on how it all happened.
Silent Steel, by Stephen Johnson (John Wiley and Sons, 2006) is the story of the Navy’s recovery efforts, their scientific and military search for the submarine, and the conclusions drawn by the investigators. It is a carefully structured history in which the author reveals a disheartening list of mechanical and maintenance nightmares that plagued the Scorpion, and difficulties between officers and enlisted personnel. Johnson reviewed naval documents, interviewed scientists and former Scorpion crew, and waded through a morass of military shorthand and technical jargon to produce a very readable book. And throughout the narrative, Johnson never looses sight of the human costs accompanying the Scorpion’s burial at sea.
If you like military history in general, or submarines in particular, this book is a must read.
Silent Steel, by Stephen Johnson (John Wiley and Sons, 2006) is the story of the Navy’s recovery efforts, their scientific and military search for the submarine, and the conclusions drawn by the investigators. It is a carefully structured history in which the author reveals a disheartening list of mechanical and maintenance nightmares that plagued the Scorpion, and difficulties between officers and enlisted personnel. Johnson reviewed naval documents, interviewed scientists and former Scorpion crew, and waded through a morass of military shorthand and technical jargon to produce a very readable book. And throughout the narrative, Johnson never looses sight of the human costs accompanying the Scorpion’s burial at sea.
If you like military history in general, or submarines in particular, this book is a must read.
July 27, 2009
A very good account of the mysterious sinking of the American fast-attack nuclear submarine in 1968. Well told for a layman; professionals might assess it differently, but I liked it enough to dare to suggest it to my submariner father (who served on a diesel boat and actually took part in the search for the Scorpion).
April 30, 2011
An overall great, in-depth and well-researched account of the loss of the nuclear submarine, USS Scropion and the actions of the US Navy to locate it and determine the cause of the loss which claimed the lives of all sailors aboard. Of the books on this topic—there's at least three, if not more—this is the best-researched by far.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews