Overdue Submarine Mystery Questions - 29 FEB 2012

You couldn't make this stuff up!

Background: Selected Ongoing Sub Mysteries

16 April 1951 - HMS Affray (P421) Affray left port around 1600 hrs, and made normal contact to confirm position, course, and speed at 2100 hrs, indicating she was preparing to dive. When she missed her 0800 to 1000 report the next morning she was declared missing and an immediate search begun. Seventy-five (75) crew and riders are entombed in the submarine on the edge of Hurds Deep (an underwater valley) in the English Channel. Under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986, the vessel is a controlled site. Diving on her without a permit from the Ministry of Defence is strictly illegal.

21 May 1968 - USS Scorpion (SSN-589) indicated her position to be about 50 miles south of the Azores. Six days later, she was reported overdue from Norfolk, Virginia. On 5 June 1968, Scorpion and her crew of 99 were declared presumed lost.

13 March 2007 - USS San Juan (SSN-751) missed a 7 p.m communication (with surface ships). The Navy mobilized a search-and-rescue operation and began notifying the families of the 140 crew members that the submarine was missing.

The concern was so high that Defense Secretary Robert Gates was notified of the situation overnight, as was White House national security adviser Stephen Hadley, who was preparing to brief President Bush with the news when communications were re-established with the missing submarine. ABC NEWS

From 5 to 60 years later, theories still abound in connection with each of the above events and what may have actually caused them. Nothing new in that, however, considering the same can still be said about the mysterious fate of the H. L. Hunley submarine, which in 1864 (147 years ago) sent USS Housatonic and five of her crew to the bottom near the entrance to Charleston Harbor.

QUESTIONS of the WEEK:

1. A serious theory connected with the loss of one of the selected subs (above) was also suggested in a popular submarine film. Which of the three subs was this, and what similarity was also depicted in The Hunt for Red October.

2. Why would inclusion of the theory referred to in Question 1 by board of inquiry imply a thorough and candid investigation?

3. Name the sailor whose singular presence on board the sub not only supports the theory, but certainly raises even more unanswered questions.

4. Why could the H.L. Hunley, by the way, not be included appropriately with the three selected submarines above?

ANSWERS: Monday, 5 March 2012

Submarines are always silent and strange.