Chapter 41

Frank and I talked for close to an hour before I decided to call Russian President Orbatch, even though it was 5 AM there.

“Good morning, President Orbatch, this is Jones. I know it’s early, but I need to ask you a question or two.”

“Do you have any submarines operating in the East China Sea? The reason I ask that question is one of our subs – while on routine patrol - struck an underwater object that we are almost sure to be another sub. Damage to our sub is extensive, but it is still afloat and navigating towards Japan for repairs,” I said.

“The other sub sank and by the sounds, was eventually crushed by the deep-water pressure,” I added.

“Your submarine did not detect the other sub?” he asked.

“I cannot answer that at this time because I am just beginning to get information. But being there was a collision, obviously there was no detection to prevent it,” I replied.

“Our Navy officer is saying they have no subs in that area,” he said.

“I thought that was the case because North Korea and China are both rushing ships to the area. Apparently, the North Koreans have been looking for one of their subs for several days. There are a lot of unanswered questions! As soon as I have some answers, I will get back to you,” I said and then hung up the phone.

Frank and I talked about all the possible scenarios before Rear Admiral Barnes and an agent and a translator came. I wondered why we needed a translator? I soon found out as the pictures that that we had received were displayed on the screen.

What we had received looked to me to be the ships log. It was written in Korean as expected. The Nevada had photographed every page and sent as a large file. Apparently, this was a second or more log book because it only started ten years ago. Even the newest of the Romeo class was much older than that.

The cover inscription indicated this was the submarine’s third log book. It was labeled as Submarine 830.5 Deck Officer’s log. I wondered if all Navies used the same or a similar logging format? On US ships there were multiple logs kept. The captain kept a log, the engine room kept its own log - an important log on petroleum fired ships. The engine room was responsible for the fuel supplies and keeping the captain up to date on daily usage. The officer of the deck was responsible for a log as was the bridge officer.

The control room on subs kept the general ships log. On nuclear subs there was a separate log just for the reactor. Every reading from the reactor’s hundreds of gauges had to be recorded multiple times daily and especially at duty changes.

I ordered the translator to read the last 10 days. 10 days ago, the 830.5 left the dock for its first sea trial. It had been there two years getting a fifty - foot section added to its hull length and the installation of an experimental API propulsion unit.

The API unit was a copy of a German made unit from a set of engineering blue prints and operational manuals they had acquired. Multiple countries had supplied engineering and manufactured parts for the unit; many of them not knowing what they were making parts for. Iran - before their demise - most likely knew, along with France, Italy and with China manufacturing the most parts, critical items and final assembly.

I wondered why China was involved in building an API unit because they had a different propulsion unit they installed in their submarines. Unless they were looking for a better system at someone else’s engineering expense.

That was explained in an entry with the crew list with notations for this trail voyage. There were four Chinese engineers aboard. That explained China’s interest in the sub’s voyage.

All the tests at the dock were good. The batteries were new, all replaced in the overhaul with the API system and the batteries installed on the 830.5 could run submerged for fifteen days. They were a new lithium composite design.

Then it would need to surface or be at periscope depth to be able to use the snorkel to run the diesel engines to charge the batteries and change the breathing air in the sub.

On our nuclear sub’s air purifiers, extravagant filtering systems removed CO2 and other impurities plus had the ability to add oxygen, allowing the sub’s crew to have clean air for the length of the mission.

I wondered how successful it was at filtering out the natural gas aroma after the crew was fed beans or corn beef and cabbage. I wondered if cases of beano were on board to reduce natural gas episodes?

The last five days of entries explained the death of the sub, one entry at a time. The 830.5 left the dock for sea trials with some engineers - both NK and Chinese - added to the crew makeup.

The second day at sea was when the problems began to pop up. The API began to go intermediately bad only for a few minutes then OK for an hour or two. The sub’s batteries were used while the engineers tried to work out the problems with the API unit.

Either distractions or the failure to monitor time, the batteries lost charge. They went to periscope depth to use the snorkel to recharge them with the diesel engine. That process took ten hours – several hours longer than it should have.

While at periscope depth, the crew also worked on a problem with the compressed air tanks. There was no description on the problem with the tanks, other than they were repairing them.

The compressed air tanks stored the air necessary to purge the ballast tanks that controlled the depth of the sub. Along with the ballast tanks, the diving planes also has a tremendous effect on controlling the sub’s depth and it’s rise and descent in the ocean. There was an onboard compressor to pressurize the tanks when on the surface or at periscope depth with the snorkel in use.

The diving planes had no effect on anything unless the ship was moving through the water.

The loss of propulsion and no ability to purge the ballast tanks was the cause of the loss of the USS Thresher with all hands. The Thresher was going through a shake down and cruising at its maximum depth when the reactor went off line. The theory is that a bad weld on some piping sprayed water into the electronic control panel for the reactor and automatic safeties shut it down.

The Thresher had no batteries except for emergency lighting and radio communication. With the reactor down and no propulsion, the bow and stern planes were useless. The second calamity to hit the Thresher was the ballast tanks would not purge.

During manufacture, to keep metal shavings and other debris out of debris sensitive close tolerance air valves, screens were installed at the air inlets to the ballast tanks. They were not removed when the ship was completed.