The morning of January 8, 2005 was routine on the USS San Francisco (SSN-711) as it transited the Pacific Ocean about 350 miles southeast of Guam on its way to Australia. Throughout the boat the crew held field day. The chief of the boat toured the spaces and instructed men to secure access plates that had been opened for cleaning purposes. In control the chief of the watch took a sounding which indicated a depth of about 6000 feet. He then responded to the conning order to take the boat to a depth reported at around 500 feet. The normal cruising speed was maintained at about 30 knots. The reactor and turbines operated normally. The off watch crew members relaxed after working in the morning. The boat's corpsman was chatting with another corpsman who was riding the San Francisco as TAD from the Fleet Marine Force.

At the conclusion of field day the general announcing system piped down the noon meal. Men who had lined up for the meal picked up their salads and servers behind the galley breezeway heaped the main dish onto plates. As men sat about the boat talking and relaxing and others in the relieving section ate their noon meal the boat instantly decelerated to zero speed. After only four minutes from the latest sounding the boat had slammed into an uncharted submerged mountain peak. The impact was that of a head-on auto collision except that few men in the boat were wearing seat belts. The diving officer had just unbelted himself to update the status board and was thrown forward into the control panel smashing several gauges. He staggered backward in a haze. Crew members throughout the boat had been thrown forward against bulkheads and machinery. The executive officer had been facing aft and upon impact plummeted backward into the EAB manifold. The captain ordered the boat to surface. It came up slowly and flat.

Aft in the machinery spaces of the engine room 2nd Class Machinist Mate Joseph A. Ashley, 24, of Akron Ohio had been talking to his buddies. He was thrown forward 20 feet into the adjacent space. His head hit piping and he collapsed onto the deck. About 30 other men suffered broken arms, fingers and cuts and contusions from being catapulted into the submarine's bulkhead mounted equipment. The two corpsmen leaped into action and did a preliminary triage. They quickly focused their attention on Ashly and did what they could for him, but informed the captain that he had sustained a very serious head trauma. They then started attending to the other less seriously injured men. Crew member Bruce Brown had slammed into a bulkhead separating his shoulder and giving him bruises down one side of his body. He considered himself lucky not to have fallen down an open ladderwell next to him. The galley was a catastrophe. Hot food and liquid had gushed onto deck plates and had scalded the men serving the noon meal. The mess space was similar. Men who had been eating in one moment found themselves in a heap at the forward end of the compartment the next moment.

In control, damage reports from the forward room confirmed that the pressure hull had not been violated. The forward ballast tanks however, had been ruptured and high pressure air used in surfacing was not keeping the tanks dry. The submarine, now on the surface, kept the low pressure blower running and this helped to maintain forward buoyancy. The exhaust from the boat's FM diesel was directed into the tanks. It too was left running. At this point it was difficult to tell just how far down the bow was riding, and the seas were so rough that the captain ordered the bridge hatch to be shut. The boat was then conned from control. The captain and executive officer leaned over the charts. Their navigation was not at fault. They checked and rechecked their position. The charts indicated clear water. They considered what could have caused the collision or grounding. They ruled out a collision by reason of the magnitude of the deceleration. It was clear that the San Francisco had hit a steeply inclined submerged mount. The boat had not ridden upward appreciably at the moment of impact, so the submerged obstacle had to have been nearly vertical and absolutely solid. This was corroborated by the short time laps from the last sounding. The captain sent out a sitrep which alerted both ComSubPac in Pearl and the submarine facility in Guam. He requested medical help to be flown to the scene. Immediately, action was taken to get ships to the San Francisco which was making about eight knots on a course directly back to Guam. Soon, a helicopter dropped a medical team onto San Francisco's deck. USCGC Galveston Island came along side and escorted the submarine on its slow journey back to port. Reserve buoyancy on the boat seemed to hold as long as the blower and engine were kept on the line. The reactor continued to run smoothly as did the turbines. Medical personnel from Guam and crew members made an extraordinary effort to lift the injured Ashley out of the submarine. Those efforts failed and in spite of the medical team trying its best, the crew member died from his head wounds while en route to Guam.

As the boat entered Apra Harbor on January 10th, San Francisco maneuvered on her own. Crew members from the USS Corpus Christi (SSN 705) handled lines while San Francisco made its landing. Off duty crew members of the San Francisco came aboard and relieved the incoming crew of responsibility. The reactor was shut down and shore power was hooked up. Injured men were transported to the naval hospital where their wounds were cared for.

The damage was assessed as a cracked and partially collapsed sonar dome and forward underside rupturing of ballast tanks. Minor damage had occurred within the pressure hull, however, it remained intact and upon first inspection appeared to have suffered no damage. The final analysis is yet to be made, but Cecil Haney, the chief investigating engineer was surprised that more damage was not sustained by the San Francisco. Submarine Squadron Fifteen Commodore, Brad Gerhke and Captain Paul Bushong of the submarine tender Frank Cable agreed as they put crews to work to make temporary repairs on the San Francisco's bow.

The above information was extracted from several sources including an email from Bruce Brown, Navy Staff Writer Robert A. Hamilton, the Submarine League Service and Christopher Drew, New York Times Reporter and co-author of, "Blind Man's Bluff."