Undersea Encounters

United States Navy submarines have a history of colliding with a variety of obstacles including surface ships, fishing nets and cables, other submarines, rocks, reefs and sea mounts. It cannot be denied that submarines can be dangerous in peacetime as well as war. Mistakes are sometimes made by submariners, but often the tactical nature of a peace time exercise demands aggressive action with commensurate risk. The result can be a collision at sea and nothing can spoil a submariner's day worse than a collision at sea.

By examining the causes of over thirty collisions and groundings one can appreciate that submarine accidents are only occasionally caused by equipment malfunction. They are most often caused by human error particularly when weather, combat and the submarine's hostile environment conspire to do the boat harm.

Undersea Encounters traces the history of submarine groundings and collisions from the first recorded problem in 1903 to collisions and groundings occurring in the twenty-first century. Certain conclusions may be drawn which can be of benefit to those manning our submarines of today as well as those veteran submariners and interested members of the public who want to know more about why American submarines continue to have mishaps involving groundings and collisions.

Undersea Encounters" is 200 pages of description, analysis and pictures. Soft bound, it is $19.95 and may be purchased directly from SRC, from Amazon.com or from most submarine museums.