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.

At that maximum depth, very high-pressure air is needed to purge the ballast tanks. High pressure air hitting a screen submerged in the very cold water at that depth simply froze solid into a block of ice preventing the air from getting in the tank.

At that time there was a very lengthy wait to override the controls and get the reactor back online. The Thresher was big and heavy and required propulsion for the bow and stern planes that possibly could have saved the ship, even with the ballast system inoperative.

The Thresher slowly sank past the maximum depth, then past the crush depth and imploded – killing all hands while waiting for the reactor to go online.

The Navy investigation resulted in an emergency process to get a reactor online quickly. It also changed how critical welds on piping were to be done and inspected at the time of manufacture and documented removal of screens from ballast air systems before the ship would be accepted by the Navy.

 The sub was using the antenna to communicate with the NK submarine base and the Chinese engineers (their superiors) while the batteries were charging and the compressed air problem was fixed.

An hour after that the radios stopped working. The radio man was working to try to fix them, only to find salt water was seeping through the antenna cable into the electronics.

Salt water leaking into the electronics was bad news, salt water was conductive and quickly destroyed sensitive electronic components by stray voltage and spikes.

Our Navy learned years ago that lead acid batteries and salt water were a deadly combination by creating a deadly gas. Also, the gases created by recharging needed to be vented outside the sub. That was why recharging was carried out at periscope depth – the gases were vented out with the engine exhaust.

That only raised another question – was that the reason for the lithium batteries – no charging gasses?

Everyone knew that lithium and water was a bad combination. Back in the day – when they had real science classes in school – there were demonstrations done by cutting a lithium flashlight battery apart, unwrapping the lithium from the insulator membrane and tossing the lithium in a bucket of water – and then watching the violent reaction.

The third day everyone was twitching their nose as if fumes or acid was in the air. At noon on that third day a sea relief valve mysteriously opened and all the compressed air to surface the ship was suddenly gone and the diesels could not be started without air pressure, even if they could get the submarine to surface.

‘’Engines that size used air starters instead of electric. Air starters were much smaller and lighter. That was an important feature in a submarine,’’ Admiral Barnes said.

The emergency startup without air pressure could be accomplished, but it was time consuming and extremely difficult in the cramped space on a submarine.

At 1300 the last entry in the log was a long one, Depth 600 last known heading was south heading back to base. ‘’FUMES’’ in capital letters coming from the battery compartment and API in the engine room.

‘’API unit has malfunctioned. No propulsion, batteries dead. All crew in engine room dead. Captain ordered ventilation system shut down and sealed. All crew were ordered forward to the bow; all watertight doors shut.’’

The entry quit at that point. That was two and a half days ago. If it had a crew of seventy and all the engine room crew had perished as indicated, that meant that as many as fifty men were crammed into the forward section.

 With that many in such a small space I wondered how long the oxygen would last – two or three hours? As the oxygen slowly ran out and was replaced with carbon dioxide, they most like just went to sleep – passed out until they were all dead.

That only raised more questions.

‘’How had that submarine floated at that depth for two and a half days with no power or human guidance? Why didn’t it slowly sink?” I asked Admiral Barnes after ordering the interpreter to translate the complete log tomorrow and put it on paper for me.

‘’Why didn’t the Nevada’s instrumentation detect the sub?’’ I asked the Admiral point blank.

‘’I don’t know,’’ was his response.

‘’When will we have a copy of the Nevada’s log book?’’ I asked.

‘’I will go check on it and see if I can find a submarine expert to answer your questions,’’ Admiral Barnes replied.

‘’Get an update on the Nevada and on the NK and Chinese ships,’’ I said.

I knew one of the Navy guards who was part of the Whitehouse security detail had been at ease along with others from the services while we had been having the conversation. He had been in submarine service for ten years. He was Captain’s rank.

I knew he had been listening and could read his expressions while the Admiral and I had been talking. His body language seemed to say he wanted to add to the conversation.

I asked if he had any thoughts to open the door after the Admiral left.

‘’Mam, Madam President. There is a thermal layer in the oceans at around seven hundred feet – more or less – depending on the area. The hunter-killer subs use it all the time in the cat and mouse games we play,’’ he said.

‘’That thermal plays havoc on communications, sonar, radar, including any passive radar that is above or below it. Sub to sub communications below it is spotty and sometimes very difficult. Communications from a sub below the thermal to one above the thermal or surface ships at times is damn near impossible,’’ he added.

‘’From what I overheard, I think the NK sub was bouncing along in that thermal. Its ballast tanks and valving did a damn good job of sealing whatever air that was in them for it to maintain a steady depth, but that thermal was a big part of it. When they settled to the thermal the colder waters kept them there floating along. If the Nevada was sailing in the thermal hiding, many of its sensors were poor at best,’’ he said.

‘’If you are a Star Trek fan, ‘The Wrath of Kahn’ – Kahn was hiding blind in the nebula. The thermal pretty much acts the same way,’’ he said.

‘’I remember that Mom and Dad took us to the movies to see it,’’ I said.

‘’Captain, I need a refill on my coffee, would you care to join me? I’m sure I can think of some questions on the way you might be able to answer or give me some insight on.”

Edit by Alfmeister

Proof read by Bob W.