What year did the Scorpion submarine disappear?

Answer 1

USS Scorpion (SSN-589), a Skipjack-class nuclear fast-attack submarine, was officially declared "presumed lost" on her way home from a routine deployment to the Mediterranean Sea on June 5, 1968. Her actual date of loss is likely on May 22, 1968, at approximately 18:44 Zulu Time (based on acoustic recordings of her sinking).

There has always been much speculation over the years as to the cause of her loss, though most of us in the submarine force were aware of the official view that wasn't made public until 1993. Scorpion carried the old Mk 37 torpedoes, and standard procedure at the time was to do electrical checks/testing on the weapon while it was still in the torpedo room. In the past, this had led to torpedo "hot runs", where the motor is started prematurely. It was speculated based on the evidence (e.g., the torpedo room was largely intact, indicating it was already flooded as the Scorpion passed crush depth) that she experienced a hot-run, and was attempting to make a 180 degree turn (to automatically shut it down before arming and detonation) when it detonated. The fact that the hull was found with her heading pointed nearly back toward the Med (East) helped bolster that theory.

As a result, procedures were changed such that all torpedoes since are checked while in the torpedo tube. To date, no such similar accident/incident has ever happened again on board a U.S. submarine.