#ssn-593

USS Thresher (SSN-593). 61 years ago on this day, the USS Thresher (SSN-593), the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines, was lost with all hands during deep diving tests beyond the continental shelf east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

The first of her class, the USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the fastest and quietest submarine in the world, with superior long-range sonar, but sank in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod on April 10, 1963. The exact cause of the sinking is unknown, the submarine was still being tested when she went down with 129 crew and shipyard personnel. The prevailing theory is that while the Thresher, fresh off major repairs, was out performing dive trials with the Skylark (a submarine rescue ship) a brazed pipe joint burst in the engine room and the sub began taking on water while the sub was 1000 feet below the surface. At 9:13 am, Lt. Cdr. John Wesley Harvey of the Thresher first reported to the Skylark that they were having trouble, but radio contact was deteriorating and by 9:17, the last transmission from the sub was barely intelligible. At 11:04 am after over an hour of unsuccessfully trying to hail the Thresher, the Skylark sent an alert to Commander Submarines, Atlantic Fleet that the Thresher wasn't responding. The following morning the Chief of Naval Operations declared the submarine lost. Search parties that summer found the Thresher in pieces on the ocean floor. Folk duo Shovels & Rope hail from Charleston, South Carolina. They released "Thresher" on their 2014 album Swimmin' Time.