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The United States Navy Memorial

Navy Memorial Honoring the Men & Women of the Sea Services

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Thresher

Ship Designation: 
SSN -593
Date Lost: 
Wednesday, April 10, 1963
Lost at Sea

USS Thresher, lead ship of a class of 3700-ton nuclear-powered attack submarines, was built at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine. Commissioned in August 1961, she conducted lengthy trails in the western Atlantic and Caribbean areas in 1961 and 1962, providing a thorough evaluation of her many new technological features and weapons. After the completion of these test operations Thresher returned to her builders for overhaul. On 10 April 1963, after the completion of the work, Thresher began post-overhaul trials. Accompanied by the submarine rescue ship Skylark ASR-20 she transited to an area some 220 miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts and started deep diving tests. As these proceeded garbled communications were received by Skylark indicating trouble aboard the submarine. It gradually became apparent that she had sunk taking the lives of 129 officers, crewmen and civilian technicians. After an extensive underwater search utilizing the bathyscaph Trieste, oceanographic ship Mizar, and other ships Thresher's shattered remains were located on the sea floor some 8400 feet below the surface. Deep sea photography recovered artifacts and an evaluation of her design and operations permitted a Court of Inquiry to determine that she had probably sunk due to a piping failure, subsequent loss of power and inability to blow ballast tanks rapidly enough to avoid sinking.

Lost At Sea Log

Number of sailors in this log: 129

Namesort descending Service Branch
FN John Inglis USNR
Maurice Jaquay
FTG1 Brawner Johnson USN
ENCA Edward Johnson USN
RMSA Richard Johnson USN
TMC Robert Johnson USN
ET1 Thomas Johnson USN
EM2 Richard Jones USN
SOS2 Edmund Kaluza USN
ETR2 Thomas Kantz USN
MM3 Robert Kearney USN
IC2 Ronald Keiler USN
Donald Keuster
MM2 George Kiesecker USN
EN1 Billy Klier USN
LCDR Robert Krag USN
CS3 George Kroner USN
QM1 Norman Lanouette USN
YN1 Wayne Lavoie USN
LCDR John Lyman USN

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