The sinking of K-159 on her way to be scrapped last year, and the death of nine men aboard her, while not a "submarine accident" as normally defined on this website, is just one more illustration of unlearned lessons involving submarine accidents.
The early history of submarines is tragically filled with repeated accidents that happend again and again in different navies, (collisions with surface ships, gasoline engine explosions, and hydrogen gas explosions, just the name a few). More recent accidents show that we have not learned much in the last hundred years.
K-159 is, I believe, a classic example of how navies fail to learn lessons, for she is far from the first submarine to sink in a storm, or while under tow. Fortunately, most of these accidents have not resulted in great loss of life.
Another tragic example of unlearned lessons is the loss of the Kursk after an explosion involving a torpedo fueled by high-test hydrogen peroxide. A nearly identical accident occurred aboard the British submarine HMS Sidon in 1953, killing 13, injuring 8, and sinking the submarine. The death toll would likely have been higher, except that Sidon was still tied up to the pier. This accident led most navies to abandon the use of high-test hydrogen peroxide in torpedoes. Unfortunately, 50 years was long enough for the lessons of Sidon to be consigned to the dustbin of history, and the crew of Kursk was consigned to a sudden and needless death.
The deaths of 70 officers and crew aboard the Chinese submarine No. 361 last year is another example of lessons left unlearned. According to the Chinese navy, all aboard were asphyxiated when the submarine's diesel engine failed to shut down properly. The entire crew of the French submarine Galateé were incapacitated in 1970 when the same thing reportedly happened after a collision. Six men were killed.
One of my hopes when I first started this website was to educate the public about the dangers faced by submariners around the world and to illustrate that these dangers exist every day, even when the guns have fallen silent. The events of the past three years have shown that these dangers persist. Unfortunately, some of the dangers return again and again.
Gregory W. "Gunner" Stitz, Webmaster
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