USS Scorpion (SSN-589) sank on May 22, 1968, with the loss of all 99 crew members. The cause of the sinking has never been officially determined. The wreck rests on the Atlantic seabed approximately 400 nautical miles southwest of the Azores at a depth of approximately 9,800 feet (3,000 meters), along with its nuclear reactor and two nuclear-armed Mark 45 torpedoes (King, 2026; Wikipedia, 2026).
Vessel Specifications
USS Scorpion was a Skipjack-class nuclear-powered attack submarine, the sixth vessel and second submarine to bear that name in U.S. Navy service. The following table summarizes her key specifications (Wikipedia, 2026; NavSource, n.d.):
| Attribute | Detail |
|---|---|
| Hull Classification | SSN-589 |
| Class | Skipjack-class |
| Builder | General Dynamics Electric Boat, Groton, Connecticut |
| Ordered | January 31, 1957 |
| Keel Laid | August 20, 1958 |
| Launched | December 29, 1959 |
| Commissioned | July 29, 1960 |
| Stricken | June 30, 1968 |
| Displacement (light) | 2,880 long tons |
| Displacement (full) | 3,075 long tons |
| Length | 251 ft 8 in (76.71 m) |
| Beam | 31 ft 7.75 in (9.65 m) |
| Propulsion | S5W pressurized-water nuclear reactor |
| Complement | 8 officers, 75 enlisted |
| Armament | 6 × 21-inch (533 mm) torpedo tubes; 2 × Mark 45 nuclear-tipped torpedoes; 14 × Mark 37 torpedoes; 7 × Mark 14 torpedoes |
| Nickname | “USS Scrapiron” (crew-assigned) |
Service History: 1960–1967
Scorpion was commissioned on July 29, 1960, under Commander Norman B. Bessac. She was assigned to Submarine Squadron 6, Division 62, and departed New London, Connecticut, on August 24, 1960, for a two-month European deployment, participating in exercises with 6th Fleet units and NATO-member navies. Norfolk, Virginia, became her homeport, where she specialized in developing nuclear submarine warfare tactics (Wikipedia, 2026).
In 1962, Scorpion earned a Navy Unit Commendation. From June 1963 to May 1964, she underwent an overhaul at Charleston. In 1966, she deployed for special operations, after which her commanding officer received a Navy Commendation Medal. The submarine is reported, without official confirmation, to have entered an inland Russian sea during a “Northern Run” in 1966, where the crew allegedly filmed a Soviet missile launch through her periscope (Wikipedia, 2026).
1967 Overhaul: Reduced Scope
On February 1, 1967, Scorpion entered Norfolk Naval Shipyard for a scheduled refueling overhaul. Cold War operational pressures led U.S. Submarine Force Atlantic (SUBLANT) officers to reduce the overhaul scope. Rather than a full SUBSAFE-compliant overhaul — which required 9 to 36 months — Scorpion received only emergency repairs. The cost of her overhaul was one-seventh of those performed on other nuclear submarines at the same time (Wikipedia, 2026).
Long-overdue SUBSAFE work, including a new central valve control system, was not performed. Her emergency main ballast tank blow (EMBT) system was “tagged out” (listed as unusable) by SUBLANT. The same class of emergency system deficiency that had contributed to the loss of USS Thresher in 1963 was not corrected. Chief of Naval Operations Admiral David Lamar McDonald approved the reduced overhaul on June 17, 1966, and deferred SUBSAFE extensions on July 20 of that year (Wikipedia, 2026).
Final Deployment: February–May 1968
In late October 1967, Scorpion received a new commanding officer, Commander Francis Slattery. She departed Norfolk on February 15, 1968, for a Mediterranean Sea deployment, operating with the 6th Fleet. During this deployment, she suffered several mechanical malfunctions, including chronic freon leakage from refrigeration systems and an electrical fire in an escape trunk. She was operating under a conservative depth limitation of 500 feet (150 meters) due to incomplete post-Thresher safety modifications (Wikipedia, 2026).
After departing the Mediterranean on May 16, Scorpion stopped at Naval Station Rota, Spain, where two crew members were transferred off — one for a family emergency and one for health reasons. She was then diverted approximately 1,200 miles southwest to conduct surveillance of a Soviet naval group operating near the Canary Islands, which included an Echo II-class submarine and a guided-missile destroyer. This mission pushed her scheduled return date from May 24 to May 27, 1968 (Wikipedia, 2026; Offley, 2025).
Disappearance: May 21–22, 1968
Scorpion attempted to transmit radio traffic to Naval Station Rota beginning shortly before midnight on May 20, but could only reach a Navy communications station in Nea Makri, Greece. Commander Slattery’s last recorded message stated that the submarine was closing on Soviet submarine K-135 and its research group, running at 15 knots at a depth of 350 feet, “to begin surveillance of the Soviets.” This was the final communication received from Scorpion (Wikipedia, 2026).
At 18:44 GMT on May 22, 1968, Scorpion suffered a catastrophic event and sank. The hull imploded as it passed crush depth, estimated at approximately 1,530 feet (470 meters), and the broken wreck fell another 9,000 feet to the ocean floor (Offley, 2025; Wikipedia, 2026).
Scorpion was expected at Naval Station Norfolk on May 27 at 1300 local time. When she failed to arrive, the Atlantic Fleet launched a search involving up to 55 ships and 35 aircraft during the peak search period of May 28–30. A brief radio message including Scorpion’s codename Brandywine was received by search parties on the evening of May 29, but the source could not be identified (Wikipedia, 2026).
Scorpion and her crew were declared “presumed lost” on June 5, 1968. Her name was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on June 30, 1968 (Wikipedia, 2026).
Search and Wreck Location
The Navy’s search was led by Dr. John Piña Craven, chief scientist of the Navy’s Special Projects Division, using Bayesian search theory — the same methodology previously applied in locating a hydrogen bomb lost off Palomares, Spain, in 1966. Acoustic data from SOSUS hydrophone arrays, including a listening station in the Canary Islands operated by acoustics expert Gordon Hamilton, captured the sounds of Scorpion’s pressure hull imploding. The acoustic record showed the entire sequence of destruction took approximately three minutes and twelve seconds (Wikipedia, 2026; Carlson, 2018).
Craven’s team determined that Scorpion had reversed course 180 degrees at the moment of the first acoustic event — a maneuver consistent with the standard response to a “hot-running torpedo.” This placed the wreckage east, not west, of the initial explosion coordinates. In late October 1968, the oceanographic research ship USNS Mizar, using a towed camera sled designed by Naval Research Laboratory scientist Chester Buchanan, located the wreck where Craven’s analysis predicted (Wikipedia, 2026; Carlson, 2018).
The wreck rests at coordinates 32°54.9′N, 33°08.89′W, on the eastern edge of the Sargasso Sea. The bow section skidded on impact with the seabed, digging a trench. The sail was dislodged. The operations compartment was largely obliterated by hydrostatic pressure. The engine room telescoped approximately 50 feet (15 meters) forward into the hull. The propulsion shaft separated from the vessel. The torpedo room remained structurally intact, though the forward escape trunk hatch was missing (Wikipedia, 2026).
In 1985, oceanographer Robert Ballard and a team from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution surveyed the wreck using the submersible Alvin, under a covert arrangement with the U.S. Navy. The Navy’s agreement allowed Ballard to subsequently search for RMS Titanic, with the Titanic search serving as the public cover story for the submarine survey missions (Wikipedia, 2026).
Navy Investigations
Court of Inquiry: 1968–1969
A Court of Inquiry was convened under Vice Admiral Bernard L. Austin — the same officer who had presided over the Thresher inquiry. The court’s unclassified findings were released on January 31, 1969, stating: “The certain cause of the loss of the Scorpion cannot be ascertained from evidence now available” (Wikipedia, 2026).
The classified version of the report, declassified in 1993, revealed that the court had actually concluded the most probable cause was “an explosion of large charge weight external to the pressure hull.” The court constructed a scenario involving a Mark 37 torpedo in a fully ready position that started a “hot run,” was ejected from the tube, became fully armed, and then sought its nearest target — Scorpion herself (Offley, 2025).
This conclusion was rejected by the chain of command. Atlantic Fleet Commander Admiral Ephraim P. Holmes overrode the court’s finding, stating the cause “cannot be confirmed.” Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Thomas H. Moorer forwarded the report to the Secretary of the Navy without endorsing any specific cause. A 1971 OPNAV memorandum flatly stated: “The cause of the loss of USS Scorpion has not been established” (Offley, 2025).
Naval Ordnance Laboratory Report: 1970
Physicists Robert Price, Ermine Christian, and Peter Sherman of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory (NOL) conducted an extensive acoustic analysis of the destruction sounds. Their study concluded: “The first Scorpion acoustic event was not caused by a large explosion, either internal or external to the hull.” The NOL report estimated hull failure occurred at approximately 2,000 feet (610 meters), with wreckage then falling another 9,000 feet to the seabed (Wikipedia, 2026).
Call for Reinvestigation: 2012
In November 2012, the U.S. Submarine Veterans organization, with over 13,800 members, formally asked the U.S. Navy to reopen the investigation. The Navy rejected the request. A private group including family members of the lost crew stated their intent to investigate the wreck independently, as it lies in international waters (Wikipedia, 2026).
Theories About the Loss
The following theories have been advanced by investigators, naval officers, and researchers. None has been conclusively proven, and no official finding has resolved the cause of the sinking (King, 2026; Wikipedia, 2026):
| Theory | Description | Key Proponents |
|---|---|---|
| Hot-running torpedo | A Mark 37 torpedo activated in its tube, was ejected, armed itself, and homed on Scorpion | Court of Inquiry (classified findings, 1968); Dr. John Craven |
| Torpedo battery explosion | The Mark 46 silver-zinc battery in a Mark 37 torpedo overheated, causing a low-order detonation and flooding | Dr. John Craven (revised view); Charles Thorne (Weapons Quality Engineering Center) |
| Hydrogen battery explosion | Hydrogen gas buildup in the submarine’s main battery bank caused an explosion | Retired acoustics expert Bruce Rule; Rear Admiral Dave Oliver (ret.) |
| Structural/mechanical failure | Detached propeller shaft, trash disposal unit malfunction, or other flooding casualty | Vice Admiral Arnold F. Shade (Court of Inquiry testimony) |
| Soviet attack | Scorpion was sunk by Soviet naval forces, possibly in retaliation for the loss of Soviet submarine K-129 | Authors Kenneth Sewell and Ed Offley; disputed, no physical evidence confirmed |
Crew
All 99 crew members perished. The crew comprised 12 officers and 87 enlisted men. Two crew members were transferred off the submarine at Rota, Spain, on May 16, 1968, before the final voyage — Interior Communications Electrician First Class Joseph Underwood (for health reasons) and Technician First Class Bill Elrod (for a family emergency). Both testified that the submarine was operating normally, aside from minor hydraulic issues, at the time of their departure (Hemmings, 2019).
Environmental Monitoring
The U.S. Navy periodically revisits the wreck site to assess whether the wreckage has been disturbed and to test for the release of fissile materials from the nuclear reactor and two nuclear weapons on board. The Navy has not publicly released physical survey data from these visits. The Mark 45 ASTOR (Anti-Submarine TORpedo) nuclear torpedoes aboard Scorpion each carried an 11-kiloton nuclear warhead (Wikipedia, 2026).
Impact on Submarine Safety: SUBSAFE
The loss of Scorpion, combined with the earlier loss of USS Thresher (SSN-593) on April 10, 1963 — which killed 129 officers, crewmen, and civilian technicians — prompted the U.S. Navy to establish and strengthen the SUBSAFE program. SUBSAFE provides maximum reasonable assurance of submarine hull watertight integrity and the ability to recover from unanticipated flooding. It governs design, materials, fabrication, and testing, with records maintained for the entire service life of each submarine (Team Submarine Public Affairs, 2023).
Scorpion was not SUBSAFE-certified at the time of her loss. Since the full implementation of SUBSAFE, no certified U.S. submarine has been lost at sea. Prior to the inception of SUBSAFE, the U.S. Navy lost 16 submarines in non-combat-related incidents from the onset of World War I through 1963. The Columbia Accident Investigation Board, following the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, identified SUBSAFE as one of only three successful safety programs that could serve as models for NASA (Team Submarine Public Affairs, 2023).
About the LinkedIn Post and Poster
This topic was highlighted in a LinkedIn post by Keith King (LinkedIn profile; direct post link).
King’s publicly stated professional background includes the following roles (Energy Plug Technologies, 2025):
- Former Lead Engineer, U.S. Presidential Direct Communications Link (White House–Kremlin secure communications)
- Former positions at USSPACECOM, USAFRICOM, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the U.S. Department of State
- U.S. Navy veteran with Top Secret/SCI security clearance (stated)
- Strategic advisor in defense, AI, quantum computing, energy, and infrastructure policy
- 51,000+ LinkedIn followers; self-reported 20+ million content views annually
King’s LinkedIn profile link: https://lnkd.in/gHPvUttw
References
Carlson, M. (2018). Nuclear submarine disaster. Warfare History Network. The USS Scorpion's 1968 Nuclear Submarine Disaster
Energy Plug Technologies Corp. (2025, February 20). Energy Plug Technologies welcomes Keith King to advisory board. Yahoo Finance. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/energy-plug-technologies-welcomes-keith-130000872.html
Hemmings, J. (2019, March 26). The mystery of the sinking of the USS Scorpion. War History Online. https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/mystery-sinking-of-uss-scorpion.html
King, K. (2026). USS Scorpion remains one of the U.S. Navy’s greatest unsolved maritime mysteries [LinkedIn post]. USS Scorpion Remains One of the U.S. Navy’s Greatest Unsolved Maritime Mysteries More than half a century after the disappearance of USS Scorpion (SSN-589), the loss of the nuclear-powered attack… | Keith King
King, K. (2026). Keith King [LinkedIn profile]. https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-king-03a172128
NavSource Naval History. (n.d.). Scorpion (SSN-589) — Submarine photo index. Submarine Photo Index
Offley, E. (2025, February). The USS Scorpion: Buried at sea. Naval History, 39(1). https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history/2025/february/uss-scorpion-buried-sea
Team Submarine Public Affairs. (2023, April 6). USS Thresher: A loss. A legacy. Naval Sea Systems Command. https://www.navsea.navy.mil/Media/News/Article/3354927/uss-thresher-a-loss-a-legacy/
Wikipedia. (2026). USS Scorpion (SSN-589). USS Scorpion (SSN-589) - Wikipedia
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