Posted on 12/25/2008 3:51:29 PM PST by naturalman1975
BUT for a few desperate seconds, it would have been our worst military disaster since the Voyager.
The flood aboard the HMAS Dechaineux on February 12, 2003, was the catalyst for the series of submarine safety reforms revealed in The Australian today.
The incident remains seared in the minds of the submarine's 55 crew who came within 20 seconds of death.
"It changed my life," Able Seaman Geordie Bunting said later. "It is the closest I would like to come to death.
"I don't think there was anybody on our boat who wasn't shit-scared that day. Another five seconds and we would have been in big trouble ... another 10 and you have got to question whether we could have surfaced."
The accident happened off the coast of Perth when the Dechaineux had dived to its deepest depth in order to test its systems under full pressure.
Seaman Bunting was standing alone in the small lower motor room when he head a deafening noise.
"There was a loud bang ... then the water flooded in and I got tossed around like a washing machine. It was coming in so fast I thought it was all over."
A flexible seawater hose had broken, causing some 12,000 litres of water to flood in within seconds, filling up the room. The words "flooding, flooding, flooding in the motor room," echoed through the intercom as crewmates fished a near-unconscious Seaman Bunting out of the flooded motor room by his lapels.
In the control room, the officers instantly shut all of the submarine's external valves en masse, hoping it would stem the flood.
(Excerpt) Read more at theaustralian.news.com.au ...
Someone ought to give the procrastinator a medal.
You’d think there would be a way to hydrotest these systems before you put them on line.
They are tested extensively, but sometimes you still don’t find problems until you test the whole system working together under real conditions.
You’d think there would be a way to hydrotest these systems before you put them on line.
They do. But it broke. Kinda like checking the air in your tires. You can’t stop a nail if it wants to puncture your tire.
If it was worked on, it was hydro’d to over test depth. You still have to do a deep dive after most work anyways but you hydro in port.
I just know that when we were starting up a new power plant, coal or nuke, this kind of surprise would have never happened by the time we started the plants up. Similar type systems, similar pressures.
In The Terrible Hours, Maas reconstructs the harrowing 39 hours between the disappearance of the submarine Squalus during a test dive off the New England coast and the eventual rescue of 33 crew members trapped in the vessel 250 feet beneath the sea.
Do you have car insurance? If you do. Why?
That what happens when you give your boat a french name.
They had that story on “The History Channel” a few days ago. I can’t begin to describe how awful that time must have been for the survivors. Also the Russian Kursk in which they all died but some survived for awhile.
I know it’s a joke, but...
*****
Emile Frank Verlaine Dechaineux DSC (3 October 1902 - 21 October 1944) was an Australian mariner who achieved the rank of Captain in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. He was killed by a Japanese aircraft in what is believed to be the first ever kamikaze attack, in the lead-up to the Battle of Leyte Gulf.
Dechaineux was born in Launceston, Tasmania. He entered the Royal Australian Naval College, Jervis Bay at the age of 14, graduated three years later, and was promoted to Midshipman in 1920. In the first half of the 20th century, the RAN worked very closely with the British Royal Navy (RN), frequently exchanging personnel. Dechaineux spent much of the 1920s training with the RN as a torpedo officer and naval air observer.
In September 1932 Dechaineux achieved the rank of Lieutenant Commander. In 1935 he was appointed Squadron Torpedo Officer, on board HMAS Canberra. The following year he married Mary Harbottle. In 1937, Dechaineux returned to the UK to attend the Royal Naval College and in June he was promoted to Commander.
At the outbreak of World War II, Dechaineux was attached to the RN Tactical and Minesweeping divisions until April 1940. Then, as the commander of the destroyer HMS Vivacious, he made five trips to assist in the evacuation of Dunkirk. Dechaineux was then given command of HMS Eglinton, which patrolled in the North Sea. In 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.
Dechaineux returned to Australia later in 1941, as Director of Operations at the Navy Office in Melbourne. In June 1943, following the outbreak of war with Japan, he was given command of the tactical (destroyer) component of RAN-US Navy Task Force 74. From his immediate command, HMAS Warramunga, Dechaineux commanded operations in waters around Australia and New Guinea, including support for amphibious landings, such as those in the Admiralty Islands. He was promoted to Captain on 31 December 1943.
On 9 March 1944, Dechaineux was given command of the heavy cruiser HMAS Australia, the flagship of both the RAN and Task Force 74, under the overall force commander Commodore John Collins. The Australia supported Allied landings at Hollandia in Dutch New Guinea and on the islands of Biak, Noemfoor and Morotai.
On 21 October 1944, HMAS Australia was supporting the landings in Leyte Gulf. Off Leyte Island, gunners from HMAS Australia and HMAS Shropshire fired at and hit a Japanese aircraft. Initially, the plane flew away from the ships, but it subsequently turned and dived into Australia. The plane struck the superstructure of the Australia above the bridge. Although the 200 kg (440 pound) bomb carried by the plane failed to explode, burning fuel and debris were spewed over a large area. Dechaineux was disembowelled by shrapnel and died a few hours later. He was buried at sea that night. Another 30 crew members died as a result of the attack; among the wounded was Commodore Collins.
The US government posthumously appointed Dechaineux an Officer of the Legion of Merit.
In 1990 the Australian government announced that a new Collins class submarine would be named HMAS Dechaineux in his memory. It was launched in 2002 in the presence of Dechaineux’s widow, Mary Purbrick, and his son, former RAN Commodore Peter Dechaineux.
*****
It’s a name with a huge tradition in the Royal Australian Navy.
Move to stop submarine disasters with Navy safety reforms
...moves, which include revamped command procedures and hi-tech sensors, valves and emergency buttons, are aimed at stemming an on-board flood within seconds, before it overwhelms the crew.
..."Following the HMAS Dechaineux flooding incident, investigations have focused on shortening the reaction time to a flood and improving resistance to flooding,"
"These improvements include revised emergency procedures, the fitting of additional sensors to warn of potential flooding, the development of a system that can simultaneously shut all critical hull valves, and replacing the original flexible hoses.
...The alarm was passed on to the control room via shouts of "flooding" over the intercom and then the captain's order was given to shut all the hull's external valves.
Naval investigators concluded this procedure was too cumbersome and could prove fatal in another major flood, where seconds could make the difference between life and death.
New sensors are being installed for early flood detection, while flood-alert push-buttons are being placed in bilge areas so crew do not have to run to broadcast stations.
When a flood is detected, a new automated system can instantly and automatically shut all external valves.
New rules have also been introduced to allow console operators in the control room to enact emergency procedures instantly in case of a flood without waiting for the captain's orders.
Despite these safety improvements, the navy will have to wait 18 months until it gets flexible hoses to replace the type that failed on the Dechaineux.
The hoses were ordered early last year but are still being put through laboratory tests by their manufacturer, Oil State Industries in Texas.
If the new hoses prove successful, the navy is expected to revisit the limitations of diving depth it imposed on the fleet after the Dechaineux incident. The submarines' deep diving depth is classified.
Sounds French to me, but thanks for the background.
Never realized that the U.S. Navy moved all these enemy combatants over to Japan.
Would make a great FR Foxhole.
The name is French without a doubt, but the sailor was Australian. Like most English-speaking countries, Australia is a nation of immigrants and their descendants. Dechaineux brought great honor to that name, as the story shows.
At that point, the Imperial Japanese Navy didn't have the ships to do it. The war was over, the Chinese had been the victims of enormous war crimes, and they wanted the Japanese gone. It had the potential to become a very ugly situation, and it needed to be resolved.
A brave sailor. Thank you.
Hats Off....and Thanks!
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