Five songs have been written about the USS Thresher, which sank on this day, April 10, 1963.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Sun Apr 10, 2022: On this day, April 10, 1963, the USS Thresher sank.

{snip}

USS Thresher (SSN-593)


USS Thresher (SSN-593) underway, 30 April 1961

Ordered: 15 January 1958
Builder: Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Laid down: 28 May 1958
Launched: 9 July 1960
Commissioned: 3 August 1961
Motto: Vis Tacita (Silent Strength)
Fate: Lost with all hands during deep diving tests, 10 April 1963; 129 died.

The second USS Thresher (SSN-593) was the lead boat of her class of nuclear-powered attack submarines in the United States Navy. She was the U.S. Navy's second submarine to be named after the thresher shark.

On 10 April 1963, Thresher sank during deep-diving tests about 350 km (220 mi) east of Boston, Massachusetts, killing all 129 crew and shipyard personnel aboard. It is the second-deadliest submarine incident on record, after the loss of the French submarine Surcouf, in which 130 crew died. Her loss was a watershed for the U.S. Navy, leading to the implementation of a rigorous submarine safety program known as SUBSAFE. The first nuclear submarine lost at sea, Thresher was also the third of four submarines lost with more than 100 people aboard, the others being the Argonaut, lost with 102 aboard in World War II, the Surcouf, and the Kursk, which sank with 118 aboard in 2000.

{snip}

Memorials

{snip}

Other

• On 12 April 1963, President John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 11104 paying tribute to the crew of Thresher by ordering all national flags to half-staff.
• Five folk music groups or artists have produced songs memorializing Thresher; "Ballad Of The Thresher" by The Kingston Trio, "The Thresher Disaster" by Tom Paxton; "The Thresher" by Phil Ochs on his 1964 album All the News That's Fit to Sing, "The Thresher" by Pete Seeger, and "Thresher" by Shovels & Rope.
• The Fear-Makers, an episode in the 1964 season of the television series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea is inspired by the loss of the USS Thresher. Anthony Wilson, a writer for the series, was fascinated by the loss of the USS Thresher, and he wrote a teleplay for the series. In Wilson's teleplay, the submarine, the Seaview, searches for a missing submarine, the Polidor.

{snip}

[dem4decades]

1. I remember that night, they broke into the evening television show with "breaking news", I still

consider that the gold standard for stories worthy of breaking news that I've seen while watching. Obviously, there's been others more worthy of interruption of programming but not while I've been watching.

And plenty that were not that worthy that I've actually seen.