🚨Apr. 10, 1963 - The U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarine Thresher, with 129 men aboard, was lost today in storm-tossed waters a mile and a half deep 220 miles off Massachusetts. It was the worst submarine disaster in American history, and the second-deadliest submarine incident on record, after the 1942 loss of the French submarine Surcouf, in which 130 crew died. Rescue is “absolutely out of the question,” said Admiral George Anderson, chief of naval operations. “To those who have been brought up in the traditions of the sea,” Adm. Anderson said, “it is one of the saddest occasions when you lose a ship. It appears that the Thresher was lost with 129 men while undergoing sea trials.” The Thresher submerged at 9 a.m. in a test dive “in excess of 400 feet” which was due to last 6 hours. It made radio contact at 9:17 a.m. with the submarine rescue ship Skylark, which escorted the Thresher to the test area, and was not heard from again. Service limit for the Thresher, according to naval officials, was a diving depth of about 1,400 feet. Adm. Anderson said if the ship sank at its last reported position, in 8,400 feet of water, there would be “absolutely no possibility” that any of those aboard would still be alive.
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