It was in February 1972, we had just off-loaded our missiles in Charleston and were on our way to the Panama Canal to transit going to Bremerton, WA for the Key's first overhaul and conversion from Polaris to Poseidon missiles. We were snorkeling at periscope depth with the head valve pinned open because it has been failing shut causing problems with ventilating the ship. Then a reactor scram drill took place and, as it was explained to me, instead of recovering the scrammed set of rods, the operator scrammed the only operational set of rods thus completely shutting off all ships power. We immediately lost propulsion and the bow dipped causing the snorkel mast to drop below the surface. The battery had kicked in so the fans were now drawing water down the snorkel mast and sending it throughout the ship. The first alarm came, "Flooding in the torpedo room!" followed seconds later by "Flooding in lower level Ops!", then immediately "Flooding in middle level Ops and upper level Ops!". Water was coming out of all of the ventilation ducts turning the forward end of the boat into a big sprinkler system. I was on duty at launcher and we had shut the dampers in the forward end on the missile compartment when we heard the first alarm which prevented water from getting aft but water was flooding into Ops through the fan room. The ship began to drop. As I remember, the command came to blow main ballast tanks as we passed 150 feet. You could hear the air hitting the tanks but the ship did not rise. We kept dropping, 200 feet, 250 feet, 300 feet, 400 feet - then finally the command "Emergency Blow!". What a sweet sound it was hearing that 4500 pound air pressure hitting those tanks. The depth gauge slowed, then stopped, then began to rise. The numbers rolled by quicker and quicker until finally you could hear us breaking the surface. It felt like the Key was jumping out of the water. This immediately stopped the flooding as the snorkel mast was now above the surface. However, a new problem arose. The water in lower level Ops was in danger of getting into the battery compartment. The crew dragged mattresses from berthing and pile them on top of the battery hatch stopping the water and removing the immediate danger. We spent the rest of the trip to Bremerton cleaning up and trying to get the various salt-water dunked equipment working again. Just about everything was up and running when we pulled into the shipyard in Bremerton where they gutted the ship for overhaul.

02/08/07 E-mail from Harry Baker TM 71 - 73 Blue

I was looking at the web page the other night and was reading about our mishap off San Diego and I remember some other goodies about that transit I'll send along. Three or four years ago I got invited by my buddy to visit the George Marshal when it came to New London ( I think for decommissioning) and I was telling the OD about the experience. He said "we studied that at the academy"! The young LTJG sure made me feel old. I guess the Key will be remembered for a lot. Harry

03/14/2007 E-mail from Bob Weeks QM Blue

I was on the conn with the OOD (whose name I withhold to protect the guilty), when we almost sank the Key, and in my 60 years, it is the only time that I was sure that I was going to die - the 10's on the depth gauge were spinning so fast that I couldn't read them. The OOD totally lost it and the Chief of the Watch had his hands on the emergency blow
controls awaiting THE command. I was screaming at the OOD to Emergency Blow, but got no response - only a glazed stare. After what seemed like hours, Capt. Bump stormed into the Control Room and immediately gave the order. At that point, our decent slowed, and finally we headed for the surface. I don't recall how deep we went, but once we finally started up, we took a 30 degree up angle, and everything that wasn't tied down headed aft. Since the fan room had been flooded, the ventilation systems were inoperable, and for the rest of the trip to Bremerton conditions were hot and miserable.

Any of you guys from that cruise that have more detail from where you were on the boat that day please send them in so we can get all the detail possible on the day we almost sank the Key - or at least gave her a good bath.