R-12: Difference between revisions
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=== <big>Notes</big> === | |||
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color:#00008B">The R-12 had spent a good number of years in service to the USN. However, she spent over eight years in the reserve fleet in Philadelphia in order to keep the USN within the limits of submarine tonnage prescribed by the London Naval Treaty. As the war situation worsened in 1940 the decision was made to reactivate the R-12 and most of her sister boats and return them to the active fleet. After recommissioning R-12 operated out of a variety of ports, including New London, Bermuda, Panama, Guantanamo Bay, Key West, and Casco Bay, Maine. | |||
On June 12, 1943 R-12 was underway in the Florida Straits from her base in Key West. She was conducting a training mission with numerous Navy students onboard and two Brazilian Navy observers onboard. At 1223 that afternoon she was running on the surface to a torpedo firing area when word was received on the bridge that the forward battery compartment was flooding. The collision alarm was sounded to alert the crew to the flooding. The disaster unfolded extremely fast. The boat nosed downward and was gone in just a few seconds. Only five men on the bridge made it off the boat before she went under. A subsequent Board of Inquiry was unable to ascertain the exact cause of her sinking, but it is likely that a failure of her riveted hull somewhere in the forward battery compartment was the cause of her loss. | |||
In the fall of 2010 the wreck of the R-12 was discovered by a team lead by explorer Tim Taylor and his wife Christine Dennison. Using a Remotely Operated Vehicle, they returned to the wreck in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and thoroughly documented the wreck site. While they were unable to find the exact cause of the sinking, their findings reinforced the idea of a hull failure. | |||
For more information concerning the expeditions to the wreck site, please [http://www.lost52project.org/R-12-main.html '''see this link'''] to the Lost 52 Project page for the R-12, and [http://www.r12sub.com/index.html '''this page for further information.''']</span> | |||
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Revision as of 21:25, 21 September 2023
Notes
On June 12, 1943 R-12 was underway in the Florida Straits from her base in Key West. She was conducting a training mission with numerous Navy students onboard and two Brazilian Navy observers onboard. At 1223 that afternoon she was running on the surface to a torpedo firing area when word was received on the bridge that the forward battery compartment was flooding. The collision alarm was sounded to alert the crew to the flooding. The disaster unfolded extremely fast. The boat nosed downward and was gone in just a few seconds. Only five men on the bridge made it off the boat before she went under. A subsequent Board of Inquiry was unable to ascertain the exact cause of her sinking, but it is likely that a failure of her riveted hull somewhere in the forward battery compartment was the cause of her loss.
In the fall of 2010 the wreck of the R-12 was discovered by a team lead by explorer Tim Taylor and his wife Christine Dennison. Using a Remotely Operated Vehicle, they returned to the wreck in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and thoroughly documented the wreck site. While they were unable to find the exact cause of the sinking, their findings reinforced the idea of a hull failure.
For more information concerning the expeditions to the wreck site, please see this link to the Lost 52 Project page for the R-12, and this page for further information.
Photo in the private collection of Ric Hedman
Page created by:
Ric Hedman & David Johnston
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