Navy official: ‘Uh-oh’
The U.S.S. Patrick Henry, the Navy’s newly-commissioned attack submarine based out of Richmond, ran aground yesterday in the shallow waters of the James River just seconds after her maiden launch.
The Virginia-class submarine, a 7,900-ton warship designed for open-ocean missions around the world, cast off just south of downtown at 1:42 p.m. and, after attempting her first dive, hit the bottom of the riverbed approximately three seconds later, the Navy said.
The 90-man crew escaped uninjured, opening a small hatch and swimming to safety through the 10-foot-deep water to the nearby shore.
“We are currently investigating the cause of this accident, but as of now, our primary focus is on whether launching a 32-foot high, 380-foot long submarine into the shallow waters of the James River was a smart idea,” said Patrick Henry Commander Jack M. Price, staring at his sub’s stern, then pointing almost straight into the air. “From the way it looks right now, I’d say I’m going to have a massive amount of explaining to do.”
Added Price: “Whoops-a-daisy.”
Commissioned last month and taking more than four years to build in the downtown shipyards, the fully-armed submarine was expected to dive to nearly 1,000 feet below sea level yesterday and remain submerged for five months. However, the ship quickly slammed into a rock in the James after lacking space enough to dive, move, or perform even the simplest of nuclear submarine-related tasks.
“We’ve had no problems before when launching boats from these docks, so I’m not sure where we went wrong with the Patrick Henry,“ said Richmond Naval Shipyard President Claude Tulloh III.
The sub disaster in the James River, he said, could be devastating for the local warship-building industry, which for years has lagged behind the massive shipyards in the Hampton Roads area. “We’re missing a key element for building big ships here in Richmond,” Tulloh said, “and somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m starting to think that element might be lots and lots of water, or maybe even an ocean.”
The Patrick Henry was designed by Paul Borkowski, a famed Polish shipbuilder who patented the first ever submarine screen door.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
There’s a fine line between stupid and clever. This one is just over the line. On the clever side. Excellent stuff.
You know the main ship yard for the Confederacy was around Rockett’s landing. Might explain why they lost.
I disagree, this went way over the line to the stupid side. Lets see, the USS Patrick Henry was already and old boomer sub. This picture is the back end of the WWII fleet sub.
‘Nuff said.
I served on the decommisioning crew of the USS Patrick Henry back in 1982 – 1984 at Pearl Harbor, HI. First of all, the Patrick Henry was a George Washington ballistic missile submarine, not a Virginia-class sub and what they are showing isn’t even a military submarine.
Love the pic though, as the Pat was an old P.O.S. with cracks running all around the reactor compartment thanks to the magic of Neutron Embrittlement via Radioactive Fission.