The Silent Service Trivia Quiz

Answer: The Revolutionary War

The Turtle was invented by the American patriot David Bushnell. It was very small, about 8 feet long, six feet high, and three feet long. It could hold only one man, and was propelled through the water by a hand crank. It used a screw propeller, the first ship to do so. It submerged by allowing sea water into a bilge tank, and surfaced by pumping the water out using a hand pump. It also carried 200 pounds of lead which could be released for emergency surfacing. It could stay submerged for 30 minutes, and had a top speed of three knots.

After testing in the Connecticut River, it was ready for use. On September 7, 1776, Sergeant Ezra Lee used the Turtle to attack Admiral Howe's flagship, HMS Eagle, which was moored just south of Manhattan Island. The plan was to bore a hole into the hull of the ship, and attach a mine (a keg of gunpowder) which would be dentonated by a time fuse. The attack was unsuccessful, as the vessel could not be kept steady enough to attach the mine properly.

Some historians expressed doubts about the story, claiming that it would have been impossible for Turtle to have achieved and maintained the neutral bouyancy necessary to operate underwater. Recently, however, models of Turtle have been built following Bushnell's plans, and they work just fine!

Answer: CSS H. L. Hunley

CSS Hunley was built in Mobile, Alabama at a cost of $30,000. She was named after one of her designers, Horace Lawson Hunley. The boat was about 40 feet long and had a crew of one officer and seven men. She sank several times during testing, killing 13 men, including Hunley. On the night of February 17, 1864, Hunley, under the command of Lt. George E. Dixon, attacked the sloop USS Housatonic, one of the Union ships blockading the port of Charleston, South Carolina. Hunley planted a "spar torpedo," (a 90 pound charge of gunpowder) in Housatonic's hull, backed away, and detonated it. Housatonic sank very quickly; five of her crew were killed in the attack.

The Hunley never made it back to port, although it is known that she survived the attack, because her signals were seen by those on shore. Her wreckage was located in 1995, and was raised in 2000; it is now undergoing restoration. It is now thought that Hunley sank because her crew ran out of air while returning to port, and died of asphyxiation. The remains of the crew were recovered and identified through military records and DNA testing. They were buried with full military honors in Charleston's Magnolia Cemetary on April 17, 2004.

Answer: Alligator

In November, 1861 the United States Navy ordered a submersible vessel built using the designs of a French engineer named Brutus de Villeroi. It was to be used against Confederate ironclads. The boat acquired the nickname of "Alligator." In many ways it was very advanced; in particular, it had an air-purifying system and a means of ventilation.

Unfortunately, Alligator did not perform well when it was tested, and was never commissioned in the fleet or used in combat. It sank during a storm on April 2, 1863 while being towed to Port Royal, South Carolina.

Answer: 1900

John Philip Holland was born in a Gaelic-speaking area of County Clare, Ireland, in 1840. He did not learn to speak English until he went to school. He seems to have been a born engineering genius. He was a member of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, the forerunner of today's Irish Republican Army.

He originally became interested in designing submarines as a way to sink British warships. Holland emigrated to the United States in 1873, and worked as a teacher while perfecting his designs for a workable submarine. On May 17, 1897 a submarine called Holland VI was launched at Elizabeth, New Jersey.

The boat had gasoline-powered engines for surface cruising, and used electric batteries for submerged propulsion. She carried a reloadable forward torpedo tube and a deck gun.

The Navy was so impressed that it purchased the boat, which had been built using private funds, and on October 12, 1900 she was commissioned USS Holland (SS-1). Holland spent her career as a training vessel and was decommissioned in 1910.

In 1913, she was sold as scrap for a mere $100. John Philip Holland died August 2, 1914, assured of a prominent place in submarine history.

Answer: 9

The first U.S. submarine to be lost at sea was F-4 (SS-23). She sank off the coast of Hawaii on March 25, 1915. Her entire crew of 21 brave sailors was lost. Since she sank in shallow (300 ft) water, the Navy was able to raise the boat on August 29, 1915 and recover their remains, although most of the bodies could not be identified.

A Navy review board concluded her loss was due to sea water seeping into her battery compartment. Between 1915 and the beginning of WWII, eight other submarines were lost, along with a total of 181 additional lives.

Answer: 52

Fifty boats were lost in the Pacific and two in the Atlantic. The first loss was the USS Sealion (SS-195) which was destroyed by Japanese aircraft on December 10, 1941 while docked at Cavite Naval Yard in the Philippines; the last was the USS Bullhead (SS-332) which was sunk by Japanese aircraft on August 6, 1945, just a few days before the end of the war.

Answer: 3505

During WWII 374 officers and 3131 enlisted men of the submarine service made the supreme sacrifice in defense of their country. Although submariners represented only 1.6% of Naval personnel, they accounted for over 55% of enemy ship losses. The Silent Service had the highest casualty rate of any branch of the U.S. military in WWII. Over 23%, or almost one in every four, of WWII submariners were killed in action.

A submariner who has died is said to be on "eternal patrol."

Answer: False

Seven officers and one enlisted man have been awarded the nation's highest honor as members of the Silent Service. To me, the man who best deserved the award was Captain John Philip Cromwell. Cromwell was the commander of a submarine task force onboard the USS Sculpin (SS-191). On November 29, 1943, Sculpin came under attack by Japanese forces and was forced to surface.

She was so badly damaged it was decided that she had had to be scuttled and abandoned. Captain Cromwell had been briefed on the impending invasion of Tarawa, and feared he might reveal details of the operation under Japanese torture.

As his Medal of Honor citation reads "he stoically remained onboard the mortally wounded vessel as she plunged to her death."

Answer: Admiral Hyman G. Rickover

Hyman George Rickover was born in Russian-occupied Poland on January 27, 1900. The son of poor Jewish parents, he emigrated to the United States at age five, along with his parents, and grew up in Chicago. He earned an appointment to the United States Naval Academy in 1918, and was graduated in 1922. He served on a variety of ships; in 1929 he became qualified in submarines. During WWII he served as the head of the Electrical Section in the Bureau of ships. In 1949 he became Director of Naval Reactors, and oversaw the development of the first pressurized water reactor.

Rickover was a very difficult man to get along with, and was frequently involved in disputes with other officers, as well as the civilian contractors who built the Navy's ships. But he continued to serve until 1982, when he was forced to retire as a full Admiral by Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, a former aviator who knew nothing about submarines or nuclear power. His 63 years of continuous active service make him the longest serving officer in United States military history. Rickover died July 8, 1986 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Answer: Nautilus

Congress authorized the building of a nuclear powered submarine in 1951. Construction of the Nautilus (SSA-571) began on June 14, 1952 and she was launched on January 21, 1954, with first lady Mamie Eisenhower christening the boat with the traditional bottle of Champagne. On January 17, 1955 Nautilus' skipper, Commander Eugene P. Wilkerson, sent the historic message: "Underway on nuclear power." The Nautilus was a great success. On of her achievements was the first crossing of the North Pole by any ship or submarine.

She served for 25 years before being decommissioned in 1980. Because of her historical significance, Nautilus was not scrapped. Instead, she was preserved and is berthed at the U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum in Groton, Connecticut. Nautilus attracts 250,000 visitors each year.

Answer: George Washington

The ballistic missile submarine was the most effective deterrent weapon during the Cold War. Congress authorized their building in 1957, and work began immediately. George Washington (SSBN-598) was originally planned as an attack submarine. She was literally sawed in half and her missile compartment welded in.

She carried sixteen Polaris missiles, each of which was capable of carrying multiple warheads. George Washington was launched on June 9, 1959 and commissioned on December 30, 1959. She made the first successful missile launch on July 20, 1960. George Washington remained in service for 25 years, and made a total of 55 deterrent patrols.

She was decommisioned in 1985 and scrapped. I had the privilege of serving on her sister ship, the USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601).

Answer: True

Women were traditionally banned from serving on submarines, except for short training missions. In 2009, however, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said that women would be allowed to serve as crew members on U.S. submarines. The move was opposed by almost every retired and active duty submariner.

Answer: About 70 days

In theory, a submarine can stay submerged for as long as its supply of food holds out. In practice, however, the length of a patrol is limited by the endurance of the crew. Submarine duty is physically demanding and extremely stressful. Everyone on a submarine works 18 hours a day, and Engineering personnel frequently work longer than that. I remember once getting an hour and a half of sleep over a five day period. Since it is important to keep as many submarines at sea as possible, each boat has two crews, called "Blue" and "Gold." When a boat comes back from patrol, there is a brief period called "turnover," during which the boat changes crews.

The returning crew is given a 30 day period to recover, and then two months of training before returning to sea.

Answer: Thresher and Scorpion

Thesher (SSN-593) had bad luck from the start. She was commissioned on August 3, 1961. On November 2, 1961 she suffered a failure of her diesel generator while in port and had to be evacuated. In 1962, she was struck by a tug boat while mooring at Cape Canaveral, Florida and suffered damage to her ballast tanks. On April 10, 1963 Thresher was conducting deep diving tests off the coast of Massachusetts. Operating at near her test depth of 1300 feet, she reported she was having "minor problems." She was never heard from again. She was found in 5500 feet of water, broken into six pieces. The most probable cause of her loss was determined to be a leak in a high-pressure water line, which shorted out her electrical system. 129 men, inluding seventeen civilian observers, lost their lives.

Scorpion (SSN-589) was commissioned on July 29, 1960. On May 16, 1968 she left Rota, Spain on her way back to her homeport of Norfolk, Virginia. When she did not return as scheduled on May 27, a search was launched, but it was not until October that her wreckage was located in 3000 feet of water 400 miles southwest of the Azores. No one knows what caused Scorpion to sink; there are many theories, including one that she was sunk by a Russian submarine. It is known that Scorpion was suffering from a number of engineering problems, and had undergone emergency repairs shortly before her last mission. Her crew of 99 officers and men perished with her.

Answer: Dolphins

In 1923, Captain (later Admiral) Rufus T. King suggested to to the Secretary of the Navy that submariners be allowed to wear a special insignia. The suggestion was adopted, and the "Submarine Warfare Qualification Insignia" came into being. The design is: "a bow view of a submarine proceeding on the surface with bow planes rigged for diving, flanked by dolphins in horizontal positions resting their heads on the upper edge of the bow planes." Officers wear gold dolphins, while enlisted men wear silver.

They are worn on the left breast of the uniform above the ribbons. The dolphins, by the way, are not warm-blooded creatures like Flipper; they are dolphin fish, better known as mahi mahi. The dolphins also have names: Castor and Pollux. One can only wear the insignia after completing submarine qualification, an arduous process that can take up to a year. To qualify, a sailor must be familiar with all submarine systems and operations. Sailors on ballistic missile submarines are authorized to wear a device called a "patrol pin" below their ribbons.

It consists of a submarine in profile. The number of patrols is indicated by gold and silver stars on the device.