THE DAY THE SPANGLER |
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Sonarman Bob Ellis reports that in late 1950, the Spangler was at Hunter’s Point, California for enhancements to its anti submarine capabilities. Two of the main modifications were the installation of the Serial # 1 Mark V Attack System and addition of four K-guns both port and starboard. These two changes gave the Spangler the most capable submarine attack capability in the United States surface fleet.
The Mark V system was centered on what we now call a computer. The computer used electro-mechanical servos to plot an attack on a submarine. The sonarmen acoustically tracked a submarine, and their data was electronically fed into the computer. The output of the computer provided firing timing for the depth charges and the Hedge Hogs (forward fired projectiles).
 Dpth Charge At 150 Feet |
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The addition of the four K-guns to each side provided the Spangler with the largest depth charge pattern in the fleet. Charges were rolled off of racks at the fantail and launched off the sides by what are called K-guns. The depth charges were used to sink or damage enemy submarines, or at least drive them away from the ships being escorted. There were seven K-guns on each side of the Spangler (no other ship had a larger number than the Spangler). The charges were supposed to be fired in a pattern that put 19 charges into the water in a sequence of 5 events. The pattern is portrayed below. When the order “Fire One” was given, a charge was to be dropped off the fantail (#1 in the center line of the pattern) and two launched by K-guns off both sides of the ship at two
 K-gun In Action |
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The positioning of the pattern over a target submarine was determined in the Underwater Battery Plot (UBP) room just forward of the flying bridge. The area of the pattern was roughly a circle of diameter 400 feet.
The firing sequence was either electrically controlled by the Mark V or done by a sonarman pressing a button which signaled the Chief Gunner’s Mate to yell the command “Fire One”, “Fire Two” etc. at which time sailors pulled the firing lanyards for the appropriate K-guns. The lanyards were 10 feet long, but because of the added K-guns using the 10 foot lanyard the sailor would be at the next K-gun, so the sailors had to shorten the lanyards to 7 feet and face the superstructure to avoid powder burns. Fireman Wes Hancock manned a K-gun on the first firing of the full pattern in 1951, and recalls the difficulty in this arrangement.
The Test:
The standard practice for a structural test prior to entering Dry Dock was to role depth charges of the fantail while the ship was making 10 Knots. The depth charges were set to go off at a depth of 100 feet. On this occasion, it was decided to fire the full 19 charge pattern, because the full pattern provided a more realistic shock test. In addition to the structural test, there was a test of the automatic shutdown of the generator circuit breakers.
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The ship was slowed to ten knots for the firing of the pattern. At this point, chief machinist mate Olson, in the aft engine room, called the bridge and asked that the speed be increased. The chief, who had been at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, remembered from World War II that dropping the depth charges could do serious damage to the ship if the ship were going at a slow speed, and didn’t get far enough away from the explosions. As a result, the ship’s speed was slightly increased to 12 knots. Electricians Mate Wesley Rowland remembers that when the Chief was scared he was scared.
When the time came for the test, the Boxer was advised of the time of the test. Sailors on the Boxer who were not on watch were allowed to go forward on the flight deck to watch the test.
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The Spangler’s Captain, LCDR Richard R. Law, instructed the Officer of the Deck (OD) to proceed with the test. The Mark V could not be used for the firing sequence because there was no real sonar target feeding the computer. The OD ordered Sonarman Dave Norris to initiate the firing. Norris pressed the firing button to order “Fire!”
The signal was received by Chief Gunners Mate Emmanuel Hayden. When the Chief ordered “Fire 1", there was a big surprise. Instead of the 4 intended K-guns being fired, all 14 K-guns fired
sending 15 depth charges into the water.
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Quartermaster Tom Klugston (photo not available) reports that when Captain Law saw what was happening, he ordered “All ahead flank!” in an attempt to move away from the charges. By the time the engine rooms got the order, it was too late. The charges had started to explode, causing the switches to the generators to open (a successful test result). The ship was now without electrical power, and the electrical motors driving the ship stopped turning the screws.
The first charge to explode was the one dropped from the fantail. It lifted the aft end of the ship nearly out of the water. Next, the eight inboard K-gun charges exploded simultaneously, sending shock waves 4 times greater than the ship was designed for. The shocks hit both sides of the hull simultaneously, giving the structure a huge squeeze. Finally the 6 outboard K-gun charges simultaneously exploded sending another large pair of shock waves. Sailors on the flight deck of the Boxer saw the Spangler disappear in a mountain of water, and believed the Spangler had sunk! Below the main deck of the Spangler, in all of the engineering compartments, the sailors heard a deafening sound and felt the shock waves from the explosions. Electricians Mate Grover Haynes (photo not available) reports that when the first shock wave hit, the ship heaved so much that the ship’s expansion joint narrowed which tightened the cable connecting the pilot house to the steam whistle on the smokestack and caused the whistle to blow three times.
The Safety of the ship was now seriously jeopardized. Without power the ship became dead in the water. This would not have been as serious a problem, except there was a great big aircraft carrier near the Spangler that had lost both visual and radar contact with the Spangler. Great big ships cannot change their course very fast, local currents could cause the Spangler to drift into the path of the Boxer, and loss of control could result in the Spangler floundering in the heavy swells.
Immediately, the engineering gang started work to restore power. There was no auxiliary power, so everything had to be done using WWII emergency Battle Lanterns and voice powered headsets. The (now) Machinist Mate Hancock (photo not available) recalls that the procedure was to insure that there was no damage to the electrical circuits before switching them back on. There were three damage reports made:
1. Bblowing of the whistle,
2. Flooding in the deck division quarters which was determined to have been caused by an
overturned bucket,
3. Steam leak in the #2 fire room
None of these reports showed compromise of the electrical circuits, so the breakers were switched back on. Control of the ship was re-established. The Captain maneuvered the ship out of the path of the oncoming carrier.
The fast action of the damage control, boiler room and engine room sailors saved the ship from possible damage or destruction, and the accompanying injuries and loss of life that would have resulted from a collision with the larger ship or floundering in the heavy seas.
Test Results:
As we proceeded to Pearl Harbor, it was noted the #2 boiler feed water was reading salty, so the boiler had to be shut down. The ship continued to Pearl with just one boiler. When the ship was inspected in dry dock, there was an 18 foot split found in the hull where the #2 fire room feed water tanks were. This part of the hull was cut out and a new section installed.
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There is no doubt that the test was successful in finding “weak spots”, and “Oil King” Ed Querrey still complains about having to change out all the broken light bulbs.
Post Mortem:
After the incident, there was speculation about the cause of the multiple firing of the K-guns. Several potential explanations have been put forth, but none were ever proven. We may never know, but would be interested in hearing people’s thoughts on the cause.
Were we Unlucky? Maybe Not!
There is a physical phenomenon known to Under Water Warfare folks called “thermocline”. The upper portion of the sea is warmed by the sun. If the upper water is warm and the lower water is cold, then sound waves, like sonar, bounce off the warm/cold boundary. This is really important in underwater warfare, because submarines can go below this boundary to avoid sonar detection. The water off of Hawaii in the summer is quite uniform, and gave submarines no advantage. However, off the coast of California, there are sharp thermoclines. The Spangler was operating off the Southern California coast for years before and after this incident. Had the depth charge test been conducted out of San Diego instead of the Hawaiian waters, the outcome would have been different. The shock waves from the depth charges would not have just “kept on going” as they did off Hawaii, they would have bounced of the thermocline back to the surface and provided three additional shocks to the hull. And if Chief Olsen not been aboard, who knows what might have happened as a result of running at 10 knots. Having increased the ship’s speed to twelve knots reduced the shock intensity from the fantail charge by about 10%.