American Notes NAVY

Launched during the Eisenhower era, the U.S.S. Bonefish was a 30-year cold war veteran used for simulating Soviet submarines in naval exercises. But the war games turned deadly last week. As the Bonefish ran at periscope depth 160 miles east of Cape Canaveral, blasts erupted from one of its two battery compartments. Flash fire and toxic gases forced the 92-man crew to abandon ship. Twenty-two crewmen were hospitalized; Navy salvage workers later found the bodies of three crewmen aboard the vessel. The Navy has not yet determined the cause of the accident.

As the U.S. sub fleet converted to nuclear power, the Bonefish remained as one of the last four U.S. diesel-electric subs. But its role as a mimic was crucial: the Soviets still have in service about 150 diesel-electrics, half of their sub fleet.