USS NAUTILUS SSN-571 Collision with USS ESSEX CVS-9, April 1967 

I was a junior officer serving in ESSEX in 1967 as a CICWO. At the time of the collision I was soundly asleep in the junior officer bunkroom tucked under the flight deck in the forward section of the ship (We were standing Port and Starboard watches under Condition 1 AS, a modifified form of anti-submarine battle stations) when a loud noise was heard and a brief shudder passed through ESSEX, a 29k ton anti-submarine aircraft carrier. ESSEX went promptly to general quarters which is standard operating procedure for protecting a naval ship in the case of a collision of unknown proportions or a fire not under control as the crew immediately mans their battle ststions, including manning damage control parties, and sets Condition Zebra which secures all water-tight hatches throughout the ship.

ESSEX, her task group comprised of several destroyer and destroyer escorts, and NAUTILUS were conducting exercises in the Virginia Capes Operations Area (VACAPESOPAREA. ESSEX was being replenished underway by a fleet oiler and both ships were being screened by the escorts. The wind was backing and the UNREP ships were altering ROMEO CORPEN (replenishment course) five degrees to port to put the relative wind 355 degree relative to their ship's head. NAUTILUS successfully penetrated the screen and was simulating torpedo attacks when she apparently miscalculated either her submerged depth and/or the course of the mainbody. NAUTILUS's conning tower struck ESSEX which draws 29 to 30 feet depending on how she is loaded, on the forward port quarter of her bow-mounted SONAR. NAUTILUS was believed to roll to starboard and to pass under ESSEX keel rerighting herself as she executed an emergency surfacing procedure in he vicinity of ESSEX elevator on her starboard side, some 500-600 feet from her bow. 

NAUTILUS appeared as though the forward leading corner of her sail area had been bitten cleanly off. Injuries were minor to two NAUTILOS crewman and to a Sonarman First Class in ESSEX. NAUTILUS did not suffer any apparent damage to her nuclear reactor or powerplant. No leaks of radioactive material were reported as testimony to her thorough construction. ESSEX's bow mounted sonar was badly dented/deformed but the ship's water-tight integrity was never breached, and she transited to the Boston Naval Shipyard for repairs and deployed in late May 1967 for an EASTLANT NATO Anti-submarine exercise (ASWEX).