Evening star., 1963-05-15
Fourth Of Seven Articles

lage on the outskirts OF Kit
Fourth Of Seven Articles
terry, Me, In trailer camps and
homes nearby, across the river
in New Hampshire, and for
many miles around, men were
stirring long before dawn on
April 8. Thresher was going to
sea, with 16 officers, So en-
listed men and II male civil
ians aboard.
This number-129-w oul d
have been 1872 but for Ray
mond McCoole's wife, Ray
mond Mattson's nerves and
Frank DeStefano's career.
Mrs. McCoole had suffered
an eye injury and her lieu
tenant-husband was author
lied emergency leave. Matt
son, q torpedoman's mate,
first class, had been ordered
ashore for treatment of a
nervous condition. DeStefano,
a chief petty officer in line
for commissioned status, had
been sent to Washington for
an interview with Vice Admiral
Lyman g. Rickover, who m
sists on individually sizing UP
all officers nominated for duty
in ''nukes."
TwO-Day Cruise
To many Of the men it was
all in q days work, two-day
cruise to make sure Thresher
was ready for extended sea
duty. Some had misgivings,
such as men in dangerous jobs
always have. but kept them to
themselves. A few were wor-
ried even scared to the
point Of confiding their fears
in their wives.
But for the most part the
men trooped down to the
Thresher without any partic-
ular thoughts about anything
except the job to be done.
There were no kibitzers aboard
Thresher on this final post
shakedown availability cruise" I"
Even so she was crowded: 129
men in q ship built for SO.
BY 3:45 on the morning of
April 8. the reactor control
officer was beginning his four
hour countdown to make the
power plant ready. BY 5:45 the
skipper, John Wesley Harvey,
had been asked. and had
granted. permission to pull the
first Of the control rods that
would bring the sleeping nu-
clear giant alive inside the
reactor.
ReactOr Starts
It was now first light, and
the Frightening sky began to
give dimension to the nighttime
flatness of the scene. A watch
officer using the horizontal
plane on the tall midships sail
as a quarterback could begin to
make out huge cranes looming
above him, and on the other
side Of the river the church
spires of old Portsmouth.
At 6:15 the engineering Off
Ger reported to Capt. Harvey
that the reactor had started
up. that fission was occurring
silently deep within its bowels,
that the water lines in the
steam circuits were beginning
to take on warmth. In the
galley. eggs and bacon we're on
the griddle. The music on the
PA system was secured for the
time being. as the takers ad-
monition to Nov hear this
-. :" picked up tempo.
BY 7:15 the turbo generator
was producing electricity for
the complex ships thousand
and-one needs, and all but the
last chores ashore remained to
be done. At half past seven the
engine room notified the skip
per that 1t was ready to IAN
swer bells" and fifteen min
utes later the last line connect
ing Thresher with the shore
was cast off. With Yves Har-
vey standing high in the sail
Thresher headed slowly out
into the channel, into the
mainstream Of the Piscataqua
River and down toward the sea
New Hampshire to starboard
Maine to port.
Into the Open Sea
South she went around
Newcastle Island. out Of sight
Of the base. and into the open
sea off Odiorenes Point. As the
heavily running sea caught hei
abeam. she wallowed like q
great waterlogged whale, and
the 10 dozen people in her
belly groaned with queasiness
This is the part Of a cruise the
nuke sailors like least. when
their ship is up where the
weather Is. Down below, 1t Il
always calm, never sick
making.
Thresher submerged, run.
ming quietly In the calm
neither waters past the isles oi
Shoals. where Squalus went
down q quarter century before
- Squalus. whose salvagec
coming tower now dominate,
the central square Of the ole
Portsmouth shipyard.
Out Of the waters east oi
there. In the Georges Banl
region east OF Boston