While on patrol in the central Mediterranean on a fast attack one day in the early 90s, we were coming to periscope depth to get a satellite fix, get our radio traffic, etc. It was one of those rare days, when the water is flat as a pond, and no one else was within 20 miles. Sunny, gorgeous summer day. We made routine preparations for coming to, including clearing baffles.

Once we start driving the ship up, the periscope is raised, and the Officer of the Deck trains the scope upward, and starts scanning the underside of the surface, looking for “shapes and shadows”, while continually announcing, “no shapes or shadows.”

Just as we approached the depth where the scope is breaking the surface, he yells, “emergency deep”… this gets everyone’s pucker factor up quickly, as it implies we were about to co-occupy a volume with something else, i.e, hit it. Now, sonar had not heard anything, but passive sonar has its limitations.

A sail boat on sail without an engine or generator running is pretty much impossible to hear, for instance. Emergency deep results in the control room crew immediately and automatically bringing the sub to a safe-from-being-hit depth… rapidly.

So, we get to our safe depth (simply deep enough to pass under the deepest draft ship in existence, with some margin). The OOD explains that the scope went black dark just as it broke the surface. We again clear baffles. Nothing heard. So, we circle around where we previously attempted to come to up, and finally try again. When we get there, a cardboard box is floating upside down. Apparently, the scope came up inside the box. Not so much a needle in a haystack, more like threading a needle in a haystack.

In 2001, the USS Greenville sub was showboating, putting on a show for VIPs on board by conducting a ballast-blow surfacing maneuver (a dramatic extreme maneuver used in emergencies), which caused it to quickly shoot to the surface. They weren’t looking where they were going however, and what they caught on the deck was the Japanese research ship Ehime Maru, subsequently causing it to sink, and killing 9 people on board including four high-school students, two teachers, and three crew members.

USS Greenville:

Ehime Maru: