GREENEVILLE Collision
9 FEBRUARY 2001
GREENEVILLE COLLISION
At 0800 local time this day, USS GREENEVILLE (SSN-772) departed Pearl Harbor carrying 14 corporate CEOs, a civilian sportswriter, and his wife for a submarine demonstration cruise as part of the Navy’s Distinguished Visitor Embarkation program. CDR Scott Waddle proceeded from the harbor to a designated dive point about 10 nautical miles south of Oahu. He planned to demonstrate high-speed maneuvers, crash dives, and emergency surfacing, then return by 1430 for a gala reception ashore. But lunch ran late.
About noon the 191-foot Japanese fisheries training ship Ehime Maru departed Honolulu as part of a 74-day cruise to familiarize high school students with the fisheries industry. On board were 35 crew, 13 teenage students, and two teachers. The vessel was owned by the Uwajima Fisheries School and captained by Hisao Onishi. She proceeded south at 11 knots enroute to her fishing grounds 300 miles distant.
GREENEVILLE’s sonarmen tracked several contacts throughout the evolution, Ehime Maru being one. However, the crowding of 16 VIP’s into the control room complicated the Contact Evaluation Plot normally maintained for operating subs, and the Ehime Maru contact was mistakenly labeled as moving away from the sub. Then significantly behind schedule, Waddle conned the boat through his high-speed maneuvers and brought the sub to periscope depth for the required check prior to emergency surfacing. However, OOD LTJG Michael J. Coen made only a quick visual scan. Waves partially obscured his view, and the back-up audiovisual system had been reported inoperable that morning. Waddle dove the sub to 400 feet, and at 1343 blew his ballast tanks. GREENEVILLE shot to the surface, slicing Ehime Maru starboard to port. Waddle watched through the periscope as the training ship turned nearly vertical and sank by the stern in 5 minutes. Four students, both teachers and three crewmen went missing. A 22-day search turned up nothing.
Now began a 9-month, technically challenging operation to recover the deceased. Ehime Maru lay in 1800 feet of water, making free diving too dangerous. Rather, after multiple attempts, the sunken vessel was lifted closer to the surface and transported into shallower water. Here eight bodies and personal effects were recovered and returned to their families.
Waddle and five of his crew accepted Admiral’s Mast, Waddle’s shortcutting of procedures earning him a guilty verdict for dereliction of duty and improper hazarding of a vessel. He retired on 1 October 2001. The Navy paid over $28 million in compensation to the families, the Uwajima Prefecture, and for the erection of a monument that stands today in Kakaako Waterfront Park in Honolulu.
Watch for more “Today in Naval History” 16 FEB 22
CAPT James Bloom, Ret.
“Collision between the U.S. Navy Submarine USS Greeneville and Japanese Motor Vessel Ehime Maru near Oahu, Hawaii February 9, 2001.” NTSB Marine Accident Brief. AT: http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2005/MAB0501.htm, retrieved 13 December 2010.
Memorandum of CIC, US Pacific Fleet, Ser N0G/816, 23 April 2001. “Court of Inquiry into the Circumstances Surrounding the Collision between USS Greeneville (SSN-772) and Japanese M/V Ehime Maru that Occurred off the Coast of Oahu, Hawaii on 9 February 2001.” AT: http://www.cpf.navy.mil/subsite/ehimemaru/legal/COI_Memo_for_the_Record.pdf, retrieved 13 December 2010.
Sweetman, Jack. American Naval History: An Illustrated Chronology of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, 1775-Present, 3rd ed. Annapolis, MD: USNI Press, 2002, p. 306.
ADDITIONAL NOTES: The body of the ninth individual lost in the collision, a student, is presumed to have washed overboard in the sinking. It has never been recovered.
Out of respect for Japanese wishes, Ehime Maru was re-raised and transported back out to sea, to prevent her wreck from becoming a sport diving venue.
Part of the Navy’s final compensation agreement required that CDR Waddle (who was then a civilian) travel to Japan and apologize face-to-face with the families of the deceased. This was completed in December 2002.
