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Four Submarines · Bedtime Stories

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: They utilised stealth, operating unseen and undetected beneath the waves
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: until they disappeared just as silently as they had patrolled
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the oceans, never to be heard from again, leaving us
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to wonder, why did four submarines suddenly vanish during the
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: spring months of 1968? With the exception of elite naval
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: special forces such as Britain's SBS or the United States
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Navy SEALs, Submariners are arguably some of the toughest sailors
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: to grace any nation's seaborne forces. Not only is their
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: training more rigorous than that of the surface fleet, they
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: must also face the prospect of being confined to cramped
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: conditions inside a vessel which can stay submerged beneath the
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: waves for months on end. In the early days of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: submarine warfare, structural and mechanical failures were commonplace, and the
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: fear of plunging headlong into the black depths of the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: abyss with little hope of escape was ever present. Should
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: anything go wrong, these sailors faced only a single fate,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: drowning in freezing cold waters whilst being crushed to a
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: pulp under intense pressures, before being imprisoned forevermore in a
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: steel tomb at the bottom of the sea. It would
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: have taken a very particular strength of mind to accept
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the possibility of such a fate. By the 1960s, however,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: technology and improvements in submarine design had moved on considerably.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and the likelihood of such failures was significantly reduced, allowing
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: vessels to operate almost with impunity. And with this in mind,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: we have to ask ourselves, why then would a groundbreaking
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: new generation of submarine ever disappear without warning during relative peacetime?
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: And strange as it may seem, not just one, but
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: four submarines did exactly that in 1968. vanishing under highly
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: mysterious circumstances, never to be heard from again. The submarines
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: in question were the Israeli vessel INS Dakar, an experimental
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: French sub known as the Minerv, the Soviet Union's K-129,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: and the United States Navy's Scorpion. Each loss occurred within
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: a short time frame, and in some cases, within just
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: days of one another, and in relatively close proximity. leading
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: many people to believe in later years that something sinister
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: was behind these disappearances. The mystery began in late January
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: with the INS Dakar, the oldest of the four ill-fated vessels,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: which was previously in service with the Royal Navy under
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the name HMS Totem. Completed in 1943, she was one
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of 53 T-class submarines built by the British during the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: Second World War, to combat German patrols. In the post-war years,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: she was retasked to track Soviet submarines, and went through
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: an extensive refit in 1951, which saw significant enhancements to
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: her operational capabilities. By 1965, however, the Royal Navy was
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: looking to replace its ageing submarine fleet, and sold the
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: totem to Israel, where she was re-designated INS Dakar. Under
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the command of Major Yurkov Rahanin, INS Dakar set sail
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: from Portsmouth, England on the 9th of January 1968, heading
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: for the port of Haifa in Israel. The plan was
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: for the Dakar to arrive by the 2nd of the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: following month, but by the 15th of January it became
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: clear that she was making excellent time. Major Rahanin notified
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: headquarters and requested that he be allowed instead to enter
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: port on the 29th. three days earlier than scheduled. This
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: was approved, and throughout the journey, Rahnan continued to send
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: transmissions reporting his vessel's status and position. At some point
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: on or after midnight on the 25th of January, the
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Dakar was just off the coast of Crete and heading
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: for Cyprus when she reported encountering a storm. Nevertheless, she
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: sent a communication stating the Dakar is in the depths
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: at full strength. a message that would later take on
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: a chilling sense of irony, as from that point onward,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: any attempts to contact the crew were met with an
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: eerie silence. The British Admiralty, who were tracking the vessel,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: sent word to the port of Haifa, stating that the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Dakar's signal was lost, and a call was relayed to
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: several naval units in the Mediterranean, requesting assistance in locating
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the missing submarines. Ships from Israel, Great Britain, the US, Greece,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: Turkey and Lebanon joined the search, combing a vast area
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: of water, but ultimately found nothing, except for the Dakar's
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: rear emergency buoy. This was located southeast of the island
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: of Cyprus, and was found to have activated its automated
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: distress beacon. Despite this, by the 29th of January, all
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: non-Israeli units had abandoned the search. The Israelis followed suit
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: a week later, when even they concluded that none of
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: the 69-man crew would have survived stranded on the sea
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: floor for so long. 32 years would pass by before
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the Dakar was finally located, resting on the seabed at
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: a depth of almost 10,000 feet between the islands of
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Crete and Cyprus. The cause of her sinking has never
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: been determined. And this would have remained nothing more than
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: a little-known maritime mystery, if not for another submarine, which
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: would also disappear without trace just two days later, whilst
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: also on patrol in the Mediterranean. Launched in 1961, and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: designed for low-level reconnaissance in shallow waters, the S-647 Daphne-class
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Minerv was an experimental cruise missile-carrying vessel, measuring in at
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: just 58 metres. Due to her small size, she was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: purpose-built for long-range missions, and had a phenomenal track record
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: for sailing long distances. By the time she was commissioned
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: in 1964, the French Navy already had it in mind
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to centre her operations in the Mediterranean Sea. By June
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: of 1967, she was stationed in the port of Toulon,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and outfitted for her first set of operational cruises in
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: that area. Command was handed over to Lieutenant André Fauve
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: on the 26th of January 1968, and him and his
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: crew of 50 enlisted men were ordered to take her
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: out to sea for a routine reconnaissance patrol the following day.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: The 27th proved to be precarious, however, as rough storms
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: hampered the progress of the Minerva's patrol. Soon after, the
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: order was given to cancel the operation, and Lieutenant Fauve
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: radioed headquarters, advising that he would arrive back in port
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: an hour later. The Minerva travelled at snorkel depth, at
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a steady pace of 12 knots, and was only 25
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: nautical miles away from port, when without warning, she vanished.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: When French naval command learned that the sub had failed
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: to return, the order was given to launch an immediate search,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: but this had to be delayed until the storm had passed.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: Once the search got underway, it became frustratingly evident that
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: no trace of the submarine could be found, even with
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: assistance from British and US ships. Despite a thorough search
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: covering a 320 mile radius, nothing was ever seen or
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: heard of the Minerva again. No wreckage, no bodies, nothing.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: It seemed as if she had simply been plucked from
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the sea, and unfortunately, that remains the case to this day.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: Could it have been mere coincidence that two submarines Both
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: manned by experienced and well-trained crews would disappear within 48
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: hours of one another without explanation, especially since both had
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: been heading for their home ports. Even more astonishing is
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: that two more submarine disappearances were to follow within a
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: matter of weeks. At the time of its commission in 1961,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: the USS Scorpion was one of the latest state-of-the-art vessels
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: powered by the new S-5W nuclear reactor engine, one of
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: the first of its kind. She was named in honour
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of an earlier submarine, also called Scorpion, which was also
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: lost under mysterious circumstances in the Pacific Ocean. during World
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: War II. Assigned to NATO's European Command Theatre, the Scorpion
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: participated in numerous patrol runs throughout the North Atlantic, the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Caribbean and the US East Coast, and even took part
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: in a secret mission to infiltrate Russian waters and document
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: Soviet missile bases. Her marvellous exploits earned her and her
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: crew many accolades over the next half decade. However, six
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: years is a long time in submarine warfare, and by 1967,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: she was beginning to show signs of wear and tear.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: In February that year, she slipped back to her home
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: port in Norfolk, Virginia, to get a full overhaul, but strangely,
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: she underwent only minimal repairs to her hull and engines.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: She then received new orders in October to set sail
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: for the Mediterranean Sea, to patrol waters close to where
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the Dakar would be lost a few months later. Now
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: sailing under a new captain, Commander Francis Slattery, the Scorpion
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: passed Gibraltar in February 1968, operating with the US 6th Fleet.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: But whilst there, she suffered a series of mechanical problems.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Severe leaks broke out in both the Freon coolant system
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: and the afterscape trunk, the latter of which resulted in
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: an electrical fire, which forced the sub to reduce its
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: speed and sail at a safe depth of 500 feet.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: It was soon discovered that the Scorpion was suffering from
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: structural malfunctions as a result of incomplete modifications, which by
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: May 1968 meant that she had to sail back to
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Norfolk for further repairs. On the 12th of May, she
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: docked at Naval Station Rota, Spain to drop off two crewmembers,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: before heading back out into the Atlantic three days later,
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: providing escort to the ballistic missile sub USS John C. Calhoun,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: which was being tracked by Soviet submarines at the time.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: After safely delivering her charge to the Azores, Slattery was
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: then ordered to make a speedy return to Norfolk on
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: the 21st of May. Sometime after midnight on the 22nd, however,
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  Speaker 1: Slattery sent a message back to base, informing his superiors,
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  Speaker 1: that he had sighted Soviet ships operating along his route
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and was moving to observe them. This would be the
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: last time anyone heard from the USS Scorpion. There was
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: no immediate concern for the first 48 hours, but after
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: six days without word, the US Navy declared the Scorpion
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  Speaker 1: missing and ordered an extensive search. A number of ships
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: from Great Britain, Spain, Greece, and the US took part.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: some of them having also assisted in trying to locate
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the Dakar and the Minerv. But even with this added help,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: the Scorpion could not be found. On the 5th of June,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the Navy declared her lost at sea, and struck her
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  Speaker 1: name from its register of active submarines. It would not
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: be until October 1968 that she was finally located on
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: the sea floor, beneath 10,000 feet of water, some 500
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: miles southwest of the Azores. the US Navy carried out
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: extensive analysis of the wreckage, but the cause of her
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: sinking is still not fully understood. Despite having occurred more
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: than half the world away, there are theories that suggest
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the sinking of the USS Scorpion may in fact have
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: been linked to the disappearance nearly three months earlier of
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  Speaker 1: another sub, the Soviet Union's K-129. Because Soviet documents of
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: the K-129 were misplaced or are unavailable, we do not
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: know what her actual orders were, but we do know
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: that she was a nuclear-powered submarine built for long-distance endurance
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: missions with a proven track record of two 70-day-long tours
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: at sea. Completed in 1960 and carrying a crew of 83,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: she was outfitted with four long-range 1-megaton ballistic missiles and
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: could travel at speeds of 17 knots per hour submerged,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: a very fast speed for the times. Largely operating in
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: the North Pacific Ocean, K-129 was one of the Soviet
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: Navy's prized submarines, and had been ordered to patrol American
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: naval zones around Hawaii. On the 24th of February, K-129
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: was ordered to commence her third tour of duty, and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: conduct a series of diving tests. After completing these tests,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: she made for the open sea, and sent back status
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: updates on a regular basis. By the 26th of February, however,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: her routine check-ins had ceased altogether, and the Soviets soon
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: launched a massive search. Despite their attempts at secrecy, it
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: was not long before US naval intelligence soon picked up
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: signs of a large Soviet deployment in the region, prompting
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: them to conduct a search of their own. Using superior
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: sonar equipment, in August 1968, the US Navy located the K-129,
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: approximately 1,500 miles northwest of Hawaii, at a depth of 4,900 feet.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: Her hull was shattered, and much of the debris was
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: scattered across the ocean floor. A survey of the area
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: also revealed her nuclear reactor had broken apart, and radioactive
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: material had spread over a 20-mile radius. As with the
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: other three submarines, the exact cause of the K-129 sinking
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: remains a mystery to this day. Needless to say, such
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: a huge and inexplicable loss of life in such a
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: short space of time was puzzling to many people. The
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: high seas were enjoying a period of relative peacetime. Yes,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the Cold War was in full swing, and US troops
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: were on the ground in Vietnam, but there were very few,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: if any, engagements between maritime forces during this time. The
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: sinking of not just one, but four military-grade vessels, which
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: were never under serious threat of attack seemed highly unusual,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: and invited some highly unusual theories. The sea is a
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: dark and foreboding place, and for centuries, even millennia, people
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: have held a peculiar fascination and a natural curiosity regarding
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: what lurks beneath the surface. History is littered with stories
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: of giant sea monsters attacking ships and other vessels, as
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: well as eyewitness accounts of USOs, otherwise known as Unidentified
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Submerged Objects. so it comes as no surprise that these
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: things have been thrown into the mix of possible explanations. However,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: there is no evidence to suggest that any of these
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: submarines encountered anything like this, so instead, we are left
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: to contemplate more rational theories. It is reasonable to assume
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: that most, if not all of these vessels sank as
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: a result of human error, that either a lapse in judgement,
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: a mechanical or structural failure, or navigational miscalculation, caused each
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: submarine to slip below its respective crush depth and then
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: sink to the sea floor. After all, Dakar was well
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: over 20 years old. The Minerva's design was relatively untested.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: The Scorpion was both structurally and mechanically unstable, and the
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: K-129 was more than likely in the wrong place at
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: the wrong time. Perhaps the loss of all four of
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: them within the same year is nothing more than a
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: tragic coincidence. Despite this, some theories regarding hostile action persist.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: Israel's diplomatic relations with her neighbours were extremely tense at
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: the time, and outside interference could not be entirely ruled out.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: The Dakar sank just six months after Israel's victory over
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: Egypt in the Six-Day War. During that same conflict, Israeli
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: fighter planes had attacked the USS Liberty, and some theorised
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: that the US Navy had in fact sunk the Dakar
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: in retaliation. Others believe the Soviet Union, an ally of
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: the Arab nations defeated by Israel, may have had the
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: vessel intercepted and the whole crew captured. Soviet submarines were
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: known to operate in the Mediterranean, and interestingly, the Dakar
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: may have been a specific target for the Soviets, due
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: to her past service with the Royal Navy. Years earlier,
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: as HMS Totem, she had carried out manoeuvres to blockade
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: Soviet ports in the Baltic Sea. as the British attempted
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: to counter the growing threat from the Soviet Union's submarine
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: fleet during the Cold War. And finally, in 1970, Egyptian
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: news media made the claim that the Dakar had actually
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: been sunk in a depth charge attack by one of
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: its navy's mine trawlers, though this claim was never substantiated
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: and was dismissed entirely by the international community. Whilst the
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: Minerva was suspected to have disappeared due to an accident
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: or malfunction, The same cannot be said with 100% certainty
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: for the USS Scorpion and Soviet K-129. As previously mentioned,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: there are theories to suggest that although the two vessels
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: were nowhere near each other at the time of their sinking,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: their loss may in fact be related. In his book
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Scorpion Down, Ed Offley hypothesised that the Soviet flotilla the
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: Scorpion had tailed prior to her disappearance was in fact
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: responsible for her sinking. and that it had been given
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: secret information detailing where she would be. Offley even pointed
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: out that at the time there was a Soviet spy
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: ring within the US Navy, led by the turncoat spy
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: John Anthony Walker, who informed the KGB and the Soviet
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Navy that the Scorpion would be making her way home
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: via the Azores. Using this information, the flotilla is believed
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: to have engaged and destroyed the sub. Another book, All
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Hands Down by Kenneth Sewell, also suggested that the US
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Navy and the Soviet fleet learned of this fact shortly afterwards,
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: and then agreed to cover it up. in an attempt
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: to keep tensions from exploding into a full-blown confrontation. This
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: theory therefore suggests that incidents such as this were commonplace
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: throughout the Cold War, and that numerous attacks took place
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: on a regular basis, all of which may have been
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: covered up to avert an all-out nuclear war. Whilst officially,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Soviet Naval Command stated that it never once issued a
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: fire order to any of its operational submarines. Many claims
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: by both US and British Royal Navy commanders suggest otherwise,
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: and theories abound that the USS Scorpion may in fact
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: have been a trade-off casualty for the sinking of the
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: K-129 a few months earlier. Many high-level Soviet commanders believed
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: that another US sub had encountered and engaged the K-129
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: in the waters off Hawaii. This is not beyond all possibility,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: for American submarines were known to trail their Soviet counterparts
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in that area and at dangerously close distances. The theory
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: of an engagement, or even a collision, gained traction when
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: another American sub, the USS Swordfish, sailed into a Japanese
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: port for repairs to a damaged periscope. American commanders were
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: quick to state that the sub had allegedly run into
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: an iceberg in the North Pacific, but Soviet command noted,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: she arrived in Japanese waters just days after the K-129
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: had been reported missing. Interestingly, the US Navy located the
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: K-129 and in 1975 began a salvaging operation, which was
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: codenamed Project Azorian. We hardly need to point out that
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: the Azores was the Scorpion's last known location. So what
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: are we to make of all this? Did these submarines
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: suffer at the hands of incompetence, either on the high
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: seas or whilst back in port? Were they lost to
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: hostile engagement? Or did they meet some other fate that
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: sits beyond the realm of our understanding? Unfortunately, there is
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: no precise narrative, no clear indication of exactly what occurred.
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: People will inevitably make up their own minds and believe
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: whatever they want to believe. In the end, The question
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: over why so many experienced young men needlessly lost their
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: lives is as tragic as it is mysterious, especially for
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: the families involved, the families that never received the answers
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: they so desperately needed. So many people were affected by
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: these tragedies, and we can only hope they find solace
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: in the knowledge that their loved ones died in the
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: service of protecting their homelands. May they rest in peace.