USS Greeneville Overview

     The Ehime Maru embarked from Japan on January 10, 2001 to fish for tuna, swordfish and shark. 13 students, 2 teachers, and 20 crewmembers from a Japanese vocational school were on board. On February 9, disaster struck. Without warning, the Ehime Maru was rammed by a 360-foot nuclear submarine and sank within minutes. 4 students, 2 teachers and 3 crew were never recovered. The USS Greeneville sustained no damage.

     The Greeneville, with Commander Scott Waddle in charge, was on a special outing arranged by Waddle’s admiral that was designed to demonstrate to 16 civilians on board the prowess of the sub to surface quickly. Thousands of civilians visit military bases each year. The rapid ascent drill is practiced on rare occasions and only with the utmost precautions. Standard protocol for surfacing is 1) search the water in front of the sub by sonar 2) sub alters course so propellers do not disrupt acoustic search behind sub 3) if clear, sub rises to periscope depth (20-30 feet below the surface of the water) and surveys visually. Waddle went through the proper steps for the drill but rushed. Viewing of 240 seconds is standard; the Greeneville spent 80 seconds. The sub was 43 minutes behind schedule and the visitors had arranged to catch a tugboat to return them to land. The tight confines of the sub restricted mobility and hindered communication.

     The presence of the Ehime Maru was identified by the Greenville and a technician plotted the trawler to 2,000 feet. However, a monitor that allowed sonar data to be seen from the periscope was broken. The crew compensated for this by making more frequent trips to the sonar room, where the 16 civilians congregated, to convey information. The tight confines of the sub restricted mobility and hindered communication. Waddle had incomplete information about the position of vessels in the area. Two qualified sonar men were required to be in the sonar room at all times. On this day, the officer in charge was off-ship in training along with 8 other qualified sonar men. Of the two sonar men on duty at the Greeneville at the time, only one was qualified.