"This is what I remember about the collision with the BARB:

"My bunk was the upper most in the bridal suite in the Forward Torpedo Room (the two across ship bunks). I was off watch and reading a book on the mezzanine for the bunks lying under the non-shielded double screws on a torpedo rack. BARB hit us forward of the sail over the Forward Torpedo Room. I heard and felt the initial crushing of the superstructure above me, which was followed by the scraping sound of the BARB hitting the sail with her screw. When BARB hit the sail, we rocked over. Before the collision I believe we were on an up angle (no sure but I thought we were nearing scope depth. We went into a fast backslide downward. She was sliding and sliding and sliding and slidiiiiing. It was definitely DOWN. At this time I was saying "Oh shit" to myself with thoughts of not returning to port. The emergence blow was initiated and she shuttered for a while. The girl them caught hold and we went up fast. When we finally made it to the surface we bobbed like a fishing cork when you have a bite (but slower). This was probably the greatest sense of relief I have ever felt in my life.

“The experience left me with two vivid impressions:

   •     Thank God the Torpedomen knew how to lash down the fish or I would have looked like I had been in a knife fight with my guts hanging out.

   •     The ultimate relief feeling of bobbing on the surface.

“Some other points of interest from my own personal knowledge and from other shipmates:

   •     On the down slide the depth gauge read in excess of 600 ft. But that was not a big deal in those days as we routinely transited at 600 ft.

   •     The Reactor Operator had the rods out making 125% power. But I was Lead ELT and have made chemistry adjustments for sustained home-bound runs at greater than 100%.

   •     The forward superstructure was crushed to the hull and the upper Forward Torpedo Room hatch sheared off.

   •     The sail was well bent to the side. (I think the upper Control Room hatch was missing)

   •     We returned to port under our own power. We were secure but a little banged up.

   •     When we hit the pier and the brow was across, one if the IC-man picked a piece of the BARB's screw out of the sail and crossed the brow declaring "I am disqualifying myself" and I don't think we ever saw him again. So somewhere, there is a piece of the BARB's screw on someone’s mantel.

“The following may or may not be fact but true to the best of my knowledge:

   •     I think the BARB was surfacing (from a neighbor).

   •     We were preparing for a run. In those days the waters around HI was divided into sectors and everybody knew who and what was in the sector. BUT if you were preparing for a run you did not have the same restrictions and you could spy on your buddies. So the BARB may or may not have known the SARGO was in the sector.

   •     The scuttlebutt was that the BARB was in our baffles and we could not hear her. But that does not explain why she did not hear us.

   •     The Inquiry did not lay blame and resulted in "an act of GOD" to the best of my knowledge.”