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Post by Andrew on Mar 21, 2012 7:25:21 GMT
In the context of climate change this is a very interesting story, particularly as it is well known that around 1957 the previous warm period was looking like it was ending and it was already getting colder, while at the same time the climate scientists of the day were saying, if the warm period continued, all the summer ice would be gone by 2000. ;D  During a winter voyage Skate surfaced 10 times in 1959, and became the first sub to surface at the pole on 17th of March 1959. The prevous year both Skate and Nautilus had tried to surface at the pole in August, but found the ice too thick. The Captain wrote a book about the voyages which is available in Google books in snippet view. So with difficulty it is searchable to extract quotations. www.google.fi/search?hl=en&tbm=bks&q=Surface+at+the+Pole%3A+the+extraordinary+voyages+of+the+USS+Skate+%22The +skate+surfaced+at+the+north+pole+on+17+march+1959%22&oq=Surface+at+the+Pole%3A+the+extraordinary+voyages+of+the+USS+Skat e+%22The+skate+surfaced+at+the+north+pole+on+17+march+1959%22&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=12&gs_upl=23656l48421l0l51437l56l56l0l 0l0l0l281l3451l23.8.2l33l0&gs_l=serp.12...23656l48421l0l51437l56l56l0l0l0l0l281l3451l23j8j2l33l0.frgbld. May 4th 1959 Life Magazine has a detailed story on line written by the Captain of the Skate  books.google.fi/books?id=YEgEAAAAMBAJ&lpg=PA47&dq=life%20magazine%20archives%20may%201959&pg=PA131#v=onepage&q=skate&f=falseat the North pole after finding it difficult to find a suitable lead Climbing to the bridge, I was greeted by an awesome sight. Skate was in a small lead completely surrounded by 10-foot-high hummocks of ice. This was the most inhospitable terrain we had seen so far. It was almost dark.....the temperature was -32 below (-35.5C) These pictures are from the book, which I have not seen.  The very short clip in this longer video from 4.00 onwards in following official navy video may be the result of them staging the surfacing, as described in the book, after leaving one of the crew on the ice, submerging, moving forwards a few yards and then coming back up again. I am going to try and dig some more info up about the voyage and then i will update this page. |
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Post by trbixler on Mar 21, 2012 12:51:48 GMT
I liked the video. Good find.
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Post by sigurdur on Mar 21, 2012 13:04:57 GMT
I look forward to what more you can find on this.
Thank you Iceskater.
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Post by throttleup on Mar 21, 2012 18:28:49 GMT
Does anyone know of any recent surfacing events at the pole?
More a curiosity than anything else.
Perhaps with longer missle ranges that is no longer necessary from an operational standpoint.
But... you never know.
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Post by throttleup on Mar 22, 2012 1:22:16 GMT
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Post by icefisher on Mar 22, 2012 3:08:44 GMT
In the context of climate change this is a very interesting story, particularly as it is well known that around 1958 the previous warm period was looking like it was ending and it was already getting colder, while at the same time the climate scientists of the day were saying, if the warm period continued, all the summer ice would be gone by 2000. ;D
do you have an original reference for this? i am looking for some original material for a project
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Post by Andrew on Mar 22, 2012 11:46:42 GMT
In the context of climate change this is a very interesting story, particularly as it is well known that around 1958 the previous warm period was looking like it was ending and it was already getting colder, while at the same time the climate scientists of the day were saying, if the warm period continued, all the summer ice would be gone by 2000. ;Ddo you have an original reference for this? i am looking for some original material for a project I added my earlier photo from popular mechanics to the first page. |
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Post by steve on Mar 22, 2012 21:36:03 GMT
10-foot-high hummocks of ice sounds like multi-year sea ice to me.
Seriously, that video looks like a cheap animation disguised by some fake snow. It reminded me of Captain Pugwash.
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Post by steve on Mar 22, 2012 21:48:55 GMT
I see there are also references to protecting Skates rudder from damage from the "walls of ice" while negotiating its surfacing. I see also the attempt at filming the surfacing failed because the camera froze. Sorry, I'm sounding all negative. It's a really interesting article - thanks for the link. And they don't make cars like the ones in the adverts any more do they (thank goodness  ) |
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Post by icefisher on Mar 23, 2012 5:02:02 GMT
In the context of climate change this is a very interesting story, particularly as it is well known that around 1958 the previous warm period was looking like it was ending and it was already getting colder, while at the same time the climate scientists of the day were saying, if the warm period continued, all the summer ice would be gone by 2000. ;Ddo you have an original reference for this? i am looking for some original material for a project I added my earlier photo from popular mechanics to the first page. thanks thats perfect! Just what I needed! |
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Post by Andrew on Mar 23, 2012 6:06:23 GMT
I see there are also references to protecting Skates rudder from damage from the "walls of ice" while negotiating its surfacing. I see also the attempt at filming the surfacing failed because the camera froze. Sorry, I'm sounding all negative. It's a really interesting article - thanks for the link. And they don't make cars like the ones in the adverts any more do they (thank goodness ) They claim that they were successful with the camera after heating it and wrapping it in oven gloves or something like that. Also an interesting perpective on what it was like for the three men claimed to be left at the surface. Had the ice began moving again they might never have been able to get back to the sub before freezing to death, and as explained in the text it could begin moving again, without warning, with considerable velocity. I have ordered the book. The thing of note so far, is that the ice conditions at the actual pole, were significantly more difficult compared to before they got to the pole. Either way, clearly they could only come up in open/fresh/newly frozen leads, and it was not easy to surface at the pole, where they came up in a particularly narrow frozen lead. Additionally, I think you can make the case that a sub crewed by a multi experienced WW2 veteran was more likely to have the mental capacity to endure the psychological difficulties in coming up between a wall of ice that could crush the boat very quickly, so making a comparison to today is very difficult, unless todays conditions in surfacing are so very difficult. Clearly as described it was not easy at all to surface and considerable risks were taken to do so, which might have been underestimated given their later terrifying experiences of the ice moving again. Here is another car from the front cover of popular mechanics 1957 with that climate article about the ice all being gone by 2000  |
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Post by steve on Mar 24, 2012 1:20:51 GMT
In general it is good evidence that the Skate was dealing with a lead in multi-year ice which is rather different from the claims of open water that are read in some places. Whether an actual video was shot, the sample above does look fake. The sub rises very smoothly, the ice that rises with the submarine in the last 3-4 seconds of the video doesn't break up at all with the movement of the ship, and the snow looks cartoony. The fish surfacing at the end of this explains the Captain Pugwash reference. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTfX7EqY13I&feature=endscreen&NR=1 |
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Post by Andrew on Mar 24, 2012 3:01:45 GMT
In general it is good evidence that the Skate was dealing with a lead in multi-year ice which is rather different from the claims of open water that are read in some places. Whether an actual video was shot, the sample above does look fake. The sub rises very smoothly, the ice that rises with the submarine in the last 3-4 seconds of the video doesn't break up at all with the movement of the ship, and the snow looks cartoony. The fish surfacing at the end of this explains the Captain Pugwash reference. www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTfX7EqY13I&feature=endscreen&NR=1You were right about that video. It was produced by a guy working on a computer game! I found though an official video showing a similar kind of scene that is supposed to be at the north pole, but without the snow. |
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