Navy Nuclear Attack Submarine USS Scorpion Vanished in 1968 With 99 Men After Reporting She Was Trailing a Soviet Sub. The Navy's Board of Inquiry Ruled the Cause "Cannot Be Ascertained," and 4 Theories Compete

The USS Scorpion (SSN-589) vanished in May 1968 with all 99 crew members after radioing that it was closing in on the Soviet submarine K-135. The last message came while the nuclear attack submarine was about 400 miles southwest of the Azores, operating in roughly 10,000 feet of water. The Navy launched an extensive search using 35 aircraft and 55 ships, and in October it located the wreckage—its “shattered hull” at the same general depth. A board of inquiry later ruled the cause “cannot be ascertained.” The Scorpion had departed Norfolk on February 21, 1968, bound for the Mediterranean.