Newsletter #109 – January 2025  



USS CHIVO (SS-341) All Hands Newsletter



USS Chivo's 2024 Reunion

Chivo’s October 2024 reunion was hosted by Peter & Angela McVicker (1969-1970) in Kings Bay, GA.   Unfortunately, my wife and I were unable to attend due to a family emergency.   I only mention that because I have no first hand information about the reunion, and no details or pictures have been sent to me.   I can’t even give you a list of attendees, but I do know that 20 crew members were present and with their spouses and guests, there were 39 people total.

After Christmas, I met with Bob Bernhardt (1971), Chivo’s organization president, and he assured me that there would be another Chivo reunion in 2026.   Bob explained that the next reunion would likely be in Myrtle Beach, SC.   He added that it would be shorter, probably 3 days, and not include pre-arranged tours or outside activities.   No one has been selected to host or plan the reunion.


* * * From The Quartermaster's Notebook * * *

Eternal Patrol . . .  Recently we learned that the following shipmates have passed away:


Binnacle List . . .   These shipmates are facing some serious challenges:


Damn the Torpedoes! Full Speed Ahead!

Originally the term torpedo was applied to a primitive explosive charge suspended by a float just below the surface of the water, like a contact mine.   During the American Civil War, the entrance to Mobile Bay in Alabama was protected by numerous torpedoes.   In August 1864, Admiral David Farragut led a squadron of Union ships into Mobile Bay.   When one of his ships struck a torpedo and sunk, the other ships began to falter and turn back.   That’s when Farragut shouted his famous words, “Damn the torpedoes . . . full speed ahead!”

The first submarine to sink a ship with a torpedo, this time an explosive attached to a spar, was the CSS Hunley.   She attacked and sunk the USS Housatonic on February 1864 in the harbor at Charleston, SC.

In 1866, Robert Whitehead, an English engineer, invented the first effective self-propelled torpedo.   French and German inventions and improvements followed closely.   As early as 1885, a successful wire guided, short range torpedo was being used throughout the British Empire for harbor defense.   By 1900 the term torpedo was only used to describe self-propelled projectiles that traveled under or on water, and it no longer included mines and booby-traps.

Torpedoes were widely used in WW I both against shipping and against submarines.   Twenty U-boats were sunk in WW I by torpedos.   Also in WW I people began thinking about dropping lightweight torpedos from aircraft.

On 17 August 1915 two Royal Navy seaplanes armed with aerial torpedos took part in the Gallipoli campaign.   Flight Commander Edmonds torpedoed and sank an Ottoman transport ship a few miles north of the Dardanelles.   His formation colleague, Flight Lieutenant Dacre, was forced to land on the water owing to engine trouble but, seeing an enemy tug close by, he taxied up to it and released his torpedo, sinking the tug.   Without the weight of the torpedo Dacre was able to take off and return to the seaplane tender.

In the years between WW I and WW II, financial stringency caused nearly all navies to skimp on testing new torpedoes and technologies.   The Japanese, an exception, continued testing and developing their Type 91 aerial torpedo, later used at Pearl Harbor, and the type 93 “Long Lance” torpedo.

The Best Torpedo in WW II - The Type 93, or “Long Lance,” was fired by Japanese cruisers and destroyers.   It is considered to be the best torpedo of WW II.   It had a longer range than any other torpedo, it was faster than other torpedoes, and it had a larger warhead than other torpedoes.   The type 93 was reliable and often surprised target ships that thought they were out of range.   One of the longest ranged torpedo hits in history was scored by the Type 93 when the heavy cruiser Haguro launched a torpedo from 22,000 yards at the battle of the Java Sea in 1942.

The Japanese type 95 torpedo was a submarine version of the long lance torpedo and slightly smaller.   It still had about three times the range of the MK-14 and was the fastest torpedo in common use by any navy during WW II.   It’s warhead size was the largest of any submarine torpedo.

And the Worst Torpedo in WW II - The U.S. Navy’s mark 14 torpedo was possibly the worst torpedo in the early years of World War II.   Initially, the mark 14 would often run about 10 feet deeper than the set depth, causing it to pass underneath its target.   The magnetic detonator would frequently detonate prematurely, causing the torpedo to explode before reaching its target.   The contact detonator would often fail to detonate the warhead, or would jam when it hit the side of a target ship.   And finally, the Mark 14 would sometimes run in a large circle instead of straightening out, which could cause it to return and strike the firing ship.   Bottom line, the Mark 14 had an estimated failure rate of 50–80%.

The Navy eventually solved some of the problems with the Mark 14, including the depth control valve and the firing pin weight of the contact detonator.   However, the magnetic detonator remained a problem, and was eventually abandoned in favor of the contact mechanism.

A HOLLYWOOD FOOTNOTE - Hedy Lamarr, 1914-2000, a beautiful Austrian born, American actress developed and patented a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes in WW II using frequency-hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers.   Although it was not pursued by the Navy, in the 1960s her invention led to the various spread-spectrum techniques incorporated in Bluetooth technology, GPS and versions of Wi-Fi.


* * * Current Chivo Board Members * * *

President

Bob Bernhardt (71 Decom)

rbern3469@yahoo.com

Vice President

Doug Plummer (68-70)

doug_plummer@yahoo.com

Treasurer

Bob Kuphal (64-66)

bob@kuphalcpa.com

Secretary

VACANT - Stan Pollard acting

Reunion Director

Your name could be here

Communications Director

Stan Pollard (68-71 Decom)

341.stan@gmail.com


The mission of the CHIVO Reunion Organization is:

  1. to perpetuate the memory of our shipmates and their deeds, to promote good fellowship and comradeship, and to pledge loyalty and patriotism to the United States of America.

  2. to participate in activities that foster recognition of the contributions made by  members of all Armed Forces and their families, both Past and Present, that uphold the spirit of the Declaration of Independence.

  3. to provide aid and comfort to service members in need.

We have no dues, and we have a lot of fun!



USS CHIVO (SS-341) Reunion Organization
All Hands Newsletter #109 – January 2025



[BACK to the Home Page]