Our Next Sennet Reunion . . .
John McMichael (64-68) has generously volunteered to host our next reunion.   He is researching locales in Texas for a reunion in the fall of this year.   That’s all I can tell you for now, but just as soon as I get a date, I’ll send out a message, so you can plan to attend.

Donations . . .
Contributions from our generous supporters help make our newsletters, website and reunions possible.   Simply said, they reunite friends.   Make your check payable to: USS Sennet SS-408 Reunion Fund and mail to Ralph Luther.   His address is below.

Ship's Store . . .
Ralph Luther stocks a limited supply of Sennet unique submarine items like:

T-Shirts – Size XXL only - Navy blue shirts with the Sennet logo embroidered above the pocket and a submarine veteran screen print on the back - $22
Hoodies – Size XXL only - Submarine veteran screen printed on back - $30
Ball caps - $14
Ships patches (cloth) - $5
Submarine wife pins - $5

Prices do not include postage.   Contact Ralph Luther by email for availability and total cost.   All revenue goes 100% into the Reunion Fund.   Make checks payable to: USS Sennet SS-408 Reunion Fund and mail to:

USS Sennet SS-408
c/o Ralph Luther
107 Wood Side Dr.
Summerville, SC 29485-9301

Email:   rluther107@gmail.com

Eternal Patrol . . .  Recently we learned of the passing of these shipmates:

EM2(SS) Jerry D. Ballard (1959-1960) departed November 01, 2021.
LTJG Charles E. Bricker (1962-1964) departed October 09, 2024.

EN2(SS) Maynard P. Dally (1952-1953) departed March 07, 2015.
EM3(SS) Danny L. Davis (1959-1960) departed August 23, 2022.

TM2(SS) Jimmy L. Dean (1958-1963) departed May 24, 2024.
ICFN(SS) Dennis F. Dennehy (1962-1963) departed December 03, 2022.

STS3(SS) Thomas M. Glynn, III (1968) departed July 21, 2024.
IC3(SS) Robert J. Grimshaw (1954-1955) departed August 27, 2024.

FT1(SS) Raymond A. Lindsay (1953-1955) departed August 31, 2023.
SO2(SS) Jon D. Lindskog (1961-1963) departed January 27, 2021.

HM1(SS) Marion C. Littlejohn (19162-1966) departed July o8, 2021.
RM2(SS) Gerald L. Peck (1960-1963) departed June 05, 2024.

SN(SS) Harold R. Pottker (1952-1953) departed May 26, 2023.
RM3(SS) Douglas W. Stanaland (1959-1961) departed September 19, 2020.

We will remember our other departed shipmates at our reunion Memorial Service.
Special thanks to Ron & Connie Bycroft (1966-68) who send condolence cards to the families of deceased crew members.

Binnacle List . . .  These shipmates are facing some serious challenges and would like to hear from you.   A simple email, card or phone call means so much to them.   Find out more info about your friends on the Sennet web site page “Binnacle List.”

RM2(SS) Robert J. “Bob” Mullin (1958-1960) has Alzheimer's and lives in a memory care facility in Rutland, VT.   Cards or letters may be sent to his son, and he will share them with Bob.
Robert Mullin
c/om Kevin Mullin
118 Ox Yoke Dr.
Rutland,mVT 05701-9301

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 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.   Its 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.

Green Board,

Stan Pollard

USS SENNET (SS-408)
All Hands Newsletter