6. Torpedoes That Ran Too Deep
The Mark 14 Torpedo’s magnetic detonator was a potentially revolutionary weapon. However, secrecy and frugality led the US Navy to test only two detonators on live torpedo runs. One of them failed to detonate, and the torpedo continued on harmlessly beneath the target ship. Despite a 50% failure rate, the Navy went ahead and approved the weapon for general use. The Mark 14 was put into mass production, and issued to the US submarine fleet as its standard weapon in 1938. That was negligence. What took it from that to sheer evil was how the bureaucrats responded when the consequences of their negligence cropped up.
The torpedo’s flaws became apparent within the first weeks of hostilities. Submarine commanders correctly reported that the Mark 14 often failed to maintain accurate depth to pass within the correct distance beneath an enemy ship’s keel before detonation. The USS Sargo, for example, fired eight Mark 14s at two enemy ships on December 24, 1941, but not a single one went off. Its commander tried his luck with two more ships that hove into view, but again, the torpedoes failed to explode. A few days later, he discovered the torpedoes ran too deep. When the problem persisted with yet another target, the Sargo’s exasperated skipper broke radio silence to question the Mark 14’s reliability. Other submarine skippers voiced similar complaints.
