Sherry Sontag;Christopher Drew by Blind Man's Bluff: The Untold Story Of American Submarine Espionage

Navy was watching for Soviet subs as well, but much of the surveillance was taking place just outside the natural bottleneck created by Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom. It was an enormous advantage for the United States. Soviet ships and subs had to pass through this chokepoint, the "GIUK" gap, to take the Atlantic route to the United States. A string of U.S. diesel subs were often stationed on "barrier ops" outside the gap, and British naval forces also kept watch for Soviet subs. In addition, the U.S. Navy had begun seeding both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts with underwater listening devices-creating an underwater eavesdropping net known as SOSUS, for sound surveil lance system-to detect ships and subs. Still, analysts trying to decipher the SOSUS recordings needed more data to be able to pick out the sounds of Soviet warships from all the background noise made by fishing trawlers and merchant ships. They needed a library of sound signatures, and that could best be created by sending spy subs to listen and record.

There was one other thing the Navy was looking for: a chance for retribution. It wanted to get the Soviets back for Gudgeon and other acts of harassment against U.S. subs. Admiral jerauld Wright, commander in chief of the Atlantic Fleet, posted a framed proclamation outside his office:
Whereas, the presence of unidentified submarines in the approaches to the United States has been frequently reported, and
Whereas, the submarines have been uncooperative in declaring either their identity or their intent as is required by the customs and usages of honorable seamen, and
Whereas, tangible evidence that these surreptitious operations are being conducted would result in appropriate embarrassment to those involved.
Therefore, I do hereby pledge to donate one case of Jack Daniels Old No. 7 Brand of Quality Tennessee Sour Mash Corn Whiskey, made as our fathers made it for seven generations at the oldest registered whiskey distillery in the United States, established 1866, to the first Scene of Action Commander in the Atlantic who produces evidence that a "non U.S. or known friendly" submarine has been worn out.
/s/ Jerauld Wright
Admiral, U.S. Navy
In May 1959, Wright declared a winner. The USS Grenadier (SS-525) chased a Soviet submarine near Iceland for nine hours before forcing it to surface, completely "worn out." Grenadier's skipper, Lieutenant Commander Theodore F. Davis, got the whiskey, and the Navy had surfaced its first Soviet sub.
More important, the Navy also had its first good look at a Soviet missile boat. Davis had trapped one of the Zulus that had been converted to carry missiles. He also brought home photographs and sound tapes, and the Navy quietly broadcast his success all over Washington. In fact, later that year President Eisenhower's special assistant for science and technology, George B. Kistiakowsky, noted in his diary that he had received "a very interesting account of the ways in which our Navy gets intimate information on the Soviet naval activities," a briefing that was so "hush-hush" he couldn't put it on paper. "Someday," he mused, "it will make a very exciting news story."

Something else came out of these dogfights as well. There was a growing realization on both sides that as much as the snorkel had revolutionized submarine warfare, it had massive limitations. As long as submarines could be held down and their crews choked, they were still too vulnerable. For the U.S. sub force, it was clear that Rickover's nuclear navy could no longer remain a curiosity. It was time for his submarines to move to center stage.
Rickover's revolutionary boats had a seemingly endless source of power. Reactors split atoms and turned water into steam, steam enough to power a propeller shaft and run a submarine longer and faster than any diesel boat ever could. They also could generate their own oxygen and scrub excess carbon dioxide from their air. Hold downs would no longer be a threat. These boats