Received from Jim Ring in April 2010.

On April 15th, I (Jim Ring) went to a seminar on Ocean Surveillance During the Cold War.  Very interesting how the Navy used the Sosus system, Patrol Aircraft and Submarines to keep track of the Soviet Subs.  While there I was presented with a recent analysis of the loss of SCORPION.  As you know, we lost three classmates in the loss, Gorge Farrin, Chuck Lamberth, and Jack Burke, my Plebe summer roommate.  Jack was a great guy, who had two small children when he was lost.  The Class Foundation helped both of those children with grants for college.
Here is the summary of the analysis.  

When the SCORPION was lost in the East Central Atlantic on May 22, 1968, the event produced a series of acoustic signals detected by seafloor sensors on both sides of the Atlantic.  
The US. Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC) determined the point of origin of theses SCORPION signals by comparing the detection times at three sensor sites.  The derived position was where the SCORPION wreckage was subsequently discovered at a depth of 11,100 ft. CNO acknowledged the AFTAC contribution.
The first reanalysis of the SCORPION acoustic data in 40 years identified the following new information in 2008 and 2009.  

       - The initiating  events responsible for  the loss of SCORPION were two small explosions that occurred 1/2 of a second apart at 18.20:44Z and were contained within the submarine's pressure hull.  The source of these explosions, which are estimated to the explosions of not more than 22 lbs. of TNT each, cannot be determined from analysis of the acoustic data.  
       - These explosive events prevented the crew from maintaining depth control.  SCORPION slowly sank to to 1530 feet at which depth the pressure hull and all internal bulkheads collapsed at 18:42:34Z (almost 22 minutes) in 1/10 of a second with a force equal to the explosion of 13,200 lbs. of TNT at 1530 feet.
        - This energy was produced by essentially instantaneous coversion of potential energy in the form of 680 psi pressure on the entire SCORPION hull to kinetic energy, the motion of the intruding water-ram which ented the pressure hull at supersonic velocity.
         - During the 111.6 second period when it was conjectured in 1968 that SCORPION had reversed course to deactivate a torpedo that had become active in the lauch tube, the horizontal position of the submarine changed less that 100 feet. The time of detection based analysis refutes the course reversal/active torpedo theory.
         - During the 200 second period following pressure hul collapse, 17 additional acoustic events were detected.  These events were produced by more pressure resistant structures that survived with the wreckage to collapse at greater depth.  Six of the events were produced by the collapse of the SCORPION  torpedo tubes near the following depths: 3370, 3750, 3950. 4510, and 4570 feet.  
         - There were no explosions from a torpedo or any other source external to the SCORPION pressure hull.  SCORPION was lost because of an on-board problem problem (the two internal explosions) the crew could not overcome.
         - There was no involvement by Soviet forces as conjectured in two popular accounts of the loss of SCORPION.  There were no acoustic detections of a torpedo as would have occurred had a Soviet weapon operated at 40 knots as postulated by one account.  
         - This information was provide to the CNO, Commander Submarine Force, ONI, and the Naval History and Heritage Command.
         - This analysis was prepared by Bruce Rule, former Scientific and Technical Consultant on Acoustics to ONI.

This information is available online if you look at Bruce Rule Scorpion.