FWIW, one of the theories of why
USS Scorpion was lost was a particular mode of battery failure/malfunction. I heard rumor of this while I was still in the Navy, but there is so much unknown about that loss that it's "just one more possible cause" not a smoking gun.
In a section from this 2014 book titled "The Danger of Culture," retired
U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Dave Oliver offers the theory based on his own experiences that it was possibly a hydrogen explosion, either during or immediately following a battery charge, that destroyed USS
Scorpion and killed her crew. The proximate cause in that scenario would have been the procedural carryover from diesel boat days wherein the boat was effectively rigged for collision—with subsequent changes in ventilation flow and watertight condition—before proceeding to periscope depth by way of setting "Condition Baker." Oliver had personally witnessed dangerously high percent-hydrogen spikes under such conditions aboard a nuclear submarine, specifically while going to periscope depth and setting Condition Baker during a battery charge. Diesel boats, on the other hand, were not capable of doing a battery charge while deeply submerged, but were instead dealing with the risk of collision while on anti-surface ship operations when proceeding to periscope depth while in or near shipping lanes.
In regard to
NAVSEA responsibility, he further states: "I always felt that the investigators closed their eyes to the most likely cause because they did not want to acknowledge their own involvement in this tragedy. I had forwarded my letter about Condition Baker via some of the same people responsible for the
Scorpion investigation."
Granted, Scorpion was a nuke boat, not a diesel boat.