Sub Snags Cable and Sinks Tug; 1 Crewman Lost

A nuclear-powered Navy submarine involved in the making of the film “The Hunt for Red October” accidentally sank a tugboat early Wednesday when it snagged the vessel’s tow cable and yanked the boat under water about 10 miles southwest of Long Beach.

One crewman of the tugboat Barcona was missing and presumed dead late Wednesday, despite a daylong search that involved four Coast Guard vessels, two helicopters and the Houston--the submarine involved in the accident.

The search was suspended shortly before nightfall.

Two other Barcona crewmen jumped into the fog-shrouded sea and managed to swim to an empty barge their tug had been towing. Later, the two survivors told investigators of moments of terror--how their 97-ton, 73-foot tug was jolted backward and sunk by what seemed an unknown, invisible force.

Film Work

The Houston, a fast-attack submarine based in San Diego, this week was to assist in the filming of “The Hunt for Red October,” a tale of a Soviet submarine commander’s defection to the United States, said Lt. Sonja Hedley, a spokeswoman for the Naval Submarine Base at San Diego.

“But this incident had absolutely nothing to do with Hollywood or with the filming,” Hedley emphasized.

Navy officials said the submarine suffered no damage.

Shooting had been planned for later in the day. But there were no actors or film crew members present when the accident occurred.

Hedley said the Houston was submerged when it caught the tow cable linking the Barcona to two empty barges at about 4:45 a.m. Navy officials refused to disclose the submarine’s depth, speed, whether it was in descent when the accident occurred or whether its sensors should have detected the Barcona’s 1,000-foot steel cable.

Hedley said the accident will be investigated by the Coast Guard and the Navy and that no further details will be released until the investigation is completed.

The sinking of the Barcona was described in an interview by Cmdr. Donald Parsons, chief of investigations for the Coast Guard’s Los Angeles-Long Beach group, and in a press conference by Ralph Larison, president of Connolly-Pacific Co., a marine construction firm that owns the tugboat and employs the crew.

Both men had talked with the two survivors, Barcona captain Mike Link, 37, of Norco and deckhand Daniel Rodriguez, 37, of San Pedro. Bryan Ballanger, 32, married and the father of two children, was last seen going below deck to check on the Barcona’s engines, moments before the boat went under in 2,500-foot-deep waters.

Ballanger was piloting the vessel through a thick fog at about 6 knots, while Link and Rodriguez were asleep below deck when the accident occurred. This was standard practice, Larison said. Ballanger was a licensed tugboat pilot.

Broke Windows

“They were jerked backward with such a force that water came over the stern of the boat, and the rear windows were knocked out,” Larison said.

The tug’s crew members estimated that they were being towed backward at about 10 knots.

Link went above deck to talk with Ballanger, Parsons said, but neither could understand what was happening to their boat. The pilot then decided to check the engine room.

“The tug was pulled down and sank,” Parsons said. “It happened in less than one minute.”

As the tug started sinking fast, Rodriguez jumped overboard, and Link followed moments later.

“They got off the boat and came to the surface, and their boat was gone,” Parsons said.

Link and Rodriguez were in the water about 15 minutes before reaching one of the empty barges cut adrift by the submarine. They pulled themselves onto the barge and waited about two hours before being picked up by a passing fishing boat.

‘Real Shook Up’

“They’re in good shape physically but real shook up mentally,” Larison said of the two survivors.

Link, through his wife, declined to comment on the accident.

Reached at his San Pedro home, Rodriguez said he had been told by his employers not to talk about the incident.

“It was just a dream you couldn’t wake up out of,” Rodriguez said. “I’m OK. . . . I’m going to go walk on the beach.”

Connolly-Pacific is a builder of marinas and underwater reefs. The Barcona was en route from its home port of Long Beach to the eastern tip of Santa Catalina Island, where the barges were to be filled with rock from an island quarry for the 147-acre expansion of Pier J in Long Beach Harbor.

The Houston, after assisting in the search for Ballanger, returned Wednesday to the submarine base at Point Loma in San Diego.

In the movie based on Tom Clancy’s best-selling suspense novel, “The Hunt for Red October,” the Houston portrays a U.S. submarine, the Dallas. Producer Mace Neufield bought the movie rights and later won the cooperation of then-U.S. Navy Secretary John Lehman.

Navy officials occasionally permit movie and television producers to make use of Navy vessels but rarely allow access to nuclear-powered submarines.

However, Navy officials said they hoped “Red October,” starring Sean Connery and Scott Glenn, would provide a boost in enlistments for duty aboard submarines and surface ships, just as the movie “Top Gun” brought a flood of enlistments for the Navy aviation program. A Navy spokesman said Paramount Studios is charged $400 an hour for the period in which the Houston is used.

Marsha Robertson, a Paramount spokeswoman, said the Houston had last been used during filming in April off Port Angeles, Wash. There were hopes to use the Houston again this week off Los Angeles if the weather were suitably gray, she said. The director was planning to film the Houston making an “emergency blow,” a maneuver in which a sub makes a fast ascent to the surface.

The Coast Guard cutter Blackhaw, also scheduled to be used in the filming, was in the area of Wednesday’s accident, according to Petty Officer 2nd Class Brad Smith, a Coast Guard spokesman in Long Beach. The Blackhaw, based in San Francisco, is to be painted to resemble a Soviet vessel and has been tied up at the Coast Guard Support Center at Terminal Island, Smith said.

It left Terminal Island on Wednesday to aid in the search operation, he said.

Times staff writer Jane Fritsch and researcher Tracy Thomas contributed to this article.

TUG PULLED TO BOTTOM The tugboat Barcona sank 12 miles off Point Fermin at a depth of 2,500 ft.

Tugboat Barcona was en route from its home port of Long Beach to Santa Catalina Island, towing two barges to be to be filled with rock from a island quarry.

The Houston, a fast-attack submarine based in San Diego, was submerged when it caught the 1,000-foot tow cable linking the Barcona to the barges about 4:45 a.m. The tug was pulled down and sank in about a minute. Two crewmen were rescued; one is missing.

The Houston was assisting in the filming of the movie “The Hunt for Red October,” but a Navy spokeswoman said the incident had nothing to do with the filming.