USS Seawolf hydrogen cracking

Tom's role as one of five outside experts brought in by the Navy in 1991–92 to advise on the Electric Boat HY-100 weld failures. His report uniquely concluded the cause was dirty welding wire (drawing-lubricant contamination, worse on smaller-diameter wire due to higher surface-to-volume ratio). Eighteen percent of the hull was riddled with sixteenth-inch under-bead cracks in weld metal, discovered when a grinder noticed swarf aligning magnetically.