17. Guam was surveyed by photographic means as Triton passed
Guam was a point of special attention for Triton. It was at the time scheduled to serve as the advanced base in the Pacific Ocean for the Polaris submarines (Holy Loch, in Scotland, and Rota, Spain, were the advanced sites for the North Atlantic and Mediterranean, respectively). As such, it could be expected to be under surveillance by Soviet submarines at some point in what was then the future. Triton photographed Guam extensively, albeit furtively. Late that night an aircraft was detected on radar, evidently closing on Triton. Accordingly, Beach ordered Triton deep to avoid detection. That night red and green lights were reported during a star sighting.
Beach feared the submarine had been spotted, possibly by an American airplane operating out of Guam, and again ordered Triton to go deep. A few hours later, during another attempted start sighting, the same red and green lights were reported on the same bearing. It was agreed that the “airplane” was the star Arcturus, which was on the same bearing, and which sometimes appeared red and green due to the refraction caused by water spray, or droplets on the scope. With the fathometer again out of commission and deemed unrepairable out of drydock, Triton relied on its active sonar to follow the ocean’s bottom as it steered for the Philippine Trench and the islands where Beach had extensive service during the Second World War.