[Vic Furney] and his crew were given a briefing by U.S. navy officers detailing how the Scorpion had been shadowing a Soviet submarine for several days. "The fear was that there had been an underwater collision," he told [Ed Offley].

Furney was adamant the navy intelligence officers who briefed his crew had told them the Scorpion was engaged in a running encounter with a Russian submarine. What was important for Offley was that Furney's information was essentially the same as what he had already heard from five U.S. military personnel assigned to either submarines or surface ships.

In an interview with the Ottawa Citizen, Furney said he believes the Scorpion sank after an altercation with the Russian sub. But he doesn't buy into Offley's theory the Soviet boat fired off a torpedo which destroyed the U.S. sub.