New London (CT) Day Saturday, 10 September 2005   Damage To Groton-based Sub Is Worse Than Expected USS Philadelphia, Turkish ship collided By ROBERT A. HAMILTON Day Staff Writer, Navy/Defense/Electric Boat Groton - The collision between the USS Philadelphia and a Turkish merchant ship in the Persian Gulf this week left the two ships entangled, unable to separate for more than an hour, Navy sources said.  In addition, a preliminary assessment of the damage has shown that it is more extensive than indicated earlier and that some major repairs could be necessary.   The worst damage includes a rather large hole in the rudder, scoring on at least one propeller blade, damage to a periscope and damage to the fairwater planes, the large fins on the sail of the submarine that help it maintain depth control when it is submerged, the sources said.   There is a fairly long list of other damage as well, the sources said. The hull has a small dent, the housing for the towed sonar array was crumpled, some sound-absorbing tiles were ripped up and a number of scrapes were left along the length of the ship.   The Philadelphia has been modified to carry a dry-deck shelter used by Special Forces to exit the submarine with their gear while the boat is submerged. It was not on board at the time, but the mounting gear was damaged in the collision, so the accident could have been more serious had it been in place, the sources said.   A Navy spokesman in Washington, D.C., referred questions about the accident to the Fifth Fleet office in Bahrain, where officials were unavailable for comment late Friday because of the time difference.   Sources have said the 625-foot, 52,000-ton freighter M/V Yaso Aysen was coming up behind the submarine about 30 miles off the Bahrain coast at 2 a.m. Monday when it apparently ran right up over the back of the ship, scraping along the starboard side of the hull.   The freighter sustained a rip in its hull about 100 feet long, and was in a shipyard in Bahrain awaiting repairs this week. The submarine, 360 feet long and barely one-eighth the displacement of the Aysen, was on its way to Bahrain for a scheduled port call and continued there under its own power. It is in a shipyard undergoing a damage assessment, officials have said.   The Navy is investigating the accident, and has taken no action against anyone on the Philadelphia. The service has said it cannot comment on damages until an initial assessment is completed.   Philadelphia left Groton last spring for a six-month mission in the Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf, and was in the final weeks of the deployment at the time of the accident.   Navy officials have been unable to say how long Philadelphia might be in the Bahrain shipyard, or where any repairs might be done.