An American scientist considered critical in the launch and operation of the SOFAR Station in St David’s has died at the age of 91.

Gordon Ross Hamilton died in a Rockville, Maryland nursing home last week.

Dr Hamilton studied physics at Princeton before enlisting with the Navy as a midshipman in 1943.

He moved to Bermuda in 1948 with his wife to set up the SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Radar) Station in St David’s, adjacent to the Kindley Air Force Base. The station was used to detect nuclear test explosions, submarine traffic and missile splashes through underwater microphones.

In 1968, Dr Hamilton played a key role in tracking down the USS Scorpion, a nuclear submarine which disappeared in the Eastern Atlantic. Dr Hamilton and his team examined recordings from microphones attached to 24-hour recording devices in Bermuda, Cape Canaveral and the Canary Islands, and were able to identify the sounds of the descent and implosion of the Scorpion’s various compartments as it sank.

While contract work took him across the world, Dr Hamilton continued to live in Bermuda until 1972 when he became Director of Naval Research at the US Office of Naval Research.

He is survived by his second wife, Mickey, daughter Elizabeth, son Gregg, his grandchildren and stepchildren.