For the families of the men lost aboard, the explanation of the sinking could not change the outcome.
But Kuykendall's survival ensured that the circumstances of the disaster would not remain entirely unknown.
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A Final Attack That Became One of the Navy's Most Tragic Lessons
The sinking of USS Tullibee remains one of the clearest examples of how a weapon malfunction could destroy the very vessel it was designed to protect.
The submarine had survived previous patrols, enemy attacks, and the hazards of operating thousands of miles from home.
Its crew had successfully located a Japanese convoy and maneuvered into position despite darkness, rain, and hostile escorts.
The attack was an ordinary part of the submarine's wartime mission.
The result was anything but ordinary.
Two torpedoes were launched.
Within approximately two minutes, the submarine was struck by a devastating explosion.
The only surviving witness believed that one of those torpedoes had turned back.
Later Navy assessments supported that conclusion, although the precise mechanical failure could not be verified from the lost vessel.
The tragedy illustrates a fundamental danger of submarine warfare: a crew could perform its duties correctly and still be destroyed by the failure of a single piece of machinery.
For Clifford Kuykendall, the consequences extended far beyond the sinking itself.
He survived the explosion, endured a night alone in the Pacific, was wounded and captured by Japanese forces, and spent the remainder of the war in captivity.
His eventual liberation allowed the Navy to reconstruct the final moments of a submarine that had vanished without explanation.
For the men who died, there was no such return.
Their submarine remains on eternal patrol.
The extraordinary circumstances of Tullibee's destruction have ensured that its name is remembered, but the lasting significance of the disaster lies in the human cost.
On March 26, 1944, an American submarine fired two torpedoes at an enemy convoy near Palau.
One of those weapons apparently circled back.
And in a matter of moments, a submarine built to hunt enemy ships was destroyed by the very weapon it had launched into the darkness.