Lombok Strait was a deep but current-ridden route for submarines operating from Australia. Beach recalled wartime reports of boats spending hours at maximum sustained submerged speed and then surfacing to discover they had gone backwards. Japanese patrol vessels and aircraft watched the passage, where USS Bullhead was most likely destroyed on 6 August 1945. Her commander had been Beach's Naval Academy and submarine-school classmate, and the two men had begun their first patrols as captains within days of one another. Beach connected Bullhead's probable loss to a Japanese aircraft's report of attacking a submarine at the position Triton crossed. During the transit, apparently small naval or coastguard craft also proved difficult to track because each periscope observation found them on a different heading.
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Lombok Strait's wartime submarine route and USS Bullhead
Strong currents and Japanese wartime patrols made Lombok Strait a difficult submarine route, while crossing Bullhead's probable loss position recalled Beach's friendship with her commander.