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A nuclear submarine burns in Maine in May. The fire turned out to be arson and caused $400 million in damage.

A former painter at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine who admitted using a cigarette lighter to ignite a fire that caused about $400 million in damage to a U.S. Navy nuclear submarine simply to get out of work pleaded guilty on Thursday to arson.

The blaze set by Casey James Fury, 24, in May aboard the attack submarine USS Miami, which was in dry dock for repairs at the shipyard in Kittery, Maine, burned for 12 hours and injured five emergency responders battling the flames.

Fury, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty in federal court in Portland, Maine as part of a deal with prosecutors.

He also was charged with setting a second fire in June near the submarine that was quickly extinguished, according to prosecutors.

The prosecution and Fury agreed to request a sentence of between 15 and 24 years. The charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison and a fine equivalent to the damage caused.

During an investigation by the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service, Fury admitted he used a cigarette lighter to ignite a vacuum cleaner and a pile of rags in a stateroom of the Miami.

AP

Casey Fury is seen in a file booking photo provided by the Dover, N.H., police.

"The reason he set the fire was in order to get out of work," said NCIS special agent Jeremy Gauthier.

He added that Fury told investigators he was taking a variety of medications for anxiety, depression, allergies and insomnia at the time of the first incident.

Fury also said he was anxious about a text conversation with his former girlfriend and wanted to leave work when he set the second blaze, according to court papers.

Repairs to the submarine will not be completed until 2015, and the Navy plans to use the vessel for 10 years after that, the U.S. Defense Department said in August.

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BOSTON -- Divers have discovered a World War II-era German submarine nearly 70 years after it sank under withering U.S. attack in waters off Nantucket.

The U-550 was found Monday by a privately funded group organized by New Jersey lawyer Joe Mazraani.

"They’ve looked for it for over 20 years,” Mazraani, a shipwreck diver, told The Boston Globe. “It’s another World War II mystery solved.”

In the second trip in two years to the site by the team, the seven-man crew using side-scan sonar located the wreck listing to its side in deep water about 70 miles south of Nantucket.

Sonar operator Garry Kozak said he spotted the 252-foot submarine during the second of an exhausting two days of searching. Kozak said the team asked him if they'd found it, then erupted in joy without a word from him.

"They could see it with the grin (on my face) and the look in my eyes," Kozak said.

The crew had searched 100 square miles of ocean, the Globe reported. Traveling at five knots, the ship scanned the vast expanse for signs of the sunken vessel, a tedious process crew members likened to “mowing the lawn.”

Mazraani dove down to confirm the discovery with pictures, the Globe said.

On April 16, 1944, the U-550 torpedoed the gasoline tanker SS Pan Pennsylvania, which had lagged behind its protective convoy as it set out with 140,000 barrels of gasoline for Great Britain, according to the U.S. Coast Guard website and research by Mazraani.

AP

This sonar image provided by GK Consulting & AWS Expeditions/Joe Mazraani, shows a World War II-era German submarine U-550, found by a team of explorers Monday on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean 70 miles south of Nantucket Island, Mass.

The U-boat slipped under the doomed tanker to hide. But one of the tanker's three escorts, the USS Joyce, saw it on sonar and severely damaged it by dropping depth charges.

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The Germans, forced to surface, manned their deck guns while another escort vessel, the USS Gandy, returned fire and rammed the U-boat. The third escort, the USS Peterson, then hit the U-boat with two more depth charges. The crew abandoned the submarine, but not before setting off explosions to scuttle it. The submarine hadn't been seen again until Monday.

The U-550 is one of several World War II-era German U-boats that have been discovered off the U.S. coast, but it's the only one that sank in that area, Mazraani said. He said it's been tough to find largely because military positioning of the battle was imprecise, and searchers had only a general idea where the submarine was when it sank. Kozak noted that the site is far offshore and has only limited windows of good weather.

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The other team members were Steve Gatto, Tom Packer, Brad Sheard, Eric Takakjian and Anthony Tedsechi

Mazraani is cagey about the vessel's precise location, saying only that it's in deep water. Mazraani's said his best estimate was that the team spent thousands of dollars of its own money on the expedition. He joked that no one on the team, whose members range in age from the mid-20s to mid-50s, stands to make money from the find unless someone writes a book.

Mazraani said the next step is to contact any sailors or their families from the escort vessels, the tanker and the German U-boat to share the news and show the pictures. Another trip to the site is coming, he said, adding the investigation has just started.

"The history behind it all is really what drives us," Mazraani said.

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press.

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A gay sailor on a Navy nuclear submarine was hazed for months about his sexuality, including being called "Brokeback" in reference to the movie about homosexual cowboys, according to a news report.

The sailor endured the hazing, believing it would get better over time. But it eventually led him to contemplate suicide and he feared he could snap and hurt someone else or himself, he wrote in a note, The Associated Press reported, citing an investigative report it had obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.

The hazing occurred in 2011 aboard the Kings Bay, Ga.-based USS Florida. The vessel's top enlisted officer, Master Chief Machinist's Mate Charles Berry, was fired over the case due to dereliction of duty, the Navy said on March 30. In his role as chief of the boat, Berry had to consult the commanding officer of issues surrounding enlisted sailors.

The sailor who was targeted for abuse was well-liked, and his fellow sailors did not realize the toll that the remarks -- including being called a derogatory name for someone who is gay -- were having on him, AP reported.

While docked at the Diego Garcia port in the Indian Ocean, another man attempted to rape him and threatened him with a knife, the report said.

Several junior officers involved in the hazing were subject to disciplinary action, such as loss of pay and rank. There was a culture of hazing and sexual harassment on the vessel and not enough knowledge about Navy policies to prevent the abuse, the Navy report said.

"The Navy's standards for personal behavior are very high and it demands that sailors are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve," the Navy said in a March 30 statement. "When individuals fall short of this standard of professionalism and personal behavior, the Navy will take swift and decisive action to stop undesirable behavior, protect victims and hold accountable those who do not meet its standards." 

Hank Nuwer, who has done decades of research on hazing in schools and the military, said it was "a significant and positive response by the Navy in regard to requiring a chain of command to take responsibility in the event of a substantial hazing allegation."

However, he said, the Navy might consider moving up its timetable when an allegation of hazing is reported aboard such a vessel since victims were stuck in the close quarters with nowhere to go nor hide.

" ... getting a culture of change with regard to Navy hazing is going to take many years, if at all," he wrote in an email to msnbc.com. "Such 'traditions' as having Navy people crossing the equator or reaching a certain petty officer rank were winked on by Navy brass so long that completely eradicating hazing stands about as much a small chance as there is eradicating hazing in college fraternity life."

Msnbc.com's Miranda Leitsinger contributed to this report.

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A fire that broke out Wednesday evening on a U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine docked at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Maine injured at least seven people but there were no deaths, a Navy spokesman said on Thursday.

Damage from the fire, which began shortly before 6 p.m. on the USS Miami, an attack submarine docked at the Kittery, Maine, shipyard, was limited to the forward compartment spaces, which include living as well as command and control spaces, Rear Admiral Rick Breckenridge said in a statement.

The submarine was undergoing maintenance.

Breckenridge, who is in charge of submarines in the region, said the ship's nuclear reactor has been shut down for more than two months and remained in safe and stable condition throughout the event. There were no weapons on board in the torpedo room, he said.

The cause of the fire has not yet been identified, Breckenridge said. A full investigation is taking place.

The fire spread to spaces within the submarine that were difficult to reach, Breckenridge said, making it challenging for firefighters to battle the blaze. The fire was brought under control by Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's department, along with several area fire departments. It took hours for the blaze to be extinguished.

The injured personnel included three Portsmouth Naval Shipyard firefighters, two crew members and two civilian firefighters providing support. They were either treated on scene or taken to a local medical facility. All have been released.

The submarine, whose home port is Groton, Conn., arrived at the shipyard in March. It is worth about $600 million, typically carries a crew of 13 officers and 120 enlisted personnel, and is armed with Tomahawk missiles.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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