Weekend Exposure: USS Torsk SS-423

It's hard for me to believe that we didn't but it is not in my memory bank at all. We were there for the 4th of July fireworks shot from the harbor. I remember being very much in love with my husband, the subs and all the smoke from the fireworks. But the submarines are what left the impression.

Also it was first true face to face with homeless men. And I was very unafraid and greeting them all. The tour group we were with did not feel the same way and I was constantly getting chastised to be more careful.

Ladies, there are NO steps on a ship. All of those are called "ladders", lubbers climb 'stairs', sailors climb ladders.

The hatches, (Not doors) are no taller on a nuclear sub, you learn to duck after a while.

Also, those are not 'bunks', they are called, quite correctly, 'racks'.

4 years aboard the USS Bluefish (SSN675)

(clipped to "Dolphins on Your Chest" group.)

There are more racks on a nuclear sub and hotbunking is seldom a big problem. There is a large compartment in the nose cone with about 64 bunks. There is a small cabin for the chiefs to bunk in, called 'the Goat Locker' because it's where all the old goats sleep. First class quarters (e-6's) contained about 2 dozen bunks. The 'six man' was a small bunk room for overflow from the officers quarters (rare) or from first class quarters. I was the most junior first class aboard by about 2 years so that is where I bunked. The Captain and XO had their own, very small, cabins, and there were 5 officer ward rooms that had 2 or 3 officers per room. During sea trials, after a big shipyard overhaul, during certain certification type things there will be many extra people aboard from the shipyard or something. In that case extra racks could be set up in the torpedo room. They were made with special bases that could be clipped into the torpedo racks. I've seen as many as 20 men sleeping in the torpedo room.

I always wanted to tour a diesel boat, I have been on several SSN's, while I served on the USS Howard W. Gilmore (AS-16), in '79-'80 in the repair dept., While stationed in La Madd, Italy..

Submariners are a special breed.

I read about the 505 when I was in the Navy, 1971.

That was a fascinating story from beginning to end.

I thought the coolest part was getting it to its final resting place.

For a while those U-boats had the world by the ass, but when it went the other way, they paid hard.

That was neat, and the accompanying videos were also interesting.

This is our little submarine in Portsmouth N H

USS Albacore. The fastest.

http://ussalbacore.org/html/welcome_aboard.html

but when it went the other way, they paid hard.

Yeah, a 95% casualty rate is pretty hard. The guys on the 505 were lucky because they came to the surface and abandoned. Usually 95% means that 95% of the ships putting to sea are sunk. In a sub, most of the time, the casualties on that boat are 100% dead, no wounded, no prisoners. However, their ship did get captured (first time since 1814 that a US Navy ship captured an enemy warship). The Captain was ostracized by the other German sub captains for the rest of his life, not so much because she was captured but because ALL THE GERMAN NAVAL CODES WERE STILL ON BOARD.

etva,

I didn't get any shots of the interior (camera batteries went dead) and I wanted to hurry anyway since Barb was waiting outside in a wheelchair. There's no way you could get a wheelchair through there. I did get some fairly good shots of the exterior though and some displays of gear removed from the ship. Maybe that would make a nice article and I could get exterior shots that aren't available with most ships. Interestingly enough, she was captured on June 6, 1944, while the world's attention was directed elsewhere. I'll see about setting it up tomorrow. I think I might add some other stuff from the other parts of the museum too. It's a fascinating place (one day is not enough to see it all). Never thought about using that trip for an article; it was mostly for medical purposes.

I've got some exteriors of the 505 that are incredible. Think of standing under the stern and looking up at the screws and the two torpedo tubes above them. I've also got a couple of shots from the lobby Christmas exhibit of what my granddaughter calls "the guys". That's a gingerbread copy of the museum with Muppets standing all around it, made by the children of the employees for Christmas.

Albacore fans celebrate submarine park's 25th anniversary

Up until the time the Albacore was launched in 1953, submarines were built to use mainly as surface ships with going underwater an afterthought, explained John Maier, executive director of Albacore Park. With the Cold War and competition with Russia, the Navy decided they needed to build a submarine for underwater purposes. Maier said they were looking to build something that was not only fast underwater, but quiet and could maneuver well. The result was the Alabacore.

The diesel-electric submarine redefined the craft with its teardrop design that was similar to a blimp and allowed for extremely high speeds underwater. At a little over 203 feet in length, the submarine has never held weapons and was strictly used for research including testing control systems, dive breaks, sonar systems, and escape mechanisms. Its motto has stood over time as "Praenuntius Futuri" or "Forerunner of the Future" and, as Butch Jordan explained, the vessel has come to serve as the prototype for all modern submarines. Its designs were even adopted into the Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine.

In its existence, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard has built 134 submarines and the Albacore had the honor of being the 119th one.

"This is truly a unique vessel," Jordan said. "It's the only of its kind anywhere in the world. It's Portsmouth-built all the way. It's built by the craftsmen of the Porstmouth Naval Shipyard. Every time there was a modification or change, it was done in Portsmouth." While the ship never was in combat, it still had its fair share of excitement including being caught in the middle of a hurricane in November 1967.

I'm quite familiar with the Connie. Helped tie her up a few times and we sailed together (attached to Constellation carrier group) a few times, too.

Never been aboard, though. That would be fun.

Thanks for the article!

That predates my naval service by a couple of years.

Indeed it could for Jay. That, and the fact that he had his taste buds shot off in a war.

I know they slept on rotation, but still, the berths lined the hull and people would be passing constantly. It must have been very difficult to get used to the life style and conditions.

That's called 'hot bunking', one man gets up and the next slides into the rack before it goes cool.

One thing that seldom comes up in polite conversation, (so I'll bring it up) is the lack of fresh water for anything as frivolous as bathing and washing clothes regularly. The smell aboard after a long deployment is something you have to experience to believe.

I brought a big bag of dirty clothes home once after deployment and threw it down in front of the washing machine. My mom opened it up a day later and the smell permeated the entire house.

Modern subs have washing machines and (a) shower but there is not always enough fresh water for regular bathing. Engine room water first, cooking water second, every thing else last.

etva,

Generally, at sea, there are three watches, so on a sub, that means that 1/3 of the crew would be asleep at any given time. On a surface ship, it works much the same except that sleeping is done only at night (they find other, less pleasant things for you to do when you're not on watch during the day). In a combat area the watches drop to two and half the crew is on watch at any time. This means that damage control stations, engines and guns are manned by half the crew and are ready for instant action at all times. In port, there are usually five or six watch sections, depending on how many people are available. Space in a submarine is severely limited because everything had to be inside the pressure hull, the size of which was limited by engineering considerations. That means a sub is cramped. Surface ships are only limited by considerations of speed, weight, power available and range desired, so they have more room for creature comforts. We used the term bunk or rack interchangeably since our ship had the newer style bunk. These were fixed in place, made of steel and had your locker directly below the mattress. The older style, which were always called racks, actually were folding tubular aluminum racks with canvas tied across them. The only good thing I could say about them is that they were better than hammocks. As a general rule, surface ships had easier water discipline than subs since they had more storage capacity. You can only distill it so fast though and the Engineering Officer would start to tear his hair out when his bunkers got down to about half full (he didn't have that much hair to start with). In the case of our particular class of ship, besides 500 crew, we also would have up to 500 Marines aboard, which came close to putting us in the same category with subs as far as available water went. Then the Captain would have a talk with the Marine Officers and NCO's about water restrictions and they would start being more careful. Usually, if we had pulled them out of the bush, the Skipper would wait a few days before the talk. We knew where those guys had been and what kind of conditions they had been living under. If they wanted to take 20 minute showers for the first few days, not even the Engineering Officer would complain (he'd just tear a little more hair out).

LOL, TTGA! I think you just explained why some men go bald:)

The other reason is having kids.

Nope, as I told my son, getting married made my hair turn grey; having kids made it all fall out.

I have a request to join that group but haven't seen a response to the request.

Just depends on the vehicle and the location. Regardless, I prefer my house and my own bed to a military vehicle/bed.

And it's a serious matter. David Bloom died from it.