I Spent Most Of My Thirties In This Building...
Not really, but it sure seemed that way. Between almost two years on Connecticut in this constuction shed at Electric Boat before she launched, and almost two years on the Jimmy Carter, I spent more time there than I would have liked. This picture, though, is really neat. (The high res version is even better.) The picture is an overhead shot of Virginia as she was being built, back in April 2003; you can see the Carter in the lower left (and you can tell how much bigger Carter is than Virginia). The discriminating submarine enthusiast will be able to see a lot of really neat things on the Virgina, and maybe even be surprised that the Navy released this photo. They did, though, and that's all I'm going to say about that...
Going deep...
Update 2255 31 July: Here's another photo of Virginia from ground level, taken when she was moved outside the building.
posted by Bubblehead at 10:27 PM
7 Comments:
Bubblehead,
I spent two years (1984 - 1986) on the Coast Guard Cutter Red Wood across the river from that building. I never imagined there would ever be a photograph of the inside of your construction bay. What would the USSR have paid for that in the 1980's?? I remember having to triple up our bow and stern lines when "unnamed naval units" were launched from EB.
BTW, good site.
7/30/2005 10:24 AM
As far as the holes in the front -- twelve of them are tubes for vertically-launched Tomahawk missiles. It really is fascinating how they put them together now... I should do a post about that!
7/30/2005 8:22 PM
Bubblehead,
I was straight out of Vocational/Technical High School when I went to work at EB’s Quonset Point facility 1976-80. Worked there for three plus years as a machinist making diffusion tubes, torpedo skid trunnions, deck clips, etc... and often wondered what all those parts I was making did. So much so that it was one of the reasons, I choose Submarines when I enlisted.
Shipyards are amazing places where some of the toughest, dirtiest and most dangerous jobs exist. However, all that toil results in a machine made of HY-80 or 100 that people name and begin to think of as almost a living thing.
7/31/2005 3:38 PM
Good to see that OPSEC is still being practiced, RE the shrouded pumpjet unit.
8/01/2005 11:13 AM
I was DCA on USS Jefferson City (SSN 759) new construction and while I can't remember the name for those diagonal things under the stern planes I remember them talking about installing them on us during PSA and reading over the hydrodynamic properties. Basically, they eliminate or greatly reduce high-speed snap rolls. Not as fun and exciting, but much safer and easier handling at FLANK.
8/02/2005 8:14 AM
They're called "dihedrals". I was looking for some open-source information on what else they did with the dihedrals on the 688i's, but couldn't find it.
8/02/2005 9:50 AM
Nice photos. Reminds me of my days in Groton / New London, back when we built the Tridents. Also, in case you haven't run into it, here's a link to some submarine songs by Tommy Cox... made into little slide shows. www.submarinesongs.com
-Steve
3/18/2007 4:19 PM
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