Submarine Miscellany
Here are some interesting items sent in recently by readers:
1) A reader recently went to the opening of the USS Dolphin (AGSS 555) exhibit at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, and posted these pictures.
2) Here's a photo of a couple of Russian SSNs (I believe they're Victor III-class boats) being moved on a Dutch transport. The caption says: "A Dutch transport vessel carries two Shchuka class nuclear-powered submarines to a shipyard in the Russian far east. The two vessels have been decommissioned."
3) Electric Boat will be doing the repair work on USS Hartford (SSN 768). They'll be moving to the shipyard soon for an undetermined amount of time. Good luck, guys!
4) Here's a picture a reader sent in of a swim call on USS Sturgeon (SSN 637) in the Caribbean in 1979:
I was only one subs with bow planes, so I never got to dive off the fairwater planes. Looks like fun!
posted by Bubblehead at 1:58 PM
27 Comments:
Oh man, was that a blast!
7/13/2009 3:12 PM
I cant think of a better morale boost on a sub than that! Great way to give the guys a break after chasing the commies!
7/13/2009 4:48 PM
*cries a silent tear*
-LT L
7/13/2009 4:50 PM
Well, those Victor IIIs aren't "going" anywhere! The ship is anchored. (ok, typical nuke-nitpicking)
Carl
7/13/2009 4:59 PM
Yep, jumping off fairwater planes is fun, although when standing on top of 627 class planes, it sure looks like a loong way down!
7/13/2009 6:59 PM
I did a midshipman cruise on USS L Mendel River (SSN 686) before she decommed and got to jump off of the fairwater planes. It was the first and only swim call I ever got to actually get in the water.
7/13/2009 7:37 PM
Ok, I used to say the only thing I really, really missed about being underway was nightime on the surface, but, a swim call was another. Lucky enough to have done 2 or 3 of these, and, yes, we did have FW planes, and I am not sure the experience would have been nearly as much fun without the jump from there.
You guys with all your bow planes will just have to switch to Tridents or miss out.
7/13/2009 10:09 PM
Twice in my career, once in anchored of Lahaina and once in the Caribbean. Fun both times but hoping you didn’t piss off the guy with the M-1 on Shark Watch. I got to ride the Fairwaters while going through the Gatun Locks while in transit of the Panama Canal. That was a kick even though I was dead tired.
What I always thought of all the things I did in the Navy and especially on Submarines was that I was doing things that only a select few in history could say that they had done and it was difficult to describe it to anyone who had never been there, done that.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa.
7/13/2009 10:59 PM
Twice in my career, once anchored off Lahaina and once in the Caribbean. Fun both times but hoping you didn’t piss off the guy with the M-1 on Shark Watch. I got to ride the Fairwaters while going through the Gatun Locks while in transit of the Panama Canal. That was a kick even though I was dead tired.
What I always thought of all the things I did in the Navy and especially on Submarines was that I was doing things that only a select few in history could say that they had done and it was difficult to describe it to anyone who had never been there, done that.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa.
7/13/2009 11:00 PM
That was so much fun, I had to say it twice.
That Damn Good Looking Aganger From Iowa.
7/13/2009 11:01 PM
Lahaina (x2), equator, post Singapore, multiples in the gulf stream off a boomer during midn ops.
Swim calls rock.
That Dutch ship must be huge given the size of the V-IIIs. Wow.
7/14/2009 3:48 AM
I picked up a bos'ns pipe in Norfolk (and nothing else!)... Anyway, I'd irritate the topside watch (to say nothing of the BMs on the tender)practicing.
Outside of Rosy Roads the CO decided that a swim was in order. He had me pipe a call and pass the word on the 1MC.
Anyone else ever heard a "call" on the 1MC?
7/14/2009 8:33 AM
...hoping you didn’t piss off the guy with the M-1 on Shark Watch.
An M-1. That must have been some time ago. M14s have been on the boats for some time and heck probably M16s by now.
7/14/2009 9:36 AM
It's a very long way down on a T-Hull.
Been there, done that....three times. Loved EVERY minute of it. Nothing beats hot dogs and burgers and swim calls. Beer would have made it better, but only a little bit.
Thanks for the swim calls, Cap'n Jack
7/14/2009 10:20 AM
Did y'all ever get beer days underway on subs?
-3383
7/14/2009 11:31 AM
Had wine with Italian night on Dolphin, way back when. Turned into a story that the statute hasn't run on yet, so enuff sed.
Back then there were 23 crew, 3 o-gangers, the rest qualified from prior boats, except for 2 or 3 non qual seamen. Oldman a Lcdr.,Xo and Eng were Lt. XO was nav, ops, and the ENG was eng and weps. HA, HA!
I'm glad to see the old girl saved, sad to see the big holes in her. Sonar is a lot different now. Some of the pics say sonar, but are actually the stbd side UL where the scientific stuff was.
Don't believe the specs.
The sail door thing wasn't the first time a problem occurred there. A similar very close call happened during my time riding her. Worst case of sea sickness I ever had! Ask Jeff Light how Broten got him (the prototypical DBF EN1SS)to
puke all over the IC swichboard on his way to the head.
Best boat,EVER!
7/14/2009 12:09 PM
Sculpin was cool for swim calls...had doors out to the fairwater planes!
Then there was Kamehameha...seems the Frogs wanted to spend a LOT of time on the roof reconfiguring the shelters.....yeah, Swim Calls could be counted on darn near weekly! Life sucked :)
Well, there was ONE time where we didn't have a lot of time. CO wanted to swim, but not enough time to do a formal swim call. He and the A-Gang chief staged a shouting match below the hatch on the way topside. COB and others are trying to calm them down, but to no avail. Once topside, the "arguement" "Escalated" into pushing and shoving. A-Gang CPO grabs the skipper by the AILP and throws him over the side...to the stunned looks of the COB and others. Skipper got out of the water, high-fived the A-Gang chief and went to the bridge. COB didn't talk to either of them for a week! Ah, the days. Chap may have a little to add to this (I think he was the OOD?)
Cheers!
7/14/2009 1:04 PM
why are swim calls considered an activity of the past?
Somewhere out here in the Pacific N.W. we still conduct swim calls about once every three weeks or so.
Lately, we've had too much overcast to have one but on a bright sun shiny day, it's fun as hell to jump in and just float for 20min or so. Well, that's when we're not trying to "drown" each other or tossing a football back & forth. Yes, pig skin does float.
As for top side watch, I've never seen a shark anywhere near the boat out here. I've seen one when we were somewhere close Sasebo a couple of months back but that's about it. Someone mentioned M-16s a few posts up. We do have them, but they are designated as A-4 carbines. That's what we are issued for topside watch and Beretta 9mm sidearms. We also have Mossberg pump guns, but they never get broken out. Besides, pump guns are better designed for skimmers trying to repel boarders anyway, (or so we are told).
But yeah, swim call is not a thing of the past. It just depends on where we are, what we're supposed to be doing and weather permitting.
7/14/2009 2:22 PM
"Somewhere out here in the Pacific N.W. we still conduct swim calls about once every three weeks or so."
I always knew boomer guys weren't right in the head.....that water's COLD up there!!
"We also have Mossberg pump guns, but they never get broken out. Besides, pump guns are better designed for skimmers trying to repel boarders anyway, (or so we are told)."
I'll quote Sean Connery here: "There are things in here that don't react well to bullets, Ryan". 9mm's and M-16's got no business being used belowdecks. 12ga is the ONLY way to go here! Just my thought here.
7/14/2009 6:29 PM
Shchuka ("Pike") was the Victor III - not to be confused with Shchuka B, which we called the Akula. (Just to confuse things further, the one the Russians called Akula was the one we called Typhoon....)
7/14/2009 7:55 PM
I've not seen Red October in a couple years. I have it downloaded on my personal lap top. I just have to remember which drive the damn thing is on...lol.
As for personal weapons, you guys back in the DB days (Gato, Baleo, Tench class) had colt 1911-A1s, Tommy 45s, M1 Garands, 30 carbines and 30cal belt fed machine guns. Plus you had deck guns back then, which we donot today.
You were armed to the teeth just as we are now but the weapons are different in configuration and purpose.
7/14/2009 8:46 PM
Only beer day I ever saw was on LOUISVILLE in 2003 while we were in the Red Sea waiting for the war to start so we could shoot and go home. On the day we should have pulled into homeport from deployment we had swim call, liberal use of the iridium satellite phone, and beer day. Only bad part was we drank all the beer so had none left to break out when we shot a month later.
Best beer I ever tasted.
7/14/2009 9:08 PM
Swim call? Beer day? The Navy I was in was far too dour for that crap...
594 ascetic.
7/16/2009 4:43 AM
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=40003200
7/16/2009 1:05 PM
It's funny, to me any sub without fairwater planes looks like a kiwi bird. Something obvious is missing. Of course, they were noisy and useless most of the time on 688 boats - with the sail being so near the middle of the boat. Still, a boat looks incomplete without them.
7/23/2009 10:17 PM
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