| |
NAVIGATION
|
|
|
|
|
| This page of the website will be devoted to items of Submarine history that are not related directly to USS Casimir Pulaski. The US Navy's submarine force is a close-knit group of men who share a common bond: they are all descendents of brave men who sailed on (and under!) the oceans in iron boats. This page will have submarine history items that I found interesting. Hopefully you'll find them interesting too! |
|
USN Submarines Sunk As Targets
|
Warshot
by Mike Hemming
"Captain, Nine minutes at 8 knots is up..."
"Very well, bring her up to 55 feet."
"Coming up to 55 feet from 150 feet, Aye."
"Up scope."
"Bearing should be 030, Captain."
"Very well, slow to 1/3."
"Answers 1/3."
Slapping the handles down the Skipper does the quick crouching spin to check all around before stopping at 030.
"Bearing Mark."
"Zero three zero."
"Range mark."
"0ne four double 0."
The low to the water dark hull sails on in the scope seemingly unknowing and uncaring to its impending doom.
"Down scope."
The Captain stares a thousand miles into the hydraulic oiled descending shaft, his mind locked onto the job at hand.
"Set depth at one zero feet"
"Flood tube four and open outer door."
"Next observation will be a shooting observation."
"Have the COB report to the Conn."
"Coming up..."
"COB will you hit the firing key on this one?"
The COB with a strained look on his face, "Aye Skipper."
The Captain with a kind of sad smile says, "It won't be the first now will it?"
"No Skipper, but I hope it's the last like this."
"Hmmmmm, yeah."
"Been a long time since we walked down the pier together to this boat as non quals, huh Chief?"
"Yeah me an E2 and you an O1, I outranked you even then didn't I?"
The Captain chuckles, which ease the strain on both their faces, "Yes, you always did outrank me in some ways. You took grumpy old chief lessons long before you were even an E5."
Smiling for a second the COB says, "We have both come a long ways since those days, and now they are nearly at an end."
"Captain, Time."
"Yes, up scope"
Again the awkward spin around the scope to stop with the submarine in the cross hairs.
"Bearing Mark."
"Zero two zero"
"Range mark."
"One One double 0"
"Solution checks, Captain."
"Very well, this will be for MOT, Shoot tube four."
The COB's hand comes up quickly then pauses over the firing key and wavers there. In a stern voice that cracks ever so slightly the Captain says, "Shoot the fish!" The tough hard hand of the chief that doesn't match the pain in his eyes smashes down on the key.
"Tube four fired electrically," The chief reports sadly.
"Running time?"
"Fifty Five seconds, Captain."
"Very well."
"COB, I better not have missed."
"Yes Sir, sorry, but it's hard to sink your qual boat."
"Skipper, Sonar reports, Torpedo running hot straight and normal."
"Very well."
"Time?"
"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Skipper, Plus 1, 2, 3,"
The Captain looks through the periscope his "Damn" to be rewarded with the violent geyser of sea foam under the engine room of the sub. Lifted high already broken in two by the Mark 16 torpedo's explosion she is doomed to the rest of forever on the sea floor. "COB take a look. It's a better end that being scrapped."
Looking, he sees the ends of the broken black hull disappear quickly into the deep blue sea. "Yes she will rest with all her sisters now where she belongs, Skipper. She has served us well again."
This is dedicated to those boats that gave the last final extra measure for us in weapons tests. S(T) Sunk as target from "US Submarines Through 1945" by Norman Friedman. Jim Christley did research in other places and kindly allowed its use here. Also comments have been added by sailors that rode the boat that sank them or have knowledge of the sinking.
- SS-2 A-1 was target. Sold for scrapping 26 Jan 22 with USS Puritan.
- SS-3 A-2 Adder 16-Jan-22 1/26/1922 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-4 A-3 Grampus Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-5 A-4 Moccasin 16-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-6 A-5 Pike 16-Jan-22 Sunk by explosion 15 Apr 17 Salvaged Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-7 A-6 Porpoise 16-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-8 A-7 Shark 16-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-9 C-1 Octopus Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-10 B-1 Viper 16-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-11 B-2 Cuttlefish 17-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-12 B-3 Tarantula 17-Jan-22 Used as target. Hulk sunk in Manila Bay, near Corregidor
- SS-19 1/2 (Seal) G1 designated target 19 Feb 20 stricken 29 Aug 21. S(T) in Narragansett Bay, RI; sunk in 105' of water 20 Jun 21 just north of Taylor's Point.
- SS-26 Thrasher G4 had been designated a depth charge target 6 Dec 19 sold 15 Apr 20.
- SS-27 Tuna G2 foundered awaiting depth charge tests 30 Jul 19 partially raised and scrapped 1962. She lies off Pleasant Beach near Niantic Bay, CT in 80 feet of water.
- SS-48 L-8 15 Nov 22 S(T) in 110 feet of water, 3 Miles South of Brenton Reef Light, outside of Narragansett Bay in 1926 in a test of the ill fated Mk 6 magnetic exploder.
- SS-85 R8 19 Aug 36 bombing. SS-94 R 17 to UK 9 Mar 42 Ret 6 Sept 44 served as target Stricken 22 Jun 45 sold 16 Nov 45.
- SS-121 S-16 S(T) 3 May 45 in 250 feet of water, 18 miles from Key West
- SS-122 S-17 S(T) 5 April 45
- SS-124 S-19 S(T) just off Pearl Harbor [London Treaty] on 18 Dec 38.
- SS-126 S-21 sunk as sonar target 23 Mar 45.
- SS-140 S-35 S(T) 4 Apr 46 after use as damage control hulk for new Fleet Damage Control School.
- SS-142 S-37 S(T) 4 Apr 46 "before being scuttled off San Diego?"
- SS-143 S-38 S(T) off San Diego 20 Feb 45.
- SS-164 Bass scuttled as a sonar target 12 Mar 45.
- SS-184 Skipjack Bikini target sunk 25 Jul 46 raised 2 Sept 46 S(T) 11 Aug 48.
- SS-196 Searaven Bikini target Jul 46 S(T) 11 Sept 48.
- SS-203 Tuna Bikini target, S(T) 24 Sept 48.
- SS-217 Guardfish S(T) 1 Oct 61 by Dogfish and Blenny 97 Miles south of Block Island
- SS-241 Bashaw S(T) 13 Sep 69 SS-242 scuttled as salvage trainer 3 Dec 70 off Hawaii.
- SS-243 Bream S(T) 7 Nov 69 by Sculpin (SSN 590) off southern California.
- SS-259 Jack S(T) by units of US Sixth Fleet on 1 Sep 68 after return from Greece. Sinking took place within 10 Miles of 320 16' N x 1320 05' E. (By Entemedor, note from Frank Hill)
- SS-260 Lapon Loaned to Greece 8 August 1957. Returned to US control and S(T) in 1973
- SS-262 Muskellunge S(T) 9 Jul 68 by Tench (SS-417). She still had all the spare parts, tools, etc. aboard when she made the final dive. Any of you that were in New London at that time remember how hard it was to get spare parts to keep the diesel boats running, but the Squadron had a Jarhead guarding the brow so we couldn't salvage anything.
- SS-263 Paddle (Loaned to Brazil on 18 January 1957. She is reported as having sunk on or about 30 June 1968.
- SS-270 Raton sold 12 0ct 73 but reported used as target.
- SS-274 Rock sold 17 Aug 72 but reported used as target.
- SS-282 Tunny S(T) 19 Jun 70 by USS Volador SS490
- SS-283 Tinosa Scuttled Nov 60 after use as an ASW target.
- SS-285 Balao Main hull sunk as target off Charleston, South Carolina 300 46.5'N x 740 11'W on 4 Sep 63. The Conning tower and shears are at Navy Memorial Museum, Washington Navy Yard.
- SS-292 Devilfish S(T) by USS Wahoo (SS 565) in 2000 fathoms of water at 370 05'N x 1240 8' W during a MK16 Mod8 service test on 14 Aug 68.
- SS-293 Dragonet S(T) 17 Sept 61 after explosives tests in Upper Chesapeake Bay in 150 feet of water.
- SS-299 Manta target ship 49-53 S(T) 16 Jul 69 off Norfolk Va.
- SS-300 Moray S(T) 18 Jun 70 off San Clemente Island.
- SS-302 Sabalo S(T) 15 Feb 73 in Sub Sink Ex Project Thurber.
- SS-305 Skate Bikini target Jul 46 then S(T) off San Clemente on 5 October 1948.
- SS-308 Apogon Bikini target sunk 25 Jul 46 Upright on bottom 800yd SW of Test Baker Site.
- SS-309 Aspro S(T) 16 Nov 62.
- SS-311 Archerfish S(T) 17 Oct 68 in 2000 fathoms of water at Lat 320-23.0'N and Lng. 1220-58.1'W. At 2114Z this date a MK37-2 torpedo, fired from USS Snook (SSN-592), hit the stern and detonated, but did not sink the target. This was the second of two MK37-2 torpedoes employed; the first did not acquire or attack the target. At 2226Z, after being struck broadside by a MK14-5 torpedo, Archerfish split in half near the after battery hatch and descended to her final resting place off the coast of San Diego, California.
- SS-312 Burrfish S(T) 19Sept 69.
- SS-315 Sealion S(T) 8 Jul68.
- SS-317 Barbero S(T) 7 0ct 64 by Greenfish.
- SS-324 Blenny sunk as reef off Ocean City NJ. (Book is wrong on this. She was not sunk as target but as a fishing reef off Ocean City MD.)
- SS-331 Bugara lost under tow for target 1 Jun 71.
- SS-337 Carbonero S(T) 27 Aug 75.
- SS-342 Chopper sunk 21 Jul 76 while being rigged as tethered underwater target.
- SS-347 Cubera S(T) Date unknown by USS Salmon off the coast of San Diego. This was after she was towed from Venezuela, where she had been loaned in 1972.
- SS-362 Guavina S(T) 14 Nov 67 by Cubera with a Mk 16 off Cape Henry Va. I have a photo of the explosion from Cubera's periscope on back the date is given as 11 Nov 67.
- SS-377 Menhaden tethered underwater target 76 later sold.
- SS- 386 Pilotfish Sunk Bikini 25 Jul 46 raised S(T) 16 0ct 48.
- SS-392 Sterlet S(T) 31Jul 69 by Sargo.
- SS-393 Queenfish S(T)14 Aug 63 by Swordfish.
- SS-395 Redfish S(T) 16 0ct 69 by Sea Fox.
- SS-398 Segundo S(T) 8 Aug 70 by Salmon.
- SS-399 Sea Cat test hulk 1968-72 sold 18 May 73 (also reported sunk)
- SS-400 Sea Devil S(T) 24 Nov 64 was sunk by USS VOLADOR
- SS-490, a unit of SUBFLOT ONE/SUBRON FIVE by a MK37-1. LCDR Glenn M. Brewer was C.O. of VOLADOR at the time. I was on the TDjC and LT John B. Thomas, a former ENC(SS) aboard SEA DEVIL actually hit the firing plunger for the shot. Torpedo hit in the After Engine Room area. Sea Devil didn't sink until shelled (5 inch) by USS Halsey (DLG) later CG.
- SS-401 Sea Dog S(T) 18 May68.
- SS-404 Spikefish Reported S(T) 4 Aug 64
- SS-412 Trepang S(T) 16 Sept 69.
- SS-416 Tiru last fleet submarine in service; planned for conversion to remote control submersible target S(T) 2 0ct 76 by USS Silversides.
- SS-419 Tigrone S(T) on 25 Oct 76. USS Sea Devil (SSN-664) fired MK 48 warshot at submerged target. Weapon acquired several times but kept turning away . . . some conjectured at the time that the onboard computer would not validate the target for close-in due to the absence of any noise whatsoever emanating from the target which was suspended stationary from two salvage pontoons. Cable on one pontoon parted next morning in rough seas and target sank . . . Weapons Officer and TM3 on bridge of Sea Devil at the time . . . pontoon shot up out of water . . . lots of roiling air on surface . . . only flotsam spotted were pieces of wood decking.
- SS-422 Toro Sold Apr 65 (also reported sunk)
- SS-428 Ulua suspended 12 Aug 45 used as underwater explosion test hulk Norfolk 51-58 stricken 12 Jun 58.
- SS-568 Harder S(T) off Pearl Harbor, 1991
- SS-573 Salmon for converted to shallow water sonar target. Sunk near Hudson Canyon as bottom target, June 1993
- SSG-574 Grayback 13 April 86 Sunk as target in or near Subic Bay, RPI. SS-576 Darter S(T) 7 Jan 92 off Pearl Harbor, HI. by USS Tautog (SSN 639) in a Mk 48 ADCAP test.
Submitted by: James Geer |
|
|
|
BY WILLIAM GALVANI
SAILORS HAVE BEEN TAKING DOGS TO SEA SINCE A PAIR OF canines shipped out with Noah. Nevertheless, the picture of the floppy-eared poodle, looking as jaunty and confident as the young submariners who surrounded her, surprised me. What was the dog's name? I wondered. Why was it on a submarine? A scrawl on the back of the photo revealed only that this was the crew of the USS Whale after its return from its eighth war patrol in the Pacific. The Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where I'm the director, has thousands of books, documents, and photographs about U.S. Submarine operations but no file, I realized, about mascots. Were there dogs on board other submarines? If so, could we find enough information about them to perhaps mount an exhibit for the museum? For the next six months the curator, the archivist, and I kept a watch for pictures and stories of what we came to call sea dogs. Our finds were infrequent; once in a while we'd turn up a picture in a folder or a brief reference in a yellowed news clipping. Then I published an appeal in Polaris, the monthly magazine of the Submarine Veterans of World War II. In poured letters with photographs, ID cards, service records, and newspaper stories. The replies showed that after nearly fifty years the veterans' feelings for their pets remained strong. One wrote: "She was truly one of our crew, and we all loved her. She was a comfort. . . When we were in silent running and getting a good depth charging." Another recalled: "Some chief from one of the seven hundred-odd ships in the anchorage (at Ulithi) decided to abscond with our dog, and I interceded and got a broken nose for my efforts. Hope Garbo appreciated it!" A third remembered: "Since I left the boat before Betty did, I cannot tell you of her final fate. May her soul rest in peace." From this correspondence I discovered that during World War II many United States submariners carried mascots with them in the Pacific. We did put together an exhibit called "Sea Dogs: Mascots of the Silent Service." Still on display, it is as popular with the public as the mascots were with their crews and for the same reason: The dogs touched their hearts.
Submariners' pets were usually small and of mixed breed. Crews acquired them through purchase and gift or in trade for a case or two of beer. One dog even dashed aboard a sub as the boat was getting under way. The dogs cheered and amused the men during their long war patrols. They helped relieve the tension and weariness of hours of silent running or nights of surface attacks. The men doted on their dogs. They fed them steak and bacon; they gave them ID cards and service records; they took them on liberty all over the Pacific, and more than one mascot acquired a taste for beer. Crews made their pets leashes and collars, complete with combat submarine insignia and service stars. Some dogs wore special coats emblazoned with their boat's war record. At least one miscreant even went to captain's mast. Garbo was the perfect submarine mascot. A mongrel puppy so small she could be concealed in a white sailor's hat, she came aboard the USS Gar (SS 206) in Hawaii about the time of the boat's tenth war patrol. She and the crew took an immediate liking to each other, and she remained on board for the rest of the Gar's fifteen war patrols. The puppy made her home in the forward torpedo room. Whenever the sub got under way, Garbo stationed herself all the way forward on the bullnose and barked. Once each patrol she toured the Gar from stem to stern; as she arrived in each compartment, the crew there would come to attention. "She owned the boat and knew it," recalled Motor Machinist Mate Second Class Jim Bunn. Garbo earned the combat submarine insignia that she wore on her collar, along with a star for each successful patrol she made on the Gar. Under the heaviest depthcharge attacks, when the gauges were leaking, light bulbs breaking, and fires breaking out, Garbo remained as playful as ever. Bunn said, "She should have gotten a medal for keeping our spirits and morale up when we needed it most." Anyone was welcome to pet her, but only the skipper, Lt. Cmdr. George Lautrup, Jr., and the cook, Red Balthorp, could pick her up. The skipper would put her on his shoulder and carry her up the ladder to the bridge at night for fresh air.
One night while the Gar was running on the surface during a war patrol in the Palau Islands, Garbo stepped off the cigarette deck and vanished into the darkness. The C.O. Immediately began a dogoverboard search. With the boat making frantic circles in enemy waters, a lookout finally spotted the mascot below the bridge, safe on the main deck. Between patrols Garbo stayed with the crew at their hotel in Pearl Harbor. She joined in the ship's parties, and like some of her two-legged shipmates, she didn't know her limit. After lapping up too much beer, she tended to blunder into furniture. Garbo gave birth to two pups while the sub was en route to Ulithi; the father belonged to the USS Tambor (SS 198). The Gar's crew traded the pups to other submarines for cases of beer. At the end of the war, when the Gar returned to the States, Chief Motor Machinist Mate Jim Ellis took Garbo home with him. Skeeter's second trip to mast came when he mistook a chief petty officer's leg for a fire hydrant. Sugie joined the crew of the USS Besugo (SS 321) when he was six weeks old. At the sub's commissioning party in June 1944, the puppy, wearing a custom-made sailor's blue jumper, looked on from the arms of the exec. Sugie made the shakedown cruise and all five war patrols during which the Besugo sank more than forty thousand tons of enemy shipping. He liked beer and whiskey, disdained gilly (a vile beverage distilled from the alcohol in torpedo fuel), and would, in a pinch, drink a pink lady. Submarine food suited him fine, and he especially enjoyed sitting in a chair while the crew spoon-fed him. His appetite didn't stop there: he chewed gum (and swallowed it), he would eat soap if someone didn't keep an eye on him, and he liked to chew up socks whenever he could, especially the skipper's. Skeeter, mascot of the USS Halibut (SS 232), was a swashbuckler too. The crew acquired him in Lefty's bar in San Francisco while the sub was undergoing overhaul in 1944. During his tour on the Halibut, Skeeter appeared at captain's mast twice, perhaps a canine record.
He was first charged with disturbing the peace in the forward battery compartment and with being surly and belligerent. Cmdr. I. J. Galantin, the Halibut's C.O., dismissed the case with a warning. Skeeter's second trip to mast came when he mistook a chief petty officer's leg for a fire hydrant. But the dog eventually received an honorable discharge and was mustered out of the Navy in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in July 1945. Others were not so fortunate. Potshot survived three war cruises aboard the USS Hoe (SS 258) only to be run over and killed by a torpedo truck during a routine stop at Pearl Harbor. Myrna, the mascot of the USS Sawfish (SS 276), another casualty of war, was one of a litter of six pups born to Luau, the mascot of the USS Spadefish (SS 411). Myrna still wasn't weaned when her crew smuggled her aboard the Sawfish; the corpsman fed her a formula of milk, Karo syrup, cod-liver oil, and vitamin pills. At the end of the Sawfish's ninth war patrol, the sub went to Camp Dealy on Guam for rest and recreation. Myrna was sleeping under a table on which several sailors were sitting; when another man joined them, the table collapsed, crushing their mascot. The accident left the crew depressed for weeks. Myrna's mother, Luau, was a plank owner on the Spadefish, having come aboard in February 1944, lured from the landlubber's life by a large, tender steak after the crew discovered her in a Vallejo, California, bar. She distinguished herself in the service. When writing up the Spadefish's first war patrol, Lt. Cmdr. G. W. Underwood noted that Luau "contributed greatly to the morale with her ready playfulness with all hands. She was a bit perturbed by the depth charges, but soon recovered with only a slight case of depth charge nerves." If Hollywood had dreamed up a sea dog, it would have been Betty, a white toy poodle who was the mascot of the USS Whale (SS 239). She came aboard in Honolulu in September 1943, prevailing over the protests of the Whale's executive officer by licking the captain's hand. She was then designated Dog First Class, issued service and medical records, and given the run of the ship. She avoided the noisy engine rooms and hid in the control room during gunnery practice.
The men liked to take their dog on liberty in Pearl Harbor because, as Lt. Emmett Fowler, Jr., recalled, Betty was a "girl getter"; it didn't take long for the poodle's escorts to strike up conversations with their mascot's attractive admirers. The weather was bad at Midway when the Whale returned from one patrol, and the port captain ordered the sub to remain outside the harbor till conditions improved. Unwilling to linger where his vessel might become a target for Japanese submarines, the C.O. entered port anyway. The irate port captain met the sub at the pier and yelled at the C.O. while the Whale was going alongside, then came aboard and continued to argue. Tiring of the stream of abuse, Betty slashed an eight-inch rip in the port captain's pants leg. A subsequent admiral's inquiry in Pearl Harbor exonerated the Whale's C.O. Betty had only been defending her crew. The port captain was relieved of his duties. Victory and the end of the war meant the breaking up of most submarine crews. Garbo, Skeeter, Betty, and other dogs went home with crew members. Porches, lawns, and the occasional cat replaced steel hulls, tile decks, and depth charges. Gabby, mascot of the USS Gabilan (SS 252), proudly represented all submarine sea dogs when he marched with his crew in a welcome-home victory parade in Mobile, Alabama, in October 1945.
Submitted by: Mike Tucker |
|
|  |
|
