WesWorld

Quoted from "Brockpaine"

Edit: Dagnabbit, looks like Dropbox killed my links, even fixing them like the Shipbucket page said... I'm just going to take care of it tomorrow.

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As last Monday was a holiday, my wife and I had a spare day to do... well, whatever we wanted. Theoretically, that probably should have been yardwork, but we typically enjoy driving various places to see scenery or various other things. Although we had discussed where we wished to drive, we hadn't hit on anything that really tickled our fancy...

But then I remembered, 'Hm - Cleveland's about four hours drive away, and I think they've got an old WWII submarine... don't remember which one it is. Dear, would you like to spend our holiday to drive to Cleveland...?"



So we did. The submarine, as it turns out, is the USS Cod. Now, there are a few old WWII fleet boats still existing around the US as museums, but Cod is special. Cod is the last American WWII submarine which remains in its original condition - i.e., it didn't get any of the the Guppy upgrades. Nor did the museum cut pieces out of the boat to allow for handicapped or wheelchair access.

It turns out, by the way, that Cleveland is an absolutely terrible place to go on Labor Day holiday, because right next door to the USS Cod museum is an airport. An airport which hosts, over Labor Day weekend... the Cleveland airshow. Oh yes, and the Cleveland Browns stadium is on the OTHER side of the museum, with just a little Coast Guard base in between. So we and ten thousand other people descended upon the shore of Lake Erie, clogging up all the parking lots for miles around. But since everybody was there for the airshow, it turned out the submarine wasn't very crowded at all. But that was quite alright with me.

And it turns out our timing was outstanding. As we went up the gangway onto the main deck, everybody over at the airport starts whoopin' and hollerin' like they know something might be up. Turns out 'something up' was the Thunderbirds display team taking off. The main deck of the Cod is not the best seat in the house, but it was definitely the third-best, since we could see a very sizeable chunk of horizon out across Lake Erie. Walter, since I know you go to all the airshows, I tried to get a pic for you... but I didn't actually bring a camera, just my derpy little phone.


The Coast Guard icebreaking tug, by the way, is USCGC Morro Bay.


I don't have a wide enough angle of lens. Better luck next time fitting it all in...


You descend into the forward torpedo room, where sailors sleep with the fishes. All the way forward, near that little stool, is a device which sets the gyros on the torpedoes. People can talk about German wonder-weapons: this, as part of the TDC computer, was one of America's wunderwaffe.


These fishes. Specifically, the Mark 14 torpedo. Used by the US Navy until the 1970s (once they'd fixed it!)


I can't remember if the boat has one of these, or two. Either way, a high-traffic area.


The skipper's the only one who doesn't have to share a room. If you're wondering how much room he doesn't have to share, my back's against the wall and the junk on the right is also a wall. Missing from the photograph, to the lower-left, is the fold-down sink that the skipper doesn't have to share.

The boat's XO shares a room just across the passageway with two other senior officers. There are also two other three-man cabins, which are reserved for the junior officers. Ah, the luxury... No, seriously. Gato-class fleet boats are some of the largest and and most luxurious of their day.

I didn't get any good pictures of the officers' wardroom, but that's in this general vicinity. Similarly, the control room was a terrible place for pictures, because it was "rigged for red" (also known as "rigged for romance") - lit with red lights. I didn't even try for the photos with my phone.


GM diesels, made in Cleveland. Four big ones and one little one; three of them still run, and the other two are in mothballs.


Aft of the engines is a room filled with electrical equipment, along with these fancy-dancy looking levers that make the boat go faster.


Emerging from the aft hatch and looking forward. You can see the big 5" deck gun. (I think it's a 5"/L25 wet mount.) They fired a few blanks when we were there.

Now I've done a lot of reading about submarines - WWII boats, Cold War nuclear boats, even the modern boats. I'm more knowledgeable about them than the average bear. But as a downside of living in the American midwest, this is the first time I've ever actually been aboard a submarine. Here's some of the things I learned:
- Contrary to what I've been led to believe, the ceilings overhead aren't actually *that* low. I (at 6'3") was able to walk erect through the entire boat without feeling I was in imminent danger of smashing my head into something. Yes, there were some low spots... but not that many.
- Did you know that, on the Gato-class fleet boats, the control center and the attack center are not only separated, but on whole different levels? That's right - the attack center, where both periscopes are located, is in a separate compartment positioned directly over the control center (it's actually inside the sail). The control center has all the fun valves for trimming ballast, the levers for changing the planes, the wheel for steering, and the charting table for the navigator. But no periscopes in this room. HOLLYWOOD LIED TO ME.
- On only one occasion has one submarine rescued the crew of another nation's submarine. That occasion was when Cod rescued the crew of the HNLMS O-19, which managed to run herself aground in not-entirely-friendly waters. The Cod took the crew back to Australia, where the Dutch sailors threw a big party for Cod's crewmen. During the party, news arrived that the Japanese had surrendered and the war was over. As a result, along with Cod's kills marked on the side of the sail, she also has a champagne glass and the label 'O-19'.
- You never really stop to think about where they keep the cold food. There's actually a refrigerator aboard, in case you're wondering. Where? Well, the door is in the floor of the enlisted crew mess! That's right, the refrigerator is actually underneath the main deck.
- Speaking of 'under' things. The whole topside of the sub is actually a very clever sham. Above the main pressure hull, it's just a bunch of enclosed scaffolding that raises the main deck higher so the waves aren't constantly washing down the deck. As you're going down the hatches, you can really see how most of that space is just open to the elements.
- It turns out that the museum actually can't sail the submarine out on Lake Erie not because the boat's not capable (it IS capable of sailing around), but because we have a 19th century treaty with Canada that we shan't deploy warships on the Great Lakes. It seems we kinda overlooked that fact in the 1940s and 1950s when the Cod was actually a commissioned warship. Apparently the Cod's not a warship as long as she's parked, but the moment she starts motoring around, she becomes a warship again. (Rhetorical question: I distinctly remember that the Canucks have HMCS Haida on Lake Ontario - I saw her two years ago. Is she also not a warship when she's parked? The world wonders!)

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Walter, since I know you go to all the airshows, I tried to get a pic for you... but I didn't actually bring a camera, just my derpy little phone.

Quoted

I don't have a wide enough angle of lens. Better luck next time fitting it all in...

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I (at 6'3") was able to walk erect through the entire boat without feeling I was in imminent danger of smashing my head into something. Yes, there were some low spots... but not that many.

Quoted

Did you know that, on the Gato-class fleet boats, the control center and the attack center are not only separated, but on whole different levels? That's right - the attack center, where both periscopes are located, is in a separate compartment positioned directly over the control center (it's actually inside the sail). The control center has all the fun valves for trimming ballast, the levers for changing the planes, the wheel for steering, and the charting table for the navigator. But no periscopes in this room.

Quoted

HOLLYWOOD LIED TO ME.