Other Boats to be Seen

USS Pampanito (SS383)

Permanently moored at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco (CA) as a floating museum exhibit. The screws are off, and stored at the Philidelphia Navy Yard. The torpedo loading hatches have been cut away and stairways installed for the tourists. The batteries have been replaced by tons of gravel. Their most recent addition is an FM closed loop radio wand that lets you hear a guided tour in each compartment.

 

 

USS Bowfin (SS287)

Permanently moored in Pearl Harbor (HI) as a floating museum exhibit. Also has the stairways installed. See the museum page.

 

USS Drum (SS228)

Permanently moored at the Battleship Park war museum in Mobile Bay (AL). I couldn't say it was a floating museum exhibit except at extremely high tide. It sits on the bottom with a permanent list to starboard. The park features the battleship USS Alabama, and has an extensive airplane exhibit.

 

There is another US submarine on display at the Museum of Science and Industry in south Chicago. It is mounted high and dry on blocks, and access has been cut into it from the sides. The original U-boat U505 captured in the Caribbean is also on display at the Museum, with the access cut into the sides and the watertight bulkheads cut away for easy passage through the boat. Did you know that U-boats had no sanitary tanks? No wonder they were called "pig-boats."

 

USS Nautilus (SSN571)

This was the first of the nuclear powered submarines, and set a lot of records. While it was being built they put out a call for qualified crewmen. I volunteered to be on the commissioning crew but didn't get selected. Several of my crewmates from the Caiman were called. The Navy had built a functioning model of the nuclear power plant at Arco, Idaho, and that is where the training was done. One of the electricians came back for a visit, and said they were being taught how to arc-weld stainless steel.

 

Now permantly moored at the submarine base at New London (CT) as a museum exhibit.

The Nautilus submarine museum displays a very large cutaway model of a fleet boat. And I was told the records office contains the names of all those who had attended the submarine school. But I was there on a weekend and the records office was not open.

 

USS San Francisco (SSN711)

I had a tour of this boat when it came through San Francisco on its maiden voyage. They do have a diesel engine and snorkel for emergency use. And it turns out the engine is the same one that was used as the auxiliary engines on the diesel boats. This is one of the Los Angeles class attack boats.

 

USS Los Angeles (SSN688)

I had a tour of this boat when I visited the submarine base at Pearl Harbor in 1996. Calling itself "first in its class" it was being scheduled for decommissioning then.

 

 

 

There are other lists of submarines on public display. See Ron Martini's page or SUBNET.