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| Sail of the USS Dolphin in the San Diego gloaming |
The deepest diving submarine in the world, Dolphin is responsible for many "firsts", but is not primarily associated with any specific historic event or time frame during her nearly forty years of service. Rather, it is her unique, extreme deep-diving capability that sets her apart and has continually placed the vessel at the forefront of undersea naval research during her entire career. (Source)
She's cramped, claustrophobic, and complicated. In other words, she's a submarine. Pretty cool.
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| I think I see San Diego |
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| The control room |
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| The Helmsman's Station (I suppose in the all new modern Navy that would be "Helmsperson." Sigh...) |
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| Where's the turn signal on this thing? |
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| No, that's not it! |
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| The Missus Herself and The Nuke negotiate a p-way. |
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| I shudder to think of what Murphy might do with this. |
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| These gauges are still pretty new! |
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| Yeah, Dad, I'm sure one of these belonged to Glenn Hogg. (Heh, ya never know!) |
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| I was gonna send y'all a message! (Couldn't find the dang key.) |
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| I can picture Murphy playing with these. (No doubt the museum did too. Hence the protective Plexiglas.) |
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| Another locked area, what an untrusting bunch. (Yup, the docents at the USS Midway warned them about Murphy.) |
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| Where's the Keurig machine? |
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| Ruh-roh. Someone left the safe open. MURPHY! |
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| Roomy it ain't. But it is a pretty cool boat. |
Ain't she purty? When I rode her our crew was 20 enlisted and 3 o-ringers. No, those bunks weren't where my rack was. It was in the space directly below in E&E. Lots of fun serving in her, a lot of great memories.
ReplyDeleteShe is a beauty. It was a lot of fun checking her out. Again, thanks for letting me know about her.
DeleteNoticed the rack curtain in the photo, even the illusion of privacy created by that curtain was very important.
ReplyDeleteStrange lack of coffee cups though.
No turn signals on ships (or boats), 'cause the more mature helmsman would leave the turn signals on while going a few knots under the speed limit and while in the passing lane.
You will never again think of submariners as the Silent Service after a little alcohol has started them talking of their exploits
Hahaha!
DeleteAll good points John!
He beat me to it. I was going to say the Dolphin must have been built by BMW.
DeleteHahaha! (There's a story there I'll bet.)
DeleteThat brought back memories of my bunk on the Saratoga. Except, there were NO curtains provided in the air wing spaces. So, after the workup cruise, the majority of us fabricated our own with velcro and cloth for use on the full cruise.
DeleteNo curtains? Make your own?
DeleteWow, that's old school Sonoboy.
I'm thinking of the sailors' "quarters" on the old three masted warships. A hammock, strung between the guns. No privacy at all. Ever.
No story, just something I alluded to in Monday's post.
DeleteOkay, now I remember.
DeleteAmazing what a 13 hour travel day does to the memory...
Okay, I would have missed that even had the travel not occurred.
I have no allusions.
Great pictures! You were having a ball, weren't you?
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that I was having more fun than is allowed in some places.
DeleteThese pictures of the Dolphin are but a fraction of the photos I took. But submarines have a unique coolness factor, so I went with this story first.
Most excellent. Great photographs. Do not think I could have done duty as a bubblehead under those conditions. Maybe at 18 yrs old, maybe? Nice post -you photographed well Sir.
ReplyDeleteI've never been underway on a sub and can't really imagine what that feels like. I have a great deal of respect for submariners.
DeleteThanks Ron, I think my camera tries very hard to make me look good.
That boat's roomy compared to the WWII vintage boat we were allowed to cannibalize loose pieces from back in the day, mostly they were butt kits and the odd mechanical device for which we might have been able to find a use.
ReplyDeleteThe good stuff was already picked through.
I've been on a couple of WWII boats and would have to agree. Didn't bump my head once on the Dolphin's overhead. I do it nearly every time on a WWII boat.
DeleteThe good stuff is always gone by the time you get there. Applies to everyone in every service. Not sure where "the good stuff" goes. Probably a warehouse in Jersey.
I'm surprised you didn't take pix of the head. From what I recall that had some pretty complex instructions.
ReplyDeleteD'oh! I was going to and completely forgot!!!
DeleteThe commo room looks great! I'm a sucker for comm gear of all kinds, though I'm kinda partial to HF operations. Thanks for sharing these, I'll have to swing by next time I'm out there.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely do that, lots of cool stuff out there.
Delete