In this addition of Hidden History we explore early submarine conning tower design. Pardon the audio, a plane was taking off and Paul had to talk over it! You can donate to Cod using the link below! www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted...
In 1968, my seventh grade history, teacher organized a field trip to the SS cod. Turned out only myself and two other kids signed up but he said let’s just go ahead and do it anyway. We went down there on a weekday afternoon, and a sailor who had served on the cod was our tour guide. This guy was a salty old fellow, if ever, there was one, but he was quite a lot of fun and it was a fascinating tour. That’s probably one of the most unique experiences I’ve ever had. Going through a submarine With just a half a dozen people is pretty amazing. Thanks to everyone on the volunteer crew who is saving this important piece of history. It’s wonderful and any of you who have not seen it or who have kids make the trip It’s very worthwhile.
All the respect to those who served on the Fleet Subs. My Grandfather served in the silent service during WWII and Korea and I am proud to have his Dolphins. Thank you for caring for this treasure and sharing its incredible history.
I am a lifelong fan of the GATO class. Until tonight, I hadn't realized the later boats had lost the conning tower watertight door rather than it being done as part of what signifies the change from GATO to BALAO class. So, thank you for adding to my knowledge.
The two books written by Richard O'Kane, "Wahoo" and "Clear the Bridge", are some of my all-time favourite books about WW2. Such remarkable accounts from a man who certainly "did it all".
I was a Marine in the '60s and spent quite a bit of time aboard ships--over seven in all. Being part of the Navy, we always called doors "hatches," and used other naval terminology: Deck, bulkhead, overhead, ladder, passageway, &c, whether a-ship or ashore.
I always recommend people read the fleet sub manual three time before touring a sub. It doesn’t make complete sense until you walk into the sub. But you have many “hey, I know what that does” moments. Otherwise you are just eyeballing machinery like a hog staring at a wristwatch.
I had the pleasure of going over the sub at Pearl Harbor and was surprised at the design quality. I’m a critic of the strategy of the Pacific campaign, but that doesn’t extend to the submarine aspect, to paraphrase Churchill “Never has so much been owed by so many to so few”
I have been to the Codd several times. Looking forward to again this Aug. I have a great video down the barrel of the deck gun as i aim at the USCG cutter next to her.
Thanks for mentioning the Squalus, which, after being rescued was re-christened the USS Sailfish... as some of the saltier sailors called her, the Squa(i)lfish. Strictly forbidden by Command, of course.
I've been to the USS Alabama Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile and saw the Gato Class USS Drum. That was quite an experience. You can still smell the sweat, machine oil and mold.
My dad's stepfather worked as a plumber building submarines at Mare Island in both WWI and WWII. He said that at least as far as plumbing went, they were just the same. One thing he mentioned was that the decks were convex, and met the concave hull--which was where the toilets were located. Just how they dealt with that I don't know, but it was certainly different from houses.
Fleet boats like Cod in WWII had flat decks. The very old pre-fleet subs if the R, O and perhaps the S classes had the convex decks inside their pressure hulls.
Enjoyed your talk on this topic. I served on a Balao-class boat, USS Carp. As you mentioned the Balao's had conning towers with no water tight doors (WTD). However, a conning tower identified as Carps has been on display in Galveston, Texas. However, the conning tower there has an after door and a starboard side door just outboard the bridge deck access. I have no idea what boat it came from, but it wasn't Carp's.
When did you serve on the USS Carp? I spent eight years in the Air Force because I was an aircraft fanatic. But I always thought that if I joined the Navy I would have wanted to be on submarines. While based at Langley AFB, Virginia back in the late seventies we had a retired Navy guy working in our electric shop. We became friends and he invited me to tour the USS Baton Rouge over at Newport News ship building company. His wife worked there on the sub and it was employee family day. We went down into the boat and it was really something. It was almost finished. Sadly it had a relatively short life. Take care.
Great video Paul! I met you at the HNSA Conference in Bremerton, and afterwards, your crew came down to Portland to see the PT658 and the LCI713. So the gunners on your boat accessed their gun via the aft battery hatch? Where is that exactly? Thanks for doing these great videos! Jerry G
It would be interesting to hear the reports from the leaking doors. Depending on how bad the leak was, it would have added several tons of water to the boat during a depth charge as well as what damage that would cause given it was contained to just conning tower
Great content. May I suggest you guys use those bluetooth wireless microphones that all the content creators are using these days? It would really help, especially with the acoustics when outside or even inside of a metal tube.
We have cheap one th at we use 99% of the time. But our camera man wanted to do this episode as an afterthought to test his new iPhone without plugging the receiver in. He will be flogged for his lack of sound awareness! And it turned out to be the most popular program!
You might have mentioned that a doorway is more vulnerable than a hatchway if that is, in fact, the case. Also, I'm not clear on what the alternative to the gun crew doorway was. Did I miss it?
Well if the door is out of found d it is weaker than a circular door ... which is why the Balao boats used kibd doors in their escape trunks. The Gato gun crews used the after battery hatch.
You need to stop with the "AH" all the time. Americans like to make fun of Canadians but we really dont use the phrase that often. it makes a person sound less intelligent. so STOP IT.
