Daily submarine picture

[greenman407]

Tail end of a early German post war sub on display. Not sure which one.

[greenman407]

Now heres something that you dont see everyday. A Kilo with a ........................??

[Von Hilde]

Yes, she needs a good scrubbing........but thats a lot of scrubbing.

a muratic acid washdown, Then a big pressure steam hose. Knocks the crud right off. Wastewater runoff is run thru a water treatment facility. The acid is emulsified during the steam washdown, and the solids are filtered off. Not like they use to do when they just pulled em up on the marine railway and hosed em off and let the wase water run down the ramp. Not to mention all the lead based paint chips and ground metal and other goodies that got flushed into the harbor. I did a research dive of the end of the old ramp at the Key West sub base, for the HAZMAT guys in the 80s. That was several years after the base closed. Lots of bad stuff in the muck on the harbor floor that had to be dredged up

[greenman407]

Looks like they are singing. Probably Old McDonald went to town, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

[greenman407]

Yes, she needs a good scrubbing........but thats a lot of scrubbing.

[modelnut]

Heavy weathering.

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

Launch of the Conquerer

[greenman407]

A Couple of onboard views from the Portsmouth passing thru the Panama canal.

[Von Hilde]

Im curious as to how they stowed two in that can for operational patrols, and how long it took to surface, assemble the missile and set up a launch. The Barbero and Tuny's load out was 2 apiece, The Grayback and growler were suppose to carry 4 aboard and the Halibut 5. The standing order for the deterrant missions in the late 50s early 60s was to have at least 5 missiles deployed worldwide at one time. Prity thin ice, we were skating on back then. Especially when the track record for the successful launches was 2 out of 3 during the test program and the accuracy was .5% of the range for those weapons. The "close is good in horseshoes" applies to nukes as well. Percision weapons were not so percise back then.

[greenman407]

[greenman407]

I would think that its no fun being rattled around inside a steel can and not being able to get off.

[Von Hilde]

I know an ETCS/SS ret. who was aboard the Tuny during the inital Reggie tests. He told me one in three launches went FUBAR. He also did say the duty during the tests was nice. They would go out behind San Clamente and anchor up in the lagoon at night and fish all night long. He said everybody had a pole aboard. The other fleet boat that was equipped with the Regulus I was the Barberro. The next generation were purpose built for the missile program, the Grayback and Growler and had the launchers and hanger forward as well as the Halibut, which was a little larger boat. They could facilitate the larger Regulus IIs They activly deployed as deterrants right up untill 1964. Never got to get close to any of them myself, but I have been on a Diesel electric in not so plesent weather off Puerto Rico in a Tropicle capacity. Everybody was sick and banged and bruised up.

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

We had a FTB type aboard the WEBSTER who made a few Regulus patrols. We talked.

A mild sort of guy; not given to exaggeration -- not your typical sailor. Told me some tales of his times in bad North Atlantic weather on such a boat. Said if you were not puking on that boat, you were not alive. Made us boomer-babies seem like a bunch of pussies! The Regulus system actually saw some real, active deterrence patrols before this mighty nation of ours rolled into the Polaris program -- and life became so much easier for those involved in holding the razor to the Soviet and Chinese throats.

M