October, 2022
Submarines!
Illahee State Park is on the outer edge of the city/town of Bremerton, WA. Bremerton is very well known in Washington State for its decades old, huge naval facility … active repair docks for the largest of current navy ships, facilities where they build navy ships, the location of an excellent navy museum, the Bremerton public marina that has historic navy ships you can board, and a nearby active nuclear submarine base, etc.
The US Navy is a big deal here. In fact, one year for the 4th of July celebration and fireworks, I spent the evening at some friends’ waterfront home just across the bay from Bremerton. WOW, FIREWORKS! The US Navy does like to blow things up!
So my camping friends on this camping trip and I decided to head to two different museums … the Naval Undersea Museum (submarines!) … and then later in the week to the Puget Sound Navy Museum (mostly about WWII and those ships and planes, but also older and newer history of the US Navy).
I’ve been to the Bremerton public marina by boat many times, and had visited the Bremerton Puget Sound Navy Museum twice before (it’s only a block or so away from the public marina in downtown Bremerton), so on this trip, I was especially eager to head just a little bit north of town (by vehicle on a road) to the Naval Undersea Museum since I’d never been there.
Want to go? Let’s go! Lots of photos coming here. Grab a drink and a snack and settle in. 🙂
I don’t like the war and violence part of this museum, so I don’t show much of that. But I’m fascinated by how things work, how a submarine works, and how humans live in those environments. So the latter curiosity is what I take with me as I visit places like this. US Navy submarines were used for ocean exploration and research, and for rescue, and for weather reporting, etc. This Naval Undersea Museum was fascinating!
The conning tower, or “sail”, of Sturgeon (USS-637), was the first Sturgeon-class nuclear-powered attack submarine to be built. Its conning tower has been on display here since 1995 . At 292 feet in length, with 109 people on board, this class of submarine was in service from the 1960s to 2004.
The conning tower is 30 feet long, 18 feet tall (not counting the antennae), and weighs 55 tons.
The side-mounted blades (properly called “fairwater planes”) help with stabilization, and can rotate to help with steerage, and they can be rotated to full vertical in order to help break ice above the submarine when surfacing under/through ice.
That was impressive!
We had barely gotten ourselves parked and out of our vehicle when we noticed these two subs (below) on the farther side of the parking lot.
Let’s start with the white one … Trieste II, a DSV 1 (deep submergence vehicle).
Lest you think that this one is small, the photo below may convince you otherwise.
I’ll share photos of the informational signs that were posted beside this submarine.
For more information about Trieste II, visit the Naval Undersea Museum’s webpage HERE.
And now let’s go explore the other submarine in the parking lot … Mystic, a DSRV 1 (deep submergence rescue vehicle).
The mechanism that steers this sub was fascinating. There is no rudder. At the aft end of the sub is the large white contraption that has vanes inside it. Those narrow vanes turn and steer the sub. The horizontal vanes turn to direct the sub up or down. And the lateral vanes turn to direct the sub to port or starboard. The propeller, of course, makes the sub move forward or backward.
Here (below) are the informational signs for Mystic.
Interestingly, this type of sub (there were only two of them) were built to rescue the crew from a sub that could no longer come to the surface. A number of subs had sunk and all hands lost prior to these two rescue subs being built. But, as soon as these two rescue subs were built, no more subs went down without being able to come up on their own power … so these two subs were never used to rescue anyone. Today, there is newer technology used for submarine rescue.
For more information about Mystic, visit the Naval Undersea Museum’s webpage HERE.
Here we are half way into this blog post, and we haven’t even gone through the front door of the museum!
Let’s walk back across the parking lot and get in the front door. Here are some of the things that interested me inside the museum.
The double dolphin pin is awarded to every US Navy submariner.
Passing down a special set of dolphins is not uncommon. Retired Officer Beth Coye pinned Laura Martindale with the dolphins that had been Officer Beth Coye’s late father’s dolphins.
Henry Kanahele, retired, pins dolphins on his newly qualified son, Nanikamaikaiamekaoluoluokanoho-Lokahipuanaonahoahanau Kanahele.
Here’s just a little info and a few photos about mines and torpedoes.
The interior of this museum was larger than it looked, from the outside, to me anyway. So much to see and do and read and learn.
An entire room was dedicated to oceans … how they are/were formed, temperature of the water, the movement of the water, the changing bottom of the ocean floor, how submarines navigate all of that, and what submarines (and submariners) have done to increase our knowledge about all of that.
Towards the end of the route we had taken through the building was this display …
Dolphins have been using biological sonar (echolocation) for millions of years. It’s more accurate and faster than anything humans have developed.
We humans think we’re so smart. Here (below) is what we need to go even a few hundred feet below the suface of the ocean.
That was a super museum! I’m sure I didn’t take in even half of what I saw, and I sure didn’t see everything.
In the end, my questions were … 1) how does one pronounce the word mariner … a sailer who sails the seas? MARE-ih-ner, yes? And then 2) how does one pronounce the word submarine? Sub-mah-REEN, yes? Ok, here’s the tricky part … 3) how does one pronounce the word submariner … one who sails the seas in a submarine? Well, there are differences of opinion! But I asked that question while my friends and I were here at this museum this day, and I was told “officially” that the pronunciation “sub-ma-REEN-er” is wrong. The word “submariner” is correctly based on a mariner who sails on a “sub” … hence, the correct pronunciation of sub-mariner is “sub-MARE-ih-ner”. Just take the word “mariner” and add “sub” in front of it.
The British pronounce it correctly. It’s some USA people (including some US Navy folk) who incorrectly pronounce it “sub-ma-REEN-er”. But the US Navy says it’s “sub-MARE-ih-ner”. You take a mariner and then put them under water, and they become a sub-mariner. A submarine is a thing … a sub-mariner is a person … different pronunciation.
Remember to keep the lens on your periscope clean. 🙂
This was SO COOL! I’ll share it with a couple of friends and I’ll be reading all of it again tomorrow. This was great. 🙂
Yes, share it with friends! All of my blog posts can be shared anywhere any of you like, well … almost anywhere. 🙂 But yes please share with friends who might be interested in the same topics. Glad you liked it Nevada. 🙂
You beat me by a minute, Nevada! This blog post was great, I didn’t have a clue about any of it and never thought about subs being used to latch onto a sunken sub and save the crew. Fantastic that there are so many uses for submarines other than warfare. Ann finds the greatest stuff! Thanks Ann. 🙂
Susan, I didn’t know about subs that could rescue crew on other subs either. This museum was an excellent way to learn all kinds of things. Thanks for your kind and enthusiastic words. 🙂
Me too, stuff I didn’t know that I didn’t know. This was great. I’ll read through it again too. But I really liked the idea of subs used for research, and for rescue, and I really like the human interest parts of US Navy personnel. Probably 98% of us are immigrants, let’s include everyone and let’s be kind!! I was in the US army for a short stint, many years ago, but there were no blacks, no hispanics, no asians, no women, no gays (that we knew of), etc. It’s about time that we figured out that we’re all in this together. It took me most of my life to figure that out. Hope other people are quicker about it! Ha! 🙂
Amen, Tim. Kindness … we could do with more of that these days. My grandparents were immigrants. I bet yours were too, or some of them. Seems a whole lot of the young folks today HAVE figured it out already. Gives me hope.
A deep dive into many things I have no knowledge of. 🙂 Thank you, this was excellent.
Great comment!!!! A “deep dive” into many things. I laughed out loud, Ruby. Thank you! 🙂
I always thought submarines were only for war. This is so refreshing and wonderful and hopeful. On the other hand, I haven’t a clue how a nuclear reactor or engine can power a submarine, what if it blows up? I love the new things I learn from this blog, but I always seem to have even more questions! ha! 🙂
Yes, keep your periscope clean, gotta keep looking forward.
I wonder how a nuclear reactor powers a submarine too, Fran. Maybe the reactor produces electricity and then an electric motor powers the engines/props? I don’t know. Hmmm, something else to learn. Ok more research needed.
I didn’t read everything but I’ll go back and take another look. This was fascinating. I had no idea there were submarines that could latch onto another sub and save the crew. I’ve looked online at current technology (PRM and SRDRS) and it’s fascinating, used by numerous countries around the world.
Oh good for you for researching current technology for rescuing sunken subs. I’ve done that now too, Tina, and indeed it’s fascinating. I was impressed that the technology has been shared with other countries such that, as you say, so many now have rescue subs with the new technology. Thanks for encouraging me to do more research. 🙂
So, I saw a submarine surface once, as I was crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca heading towards the San Juan Islands from Seattle … and one surfaced about a half mile in front of me obviously heading out to sea. Scared the beejesus out of me!!!! I was in my 28-foot Chris Craft powerboat.
A whole bunch of years ago, prior to my seeing that sub, a submarine surfaced in the Strait and came up UNDER a very small sailboat, immediately sinking the sailboat. The guy onboard the sailboat was rescued but all of his possessions were on his sailboat … gone. Obviously, someone did NOT keep their periscope clean. There have been other reports of extremely narrow misses between a sub and container ships, HUGE ships here in Washington. Like, you can’t see a 500-foot long container ship??? Obviously, the ships can’t see the submarine. With a major nuclear submarine base here in Washington State, I’m surprised there aren’t more reports of “sightings”. But the history of this stuff is fascinating, and how they help us. I like that part.
Holy crap! A half mile in front of your boat is not very far in front of your boat! And if it were me out there, I’d be wondering if maybe there’s another sub nearby just coming up and it might come up UNDER my boat. No wonder it scared you. Glad you’re ok.
And, yes, I read the reports of that sailboat being hit by the surfacing sub, and the rescue of the owner. Scary stuff. And I’ve read a few news reports of subs having near collisions with huge commercial ships here. What’s with that?
The fact that submarines can’t be seen most of time seems to be what makes them so frightening. Maybe there’s a need to keep their movements secret here in Puget Sound, but seems to me that safety is more important.
Very cool! I have toured 2 or 3 submarines, most, I think, on the East Coast. I remember them being from WW II eras, and I found them really photogenic inside, though I don’t pretend to understand how it all worked. I have a friend in the Truck Safety family who served on submarines, and he talks about it frequently. I don’t think I could do it. I enjoyed your photos!
I don’t think I could spend time on a submarine, under water, either, Dawn. I wonder, is there a test they use to find out if a prospective submarine crew member can handle the time under water? Ask your Truck Safety friend next time you see him, ok? And thank him!
I didn’t serve on a sub, but I had really good friends who did. And I visited them in port and was able to spend time inside a submarine. It’s huge in there … and it feels so tiny in there … both at the same time. They talked about how it feels to be under water, with no options, only the boat to bring you back up to air. And yet they loved what they did. This was great, thank you!
Wow, interesting feedback, Ben … to have a sub feel so huge and yet so small. Maybe it’s being so enclosed and underwater that does that, eh? I sure don’t need to find out first-hand!
YEP. Keep your periscope clean is very good advice, but not just to look forward. Looking laterally is important, too. Especially if you don’t want to be blind-sided.
And just as important is to look behind to see where you have been.
Thank you, Ann, for keeping an open mind and sharing the broad picture. History and current affairs aren’t just about the things of which we approve and with which we are comfortable
Keep on exploring, learning and sharing.😲😉
Thank you.
Ha! Indeed! A 360-degree view is the best. In so many ways, not just on/in the water but in life too. Sometimes learning is hard, new things might not fit well, but yes let’s keep the periscope clean and turning. 🙂 Thanks Fritzi.
Anything about boats is great with me! 🙂 I didn’t know about either of those subs in the parking lot. Guess I better go on a field trip. Thanks, I will!
Oh yes go, Rob. Go for a drive and check those two subs out. And there’s so much more inside the museum than I showed here. It’s fascinating and great fun.
I don’t know much about boats, nothing about submarines, but I found the steering mechanism for that sub, Mystic, absolutely fascinating. How sensible, how logical. Really appreciate your showing it, and describing it, and showing a close up of the ball joint. This was great. 🙂
Isn’t that steering mechanism fascinating? I wondered why it isn’t used on other subs, but then I figured maybe it wasn’t the most efficient? I kept looking for someone to ask, and asked a few folks inside the museum, but no one knew. Ah well, something else to learn in the future. Let me know if you find more info about it Jamie.