Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: jrll@Portia.stanford.edu (john ralls) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: an old sub Message-ID: <7834@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 28 Jun 89 12:28:56 GMT Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Lines: 33 Approved: military@att.att.com From: john ralls smb@ulysses.homer.nj.att.com (Steven M. Bellovin) writes: >While in Baltimore for Usenix, I visited the U.S.S. Torsk, a World War II- >era submarine on display in the Inner Harbor. That thing is tiny inside; >it's amazing to think that ~80 people could have lived on it for long >periods. >The other thing that suprised me was learning that it was still in service >as late as the Cuban Missle crisis. When was the last such sub retired? Most of the WWII left-over subs were retired from USN service between 1968 and 1972; as your friend noted, many went on to other countries and serve still. (The Argentine boat Santa Fe, which the British sank in the Falklands war, was ex-USS Catfish SS-339, built by EB in 1944). The US Navy now operates only four diesel submarines -- USS Darter, the last one built with the old-style hull; USS Barbel and USS Blueback, of the first class of spindle-hulled submarines built (a third sister, USS Bonefish, was badly damaged in a fire in 1986. She will not likely return to service); and a research deep-diver, the USS Dolphin. Many of the old boats are in monuments and displays around the country, in a variety of configurations. Two which are particularly well restored and which avoided the post war "GUPPY" modifications are USS Lionfish, at Fall River Massachusets, and USS Pintado, at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. John