A picket is defined as, “A detachment of one or more troops, ships, or aircraft held in readiness or advanced to warn of an enemy’s approach.” Equipping a submarine with radar might seem obvious for protecting a naval fleet since it can quickly submerge to hide after detecting the enemy, but bulky (and balky) electronics equipment and already severely-cramped conditions had to be overcome. In fact, it would take a half-century for a workable solution to be realized and only fifteen years later, the radar picket submarine mission would be obsolete.
While an early form of radar intended to help avoid ship collisions had been patented in 1904 by German inventor Christian Hülsmeyer, it never became commercially viable. Thirty years of research and technological advances were needed before British meteorologist Robert Watson Watt—investigating reports of a German ‘death ray’ based on radio—realized that radio signals could be used to locate aircraft at long distances. In early 1935, he submitted a secret report to the Air Ministry entitled “The Detection of Aircraft by Radio Methods,” which was soon followed by an experimental demonstration. This resulted in the creation of the “Chain Home” radar system along Britain’s East and South coasts that enabled early detection of German air raids and arguably was a deciding factor in The Battle of Britain.
As the war ground on, Allied Naval forces began advancing across the Pacific toward Japan. In late October, 1944, US troops invaded the Island of Leyte, touching off a naval battle—possibly the largest ever fought—that would ultimately see heavy Allied losses from the first major use of Kamikaze (“Divine Wind”) aircraft by Japanese forces.
In early April, 1945, Allied forces launched the largest amphibian assault of the war on the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa, a battle that would rage for 82 days. A ring of 15 radar picket stations was established, with each station typically made up of one or two destroyers supported by a pair of landing ships for additional anti-aircraft (AA) power. Among these were a small number of purpose-built radar picket destroyers that had sacrificed their torpedo tubes in order to add more radar equipment and AA firepower.
A battle report dated 20 July, 1945 identified radar pickets as a fundamental need and that, “The accomplishment of the important task of the advanced radar picket requires a sufficiency of properly equipped ships which are adequately supported by other surface craft and covered by Combat Air Patrol (CAP) for as much of the time as possible. To be truly effective the picket must be capable of remaining on station” [emphasis mine]. The biggest challenge to using surface ships as radar pickets was that they were the first vessels encountered by approaching Kamikazes. Knowing the important function of these ships, they were hit first and hard, resulting in heavy losses to the pickets.
The report further stated that, “The use of submarines for radar pickets is being considered. After detecting and reporting the approach of enemy planes, the sub could dive. Limited range of present submarine radar—plus rearrangements inside hull—are problems to be solved before submarines can perform this duty.”
With the invasion of Japan being anticipated for November, 1945, the US Navy ordered 24 fleet-type submarines to be modified with periscope-mounted SV air-search radars for radar picket work at shallow submergence. Two had been completed with four more in progress when Japan surrendered that August. The end of the war reduced the immediate need for radar picket submarines, but development continued.
In late 1946, two Tench-class fleet submarines were modified for radar picket operations; the USS Spinax (SS-417) and USS Requin (SS-481). While not designated specifically as radar picket subs (SSR), they both saw the addition of SR-2 (air search) and SV-2 (low-angle surface search) radars mounted on the afterdeck with all the electronics and the combat information center (CIC) located in the after torpedo room just below.
Stern torpedo tubes were retained, but had to be loaded externally and electric generation and air conditioning had to be increased to support the additional electronics. This setup made for a more survivable picket than a surface ship, but salt-water spray tended to short out the above-deck components and extreme crowding below decks made for a less-than-effective solution.
US Navy Fleet Type Submarine Classes
Gato Class Balao Class Tench Class 77 built from 1940–1944 120 built from 1942–1946 29 built from 1944–1951 2,424 tons displacement submerged 2,416 tons displacement submerged 311′-8″ length, 27′-3″ beam 311′-6″ length, 27′-3″ beam 311′-8″ length, 27′-3″ beam 4 x diesel engines (1,600 HP each @ 720 or 750 RPM) driving electric generators; 2 x 126 cell batteries; high-speed electric motors with reduction gears or low-speed direct-drive motors; two propeller shafts 21 knots surfaced, 9 knots submerged 20 knots surfaced, 9 knots submerged Range: 11,000 nautical miles (20,372km) at 10 knots, typically on patrol for 75 days Diving Depth: 300′ (90m) Test, 450′ (137m) Emergency, hull thickness = 9/16″ (14.3mm) mild steel Diving Depth: 400′ (122m) Test, 600′ (183m) Emergency, hull thickness = 7/8″ (22.2mm) high-tensile steel 10 torpedo tubes (6 bow, 4 stern), 24 torpedoes carried Crew: 10 officers, 70–71 enlisted men .
This is a good point to take a more detailed look at the three classes of Fleet submarines manufactured during WWII. The general layout was similar for all three, with the most significant change being the high tensile steel ‘thick skin’ introduced on the Balao-class boats that enabled them to dive as deep as 600′ (183m) in an emergency. The crush depth was calculated at 900′ (274m), but no-one ever came back to confirm it. Balao-class boats looked so similar to the earlier Gato-class that the Japanese never realized and were setting their depth charges far too shallow—that is, until Congressman Andrew J. May blabbed this highly sensitive fact at a press conference in June 1943. Vice Admiral Charles Lockwood, commander of the US Pacific submarine fleet, estimated May’s leak cost the Navy as many as ten submarines and 800 crewmen killed in action and was quoted as saying, “I hear Congressman May said the Jap depth charges are not set deep enough. He would be pleased to know that the Japs set them deeper now.” Tench-class boats incorporated minor improvements over the Balao-class boats.
The Navy’s Bureau of Ships used the lessons learned from these first conversions to launch a formal radar picket submarine program, appropriately named Project MIGRAINE due to all the headaches caused by the added equipment. The seawater issues were mitigated by locating the search and height finder radars on separate high masts mounted aft of the conning tower, out of the reach of spray when surfaced. Below decks, the crew’s mess and galley became the CIC, and all four tubes were removed from the after torpedo room to make room for relocated crew berthing. Two tubes were removed from the forward torpedo room for storage and yet more equipment. Electronics included SV-1 (aircraft warning), SV-2 (low angle surface search) and AN/BPS-2 (air search) radars, as well as a YE-2 homing beacon transmitter. Two boats received the MIGRAINE I conversion: Tench-class USS Tigrone (SSR-419) and the only Balao-class boat to be converted, the USS Burrfish (SSR-312). We’ll take a closer look at Burrfish a bit later…
Due to the Requin and Spinax continuing to have issues with their original conversions, they were sent back for MIGRAINE II conversions–essentially the same modifications as the MIGRAINE I boats, but with the height finder radars left in their original locations on the afterdeck, where they continued to have issues with salt water spray during surfaced operations. As an interesting side bit of trivia, Spinax briefly appears in the opening scenes of the 1953 science fiction movie, Phantom from Space, where she is seen on radar picket duty.
The Cold War was in full swing by this point and air defense of US carrier battle groups deployed near Russian territories called for more radar picket subs. Cramped quarters continued to be an operational hinderance, so the MIGRAINE III conversion took the drastic measure of cutting the hull in two and inserting a 24’ (7.3m) ‘plug’ ahead of the main control room for an expanded CIC and more electronics. The aft torpedo tubes were removed for crew berthing as in the earlier conversions, but the full complement of six forward tubes were kept.
A larger, streamlined sail was fitted with BPS-2 search radar mounted aft of the periscopes, AN/BPS-3 height finding radar on a pedestal behind the sail, and an AN/URN-3 TACAN beacon on the afterdeck. Six Gato-class boats would receive this conversion between 1951–1953, giving the US Navy ten radar picket submarines for use just as the Korean conflict was drawing to its tenuous close.
Two additional purpose-built conventionally-powered radar picket boats (Sailfish-class) would be commissioned in 1956, the USS Sailfish (SSR-572) and USS Salmon (SSR-573). With streamlined sails and hulls, they boasted surfaced speeds of 20.5 knots and submerged speeds of 15 knots. This was a slight improvement over the MIGRAINE boats, but was still far too slow to keep up with surface battle groups, which limited their effectiveness. Nonetheless, seven SSRs were assigned to the Atlantic fleet and operated in the Caribbean and North Atlantic, as well as participated in NATO exercises and deployments in the Mediterranean as part of the US Sixth Fleet. The remaining five boats went to the Pacific fleet and operated off the North American Pacific shores and in WESTPAC deployments to the US Seventh Fleet.
The launch of the USS Nautilus (SSN-571) in 1954 indicated that the future for submarines would be nuclear. One final purpose-built radar picket boat would be constructed, the Triton-class USS Triton (SSRN-586), shown above, which, at nearly 6,000 tons surface displacement and 447’ length, was the longest US submarine until the USS Ohio (SSBN-726) was constructed in the early 1980s. The Triton boasted a (published) surfaced speed of over 30 knots, submerged speed of over 27 knots, and a 700′ (213m) test depth. She was the only US submarine to carry two nuclear reactors, and the last to have a conning tower located inside the sail. Three main deck levels assured plenty of room for dedicated air-control equipment. On Triton’s maiden voyage, Captain Edward L. Beach was ordered to attempt the first submerged circumnavigation of the world, which was successfully completed 41,500 nautical miles and nearly three months later.
Right about the time Triton was being launched, Grumman introduced the E-1 Tracer airborne early warning aircraft, which effectively obsoleted the radar picket submarine mission overnight. The Triton was reclassified as an SSN attack submarine, and all of the conventionally-powered SSR boats were withdrawn from radar picket operations in 1961, with two of the MIGRAINE III boats immediately being scrapped. The remainder were either temporarily decommissioned, converted back to conventional attack boats (SS) or converted to auxiliary general submarines (AGSS) for use in non-combat operations. The Sailfish survived on active duty the longest; she was decommissioned in 1978 and was sunk as a target vessel in May, 2007.
In a humorous aside, it was reported in April, 1962 that a kite had been found snagged on the former MIGRAINE III boat, USS Raton (SS-270). Charles Schultz took the opportunity a few weeks later to further cement in print one of Charlie Brown’s signature foibles.
One former SSR survives today as a museum boat, the USS Requin (AGSS-481), located at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
So let’s now take a closer look at the Burrfish in order to get a more complete picture of the many lives these unique boats experienced.
On 9 July, 1942, seven months after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Congress authorized an additional 1,900,000 tons of combatant ships to be constructed. Originally named Arnillo, Hull Number SS-312 was renamed Burrfish (after an Atlantic coast swellfish) on 24 September, 1942. One of 265 orders for Balao-class boats (of which 119 would be completed to the original design), her hull was laid down on 24 February, 1943 at Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine. She was christened by Miss Jane Elizabeth Davis at the launch on 18 June, 1943 and was subsequently commissioned on 14 September, 1943.
Burrfish completed six war patrols, sinking one 5,894 ton Japanese tanker, and with USS Ronquil (SS-396) assisting, destroying a 200 ton patrol vessel. She also participated in several special missions, including rescuing ditched B-29 bomber airmen and conducting reconnaissance missions of the beaches of Palau and Yap. After returning from her sixth patrol in May, 1945, she was ordered to the Portsmouth Navy Yard in Maine for major overhaul. The war ended on September 2, 1945 with representatives of the Empire of Japan signing the instruments of surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri. Burrfish would spend the next year conducting various local operations off the US East Coast before being decommissioned in October 1946 and laid up in the “Mothball Fleet” on the Thames River.
Two years later, Burrfish would be recommissioned and assigned for conversion to the radar picket mission, with the designation SSR-312. The conversion took a year, and included replacement of her original high-speed motors and their whiny reduction gears to low-speed, direct-drive motors. Her batteries were replaced and she also received a snorkel system. Her sail was never converted to the more streamlined configuration, however. She would rejoin the fleet in early 1950 and operated along the Atlantic seaboard and conducted training exercises out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba during this time.
Late 1950 saw her operating in the Mediterranean Sea, visiting Navaron Bay, Greece, Toulon, France, Souda Bay, Crete and Taranto and Naples, Italy. She would return to Charleston Naval Shipyard in South Carolina in late 1951 for overhaul.
Upon completion of her overhaul in early 1952, my father (back row, second from left) would join her crew as an E3 Machinists Mate in charge of the forward engine room where he kept two of four Fairbanks-Morse 38 8-1/8 diesel engines going.
This cutaway view gives a good idea of the arrangement of a Fleet boat ‘drivetrain.’ The engines turned generators that in turn charged the two 126-cell batteries or powered two Elliot main propulsion motors rated at 2,740 shaft horsepower. In addition to Fairbanks-Morse engines, some boats used General Motors 16-248 or 16-278A diesels that were a more conventional V16 configuration, each making 1,600 HP at 750 RPM.
As fitted in Burrfish, the opposed piston, 9-cylinder, two-stroke diesel Fairbanks-Morse engines each made 1,600 HP at 720 RPM. This photo is from the USS Requin, and shows that half the engine was situated in the hold below the platform deck. Later Fairbanks-Morse-powered boats used 10-cylinder engines.
This cross section clearly shows why these engines acquired the nickname “rock crushers.”
Following her overhaul, Burrfish made a refresher/training cruise to Puerto Rico, then sailed back to the Mediterranean Sea for a tour of duty with the US Sixth Fleet. The boat is docked at Marseilles, France in the photo, and due to the harbor being too small to turn the boat around, she was backed down the channel to the dock, which must have made for quite a sight.
Burrfish would return to the US East coast in August, 1952. My dad told a story of how, when transiting the Straits of Gibraltar, they experienced a rapid seawater temperature drop that cracked numerous cylinder liners in the main propulsion diesels. All four engines had to be torn down to salvage enough good liners to put one engine back online for a return to port for repairs. She would finish her tour in the United States Virgin Islands before heading back to the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard for another overhaul. Dad was done with his four year enlistment at this point and returned to civilian life and a career in teaching.
Burrfish would deploy several more times, operating along the US Eastern coast, and in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Sea. Her final deployment in September, 1955 was to the Arctic Ocean area where, along with the USS Redfin (SSR-272), she collected intelligence on ‘potential enemies of the United States.’ Upon return to her home port of Norfolk, Virginia, she would operate locally until June, 1956, when she was inactivated and placed in the Reserve Fleet on the Thames River at the end of the year.
Toward the end of the decade, the Canadian Government approached the US Navy with a request to lease a surplus US submarine for use as a training target for Canadian antisubmarine forces. The USS Burrfish was selected, and would become the first Canadian-flagged submarine in forty years.
After a $900,000 refit back to her WWII configuration, Burrfish was reclassified back to SS-312. She was again decommissioned and signed over (under lease) to the Canadian Navy, where she became Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship (HMCS) Grilse (SS-71), named after a famous Canadian yacht/warship.
HMCS Grilse would spend most of her operating time in the Pacific. After a six month refit and overhaul in 1963, she spent a week dockside conducting simulated cruises with full crew aboard. A crewmember related the story of how she settled to the bottom of the harbor (i.e. sank) during one of these training sessions and it was a group of sea cadets on the sailing sloop Oriole who lifted the emergency receiver on the periscope to hear: “Uh, could you notify someone we have a spot of bother here?”
In addition to her training duties, HMCS Grilse participated in a research program conducted by the Pacific Naval Laboratory (PNL) of the Defense Research Board of Canada to see how long a submarine’s wake turbulence could be detected after its passing. Probes were extended out of a forward torpedo tube for acquiring data. French polymath Benoit Mandelbrot was among the scientists that analyzed this data, and he later stated that it had a great impact on his thinking on fractals and financial market turbulence.
After eight years of service, The Canadian Navy prepared to return the boat to the US Navy. On 2 October, 1969, to the accompaniment of a band and speeches, the Canadian flag and commissioning pennant were lowered and HMCS Grilse (SS-71) was formally returned to the US Navy, which had already stricken her from the Navy List.
USS Moray (SS-300) being sacrificed as a torpedo test target in 1970 near San Clemente Island, CA.
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On 19 November 1969, Burrfish met her end as a radio-controlled target ship in the test of a helicopter-deployed Mark 46 torpedo.
USS Moray (SS-300) at rest—the only Balao-class submarine situated at a diveable depth on the US West coast.
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The torpedo hit her hull in the vicinity of the pump room, and Burrfish sank in 1,600′ of water off San Clemente Island, California, where she rests today.
Additional reading: Diesel-Electric Submarines: World’s Biggest Hybrids (by Lee Wilcox)
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Author’s Note: Along with two buddies, my Dad joined the Navy right out of high school in 1949 and qualified on the USS Congor (SS-477), earning the right to wear submariner ‘dolphins.’ He turned down a Naval Academy appointment because the only degree they offered was in Marine Engineering. After his time in submarine service, he earned a Masters and Doctorate in Education from the University of Georgia, specializing in vocational education. In retirement, he authored an adult literacy textbook entitled Applied Technical Mathematics. We always enjoyed hearing his submarine stories, and accompanied him several times to the annual Submarine Memorial Service at the Navy base in Kings Bay, Georgia. Dad lost his battle with vascular dementia in late 2018, and—like the Burrfish—is now on eternal patrol… This article is presented in his—and all Cold War submariners—honor.
Very interesting stuff this. Thank you for supplying it to all of us here. It stands as further proof how the Cold War was not really so cold after all. It was more like lukewarm with the danger of sliding into hot at any given moment. I do hope those radars out there work, I want to know when the bombs are falling so that I may use my last moments wisely!
All through your descriptions of the overcrowded and hot picket subs of the forties and fifties, all I can think of is vacuum tubes. Radar took lots and lots of big, hot vacuum tubes. By the end of picket subs in 1961 tiny, cool transistors were replacing tubes, especially in military applications. I’ll bet the airborne radars that replaced them had lots of transistors and few tubes.
Ed, I’m sorry for the recent loss of your dad. This dockside classic report is fascinating and your dad’s accomplishments during his cold war submarine service and the Masters and Doctorate degrees earned afterward show what a wide ranging and accomplished life he lived.
I have no way to conceive of the noise, heat, and deep vibrations that four giant diesels might make in such a small space.
And perhaps some day I may find an opportunity to use the phrase: “we have a spot of bother here”.
Thank you for this story in honor of your father.
Ed,
Excellent article, appreciate the research and the presentation.
+1
Hi,
Very much enjoyed the article. As an aside, I have a bit of kit from the Oriole. A largish single lead block that I think was used as topping lift. Got it at sea cadets garage sale decades ago.
Thnaks again for the piece.
Alistair
That’s neat! When we emptied Dad’s house to sell, I found these in the back of his silverware drawer. Wish I had known about them earlier so he could have told me whether they came from Burrfish, Congor or otherwise.
The bits and pieces that we find, some call junk, but because of the association they have we see more in them. And god knows I couldn’t make cutlery or a block with anywhere near the skill these things were made.
Alistair
Thanks for both a fascinating look at a bit of naval history I knew next to nothing about as well as a fitting tribute to your father.
Thank you for a very interesting and educational article and thank you to your father for his service to his country.
Ed, thank you very much for an entertaining and educational Sunday morning read.
Much appreciated.
My home town of Brisbane was home to some USN fleet subs in WW2, so I feel a connection
I spent the summer of 1967 on the Spinax (SS 417) as a Midshipman. That was time well spent as I figured out real quick that being in a submerged tube and being pinged on by surface ships was not my cup of tea. By the way, you really do get pinged on, the sonar pulse is in the audio range and you hear the pulse reverberate in the submarine. You really have appreciate those sailors that go to sea for several months and stay submerged for the whole time. They really do need their heads screwed on straight to be in that environment for that long.
Since there are no more diesel electric submarines in the US Navy I guess I’m not giving away anything here, but we (the Midshipman) could not figure out why when one of us would use the head (toilet for you land lubbers) the sailors would congregate around the door of the head. It turns out that they would only do this if the submarine is submerged and snorkeling. The snorkel tube is a large tube that allows the submarine to run the diesels while submerged, it has a valve that slams shut if sea water moves too high up on the snorkel tube, when the snorkel valve is shut the diesels suck the air out of the submarine. The submarine would go to a negative pressure very quickly when the snorkel valve closes. The commode on the submarine had a simple ball valve that would gravity drop the contents of the commode into the waste tank. It turns out that if you operate the ball valve of the commode when the snorkel valve is shut, the negative pressure would quickly overcome gravity and you would get the contents of the commode sprayed back at you. The lesson here was never use the head when the submarine was snorkeling, and if you couldn’t wait, make sure you timed the opening of the ball valve when the snorkel valve was open. The reason the sailors were standing around the door of the head was to find out which one of the Midshipman would learn this lesson the hard way.
Great story! The operating instructions for a fleet submarine head make for interesting reading:
https://maritime.org/doc/fleetsub/chap9.htm#9F
In researching this article, I also saw that another prank was to send a new sailor on a hunt throughout the boat for the “golden rivet.” (c:
…or a bucket of steam…
…or the keys to the sea chest…
…or a tube of relative bearing grease…
…or 50′ of shore line…
it was a rite of passage in the Navy (Coast Guard in my case)
Thank you Ed. Great article and thanks to your Dad for his service. It takes a special kind of sailor to be a submariner.
Wow! I thought deep dive was just going to be a pun, but this is really a great in depth (sorry) article. I appreciated reading it as a long time sub fan. I think it would also be worthy of publication in a naval , military history or general ship publication or website.
+1… VERY informative. The article felt professionally written.
Well done, Ed. Sorry for the recent loss of your father, and thanks to him for his service, and thanks to you for this amazing piece.
Sometimes I need a break from examining the minutiae of a classic car piece to see if it corresponds with my own knowledge. In its place I need a piece like this; a subject of passing interest so well conveyed that it holds my attention thoroughly and enthrallingly.
Ed, you come across as tall in your ‘About’ pic, and that group shot with your dad suggests he too was tall. Did this pose any problem within the confined quarters of a submarine?
Dad was 6′-3″ (1.9m) tall, and said that he learned pretty quickly how to move through the hatches quickly without banging his head.
We toured the USS Wyoming (SSBN-742) at one of the sub memorial services, and the seaman who toured us was about 6′-6″ tall. I noticed pretty quickly that he would move to a spot in each new compartment where he could stand up straight!
That was my first thought, good heavens, if Ed’s dad was anything near as tall as he is he would be a submariner with a headache and a permanently bent neck. I worked with a Canadian ex-submariner for a while, he was more the short roly-poly type.
Thanks for this great article, another topic I had no idea existed.
Dad was probably a little shorter by the time this photo was taken in 2001 on USS Clamagore (SS-343) at Patriot’s Point in Charleston, SC. My Cub Scout Pack spent the weekend on CV-10 Yorktown, and Dad toured us through the boat – he could still point to various lines and controls and explain their function 50 years after his time on Burrfish.
Clamagore is a fleet boat that later received a GUPPY II conversion and is the only GUPPY boat left. She’s in very bad condition, though, and her fate is up in the air currently, with one group wanting to sink her as an offshore reef and another trying unsuccessfully to raise funds for a complete refurb.
My dad was a plank owner on Burrfish torpedoman 2nd
A former neighbor of mine, Willie, was a WWII submarine vet, who happened to have been 6’4″ tall. He told me that he volunteered for sub duty because one day a bunch of new navy recruits were mustered and they asked for submarine volunteers. The man next to Willie volunteered, and then turned to Willie and called him a chicken for not standing up and volunteering also.
Willie spontaneously volunteered, avoiding being labelled a chicken… but he assumed that given his height, he’d be passed over for sub duty. No such luck… he spent the next 3 years in a submarine.
Navy guys ate better than the other branches, and submariners ate the best of all (at least for the first couple weeks of the patrol). Whether that was sufficient compensation for being stuck in a cramped metal tube with ~80 other guys is not for me to say!
Thanks for all the kind comments, everyone. Researching this helped me fill in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of Dad’s boat and its role in the Cold War. Writing about it was cathartic, too.
A very impressive article. If any one is interested in visiting a Baleo class sub, the USS Lionfish is on display at Battleship Cove in Fall River, Mass. along with the USS Massachusetts and other ships too. It’s been over 40 years since I was there but it was a very memorable visit, well worth stopping if you’re in the area.
Well done, Ed. I have a brother who has spent his career in and around submarines and so sub pieces interest me especially.
It is fascinating to think of how quickly the technology evolved in the 40 year span of 1918-58. That something this expensive could go from state-of-the-art to garage sale so quickly is amazing, especially considering how long some of our military hardware has been serving.
And of course I appreciate this tribute to your dad. Even if long ago, his service is appreciated.
Ed,
Great piece. My condolences on your father’s passing.
I am Jim’s brother. As a career submarine officer, I can assure you the foundation of today’s Submarine Force was largely established by the warfighting and technological innovations during World War II and early in the Cold War–and by Sailors like your father during those periods.
I currently command Submarine Squadron 11 in San Diego. I’m aware of a downed submarine in about that depth of water near San Clemente, which we’ve been evaluating as a possible training “search” target for my Undersea Rescue Command. I’m curious to find out if it’s BURRFISH.
If you have any plans to visit Southern California in the near future and want to tour a LOS ANGELES-class submarine, let me know. You’ll be pleased to know that we still use Fairbanks-Morse diesels as a backup source of electrical power!
All the best,
Chris Cavanaugh
CAPT, USN
Thank you, sir, and thank you for your service!
The Burrfish is located at Latitude 32 Degrees 53 minutes North Longitude 118 Degrees 36.03 minutes West, and I’d love to know if indeed she is the boat you’re considering using for training.
When we toured the USS Wyoming, we of course were not granted access to the reactors, etc., but were instead led to the compartment containing the auxiliary engine – a Fairbanks-Morse, as you noted. The sailor stationed nearby on the tour route said he got a kick out of seeing the old subvet’s faces light up when they saw “their” engine still in active service. Although, when the sailor saw my Cat hat, he mentioned that the F-M was supposed to be replaced with a Cat engine at the next overhaul. I hope we didn’t let him down!
Should our travels take us out your way, I will definitely look you up.
Many thanks!
Congressman May should have spent the rest of his natural life breaking rocks at Leavenworth.
May was convicted after the war of accepting bribes to use his position as Chairman of the Military Affairs Committee to secure munitions contracts, and served nine months in Federal prison.
He continued to retain influence in Democratic party politics, and President Truman granted May a full pardon in 1952. Unable to revive his political career, he returned home to practice law until his death.
Great write up Ed. Quite a piece of work. Thank you.
For most of 1965, your’s truly was a ‘surfacemariner’ who served on a radar picket ship (converted liberty ships). We operated out of Rhode Island and became an extension of the DEW line across Canada extended out to sea. We had to stay “on station”, which involved a small circular navigation for 30 days at a time. Sighting another ship out there on lonely duty was cause for celebration.
I was an air intercept controller. If radar located an unidentified incoming aircraft, jets were scrambled and it was my job to guide them in for the kill.
Fortunately, no incomings ever arrived.
Fortunately, as well, over-the-horizon radar had just been perfected which made our job obsolete. The picket ships were all scrapped. I still have the engraved plaque that the helmsman referred to to tell him how many degrees to turn for “normal” or “hard” turns (as well as a variety of other stuff). The Captain thought it “unseemly” for an officer to be picking through the salvage, but I am not one to pass on opportunities like that.
Years later I bought a truckload of the steel banded wooden hatch covers that were used on these Liberty ships and turned them into various articles of furniture.
You stirred up a lot of memories, Ed.
I was on the mighty Burrfish from 1954 to June 1956 when it was sent to New London for decommisioning. A left over WWII boat that I loved. It was my favorite submarine. Commanded by Stanley McCord and my favorite officer Brad Mooney who later became aflag officer. We were life long friends and I still miss him.
On our way to the arctic we lost a sea fluching valve and too on enough wate to me a 10/15 degree starboart list. Closest port was Reykovack, Iceland where we made emergency repairs. On to Jan Mayen Island, Norway and denmark before heading back to Groton, Conn. for more pemanent repairs. She went into mothball and later lent to Canada as nthe HSMC Griles for 6 years and retutnrd to San Clamente, CAZ. where it was sunk as a target by Sink-EX.
Thanks for sharing your experiences on the Burrfish, Richard!
My father, Michael E. O’Laughlin, served on the USS Burrfish during the Korean War. He is pictured in one of the photos you posted. I’ll re-attach it here along with the tribute my daughter-in-law created upon his passing.
I was also made aware of a recording. The department of Veterans Affairs made with an interview with my father. You can find it at: Michael E. O’Laughlin Collection | Library of Congress:
https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.27927/
I just saw your reply, Michael – many thanks for posting! That’s neat that our fathers served together… listening to the recording right now. It’s not online, but we have a video interview of Dad made in 2010 before he presented with dementia, that includes the story I included above among others.