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« on: June 27, 2014, 07:09:48 PM »
All,
A great friend of mine Tim Calvert, posted this today on the TVA website and honestly I believe that we need to get behind this and have HSIB explain to all of us as to why they are refusing to have them onboard as a crew. While I understand micro-managing and miss-managment this has gone way too far.
This story suddenly appeared on my facebook page. Please share it! It was posted on something called reddit. I have no idea what that is but our story is very well told and support from the public is building.
Baltimore, MD - Long an icon of Baltimore's Inner Harbor and a visible reminder of the establishment of the area as a tourist destination, USS Torsk, moored at Pier 3 alongside the National Aquarium, languished for almost two decades with indifferent and irregular maintenance until 1997, when a dedicated core of people began to take the Maryland Submarine Memorial under their care.
Comprised of veterans of various military services, including the submarine fleet, as well as family members and many who just loved the boats, the Torsk Volunteer Association began the long, tedious, and difficult task of bringing the Galloping Ghost of the Japanese Coast back to life, restoring the boat as much as possible to resemble what it would have looked like while still serving the nation proudly as late as 1968. For 17 years, the group met almost every Saturday at 7am to begin a day's work polishing brass, repairing systems, fixing lights, cleaning, and any and all of the sundry maintenance tasks that the submarine required, taking over and assisting the Museum staff with preserving the vessel for the public. None of them were paid for their work, and many went deeply out-of-pocket in their efforts to preserve the boat.
In April of 2014, after 17 years of service, the Torsk Volunteer Association was rather unceremoniously dismissed from their service on Torsk. No explanation was given; locks were changed and they were informed that they were no longer permitted to board.
As a long-time Baltimore resident who remembers Torsk when the only color inside was that old public-school-blue everywhere, and who witnessed (and had a hand in presiding over) some of the restoration (and critical damage control) on the boat, this situation is both disappointing and critically dangerous.
No one currently employed at the Museum is a qualified submariner; the Torsk Volunteer Association included at least one sailor who served on Torsk. No one currently in a position of leadership in the Museum is even a blue-water service veteran; the Torsk Volunteer Association is comprised of sailors and service members with extensive experience. The Museum recently invested a large sum of money in drydocking Torsk and Constellation both, but many of the Torsk Volunteer Association provided the expertise and critical on-board support - at some personal risk - to keep the boat in good order.
The Torsk Volunteers have taken extensive and expensive risks in supporting the Maryland Submarine Memorial as a living, vital attraction for people worldwide to visit, learn, and experience. Many of them have donated personal belongings and historic artifacts to Torsk to improve the visitor experience.
Those of you who care, who remember Torsk from back in the day, or who have visited and seen the boat's steady recovery over these last years, please consider a telephone call or letter to the Director of the Historic Ships in Baltimore Museum, urging him to reinstate the Torsk Volunteer Association's access to the boat in order to continue to facilitate the old girl's return to her former glory.
The Historic Ships in Baltimore can be reached at their website, or by mail or phone. (Information is on their website.)
If you do decide to contact the Museum, please be respectful in your conversation.
Please note: I have not been a member of the Torsk Volunteer Association for several years, nor am I affiliated professionally with them. I am a history student, and a Baltimore-area resident with a love of the boat.
Thanks for reading, /r/Baltimore. Together, maybe, we can help keep the old girl's dedicated crew around.
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