SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG Forum
Individual Submarine Boards => USS Marlin (SST-2) => Topic started by: Lance Dean on August 15, 2008, 10:17:01 AM
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I just wanted to thank Bill Lee for going out and getting these photos. These are only a few of the many he took. I think some good things are about to happen with the Marlin.
What an amazing little training sub. It had a crew of 14!
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Any berthing areas or is strictly a one-day trainer?
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It had a 14 member crew according to the sign. I think I see bunks...looks about right.
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I didn't think it had a torpedo room. I like the sign that they posted above the top bunk. We should hang one of those at the bottom of the FTR stairwell on Batfish.
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As you guys probably know these subs were built to give training to officers and also to be used as target boats by other boats. This freed up regular subs to do other duties. As some of you may have noticed, usually the only person on a sub that was good at shooting a torpedo was the skipper. So one of the things the Marlin and the others did after WWII was allow officers to come aboard and practice shooting torpedoes. They also had similar firing equipment so the people could practice setting up for shots also.
After the war, they were used as PR boats. They would travel up the Mississippi for aways and up the inland waterway on the East coast. They would stop at towns and give tours and helped out the recruiters. I had a shipmate on the Scorpion who had served on one of these and he said it was great duty.
The Marlin needs a lot of cleaning, but isn't in bad shape and most of the equipment is still there. Quite a unique museum boat that hopefully will be open again for the public someday. Not shown in these pictures is another space which had two bunks for officers. Sometimes, according to my shipmate, one officer was all that was onboard in the 50s with a senior enlisted acting as asst. Some of the spaces outboard the engines and equipment have to be navigated sideways. The ship is quite similar in size and proportion to the USS Holland, our first sub.
Viejo
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I want to put up a couple of pictures of the Marlin I took last week when I was up there. There are no bow planes on this boat and they have two wheels for controling the boat. One goes back and forth and turns the other just turns. Thought maybe someone could tell me what the controls between them do and also there is a hammer valve to the right of the right wheel and i am not sure if it is connected to the steering or diving or to some other system. We are still trying to find plans for the Marlin, but so far haven't found any.
Viejo :D
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The controls in the center are to shift your steering control from power to hand and to set the amount of stroke the pump (wheel) makes per turn. the large valve is the negative tank flood valve.
Tom
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Tom, thanks. Can you also tell me if you can choose which of these two wheels does the rudder;and if so, which control would change that? I assume the one to port does the planes as it goes back and forth, but both can turn. I have been looking at the manuals up on this site, but never know how much to assume that what is on the marlin is like what is on a regular sub. Well now that you tell me that, it says it on the valve. I never expected it to be that big. I have a picture of the trim manifold, guess I thought it would be there.
Thanks,
Bill
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I believe the manifold in between the wheels is rudder only from what I can read on the plaque. You can pump to=from negative from trim and drain but the gig valve is to flodd directley from sea, much faster to get down in a hurry. There should be a gig valve in control to vent negative. The flood valve is the same as our safety tank flood valves also.
Tom
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Tom, thanks. I'll be writing all this down in notes. I do hope to get some of our diesel guys to come up to the boat and tell us what is what. I have finally determined after much searching, there is no ELT shack on here Wonder what they did without one? LOL
Bill
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I would like to post a couple of pictures of the radio equipment that is left on the Marlin so someone might be able to tell what the missing piece is. Looks like there is one small transmitter and two receivers and then a place for a bigger transmitter.
Thanks,
Bill
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Hey Bill,
there is an ELT shack on the Marlin.... It also functions as the head :2funny:
It does look like you may be missing some radio equipment, but I am not a RM so I don't have much idea as to what is missing.
There are more online manuals posted that you might find interesting Bill, go to www.hnsa.org and look in the documents folder and you may find some stuff to help you with your boat ;)
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Darrin, that wasn't nice. LOL I have downloaded all the pages from HNSA, and am reading. :idiot2: But of course it doesn't mention the Mackerel class. I'll look and see what they had in receivers that look like what the marlin has. There is a Receiver panel that has eight connectors in it and they are all labled, so will see what might have been used with them.
Thanks,
Billl
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Well maybe you have to get the midget-manuals! :2funny:
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That's the problem, all this stuff is normal size, fitted into a shoe box and then they expect some fat old man to crawl around in it. :D
I remember when on the Snook and Scorpion that there were a lot of tight places, but at least I could walk down the passageways on them. Course I had a 30" waist and weighed 70# less. But I willl screen the Sea Cadets when they start coming aboard and find a couple that willl like to squirm around and get through small spaces. I remember on the snook, one of my pals, Jerry Pratt, was small and slender and the old man kept turning down his transfer requests cause he was the only one that could reach one of our electronic pieces of gear to clean it. But it is going to be a lot of fun. Just waiting for warmer weather.
Viejo
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:D I was 137# and 28" waist when I was in - guess who got to do all the squirming around! :laugh: Outboard on those torpedo tubes was pretty tight. I also got the good jobs like inspecting stuff inside the tubes. :crazy2:
Speaking of which, I had one of the old NJS members call today to see if he paid his dues. When he told me he liked my article on the Picuda in my newsletter - he told me that was his qual boat too.
He told me about a passage to the Med in the North Atlantic - he was topside watch during a major storm. Got hit and knocked out by a wave. That's when they decided to secure the topside watch and man the periscope. Of course he knew nothing about it because he was still out cold.! :crazy2: Ok off track...sorry! ::)
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No problem Reminded me of when I was a look out on the Snook. We pulled out of the Phillipenes to go look for a pilot that they thought had ditched in the ocean ( he actually crashed in a mountain) and it was a typhoon or what ever they call them out there. We shut the hatch going down through the sail as one moment we'd be under a wave and the next almost broaching. This went on for three days and we ended up with about 25 people who could stand watches before they called the search off. That's when I leanred about drinking something with acid in it and chewing on crackers when you throw up. So lots of lemonaide and crackers. But we were young and dumb and thought it was fun. I learned a lot about driving the boat in those conditions. Wish someone could have taken a picture of those 60+ foot waves coming over the ship. At 700' down, we could stilll feel groundswells. Can I say that, oh well, I just did. :idiot2:
Viejo
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Bill,
Sorry for the PING, couldn't help myself ;) A shipmate of mine on the Honolulu was on the Decomm crew of the Snook, he loved that boat and refused to change his belt buckle from the Snook to the Hono and from time to time when the MMC would piss him off he would pull out his Snook ball cap and smile and laugh (the MMC was a 41 for freedom sailor) and I did the same when riding other boats (the ball cap deal, didn't stay onboard long enough to buy a buckle nor did I want to)
Books of interest from HNSA for you are the ET Manual and the RM manual, they are dated '91 but they may be to new but will give you an idea of how to fix your gear IF you decide to bring your radio room back online.
Next question about Marlin is what kind of manuals or schematics do you have onboard???
Reason I am asking I have a buddy in DC who goes to the Navy Yards from time to time and he is more then willing and able to pull up files for the boats and copy them at the cost of the copying and then sending them to the boat.. Would you like some assistance here??? I am 99% sure that Jim would be more then happy to play and learn about one of the very unique boats in the museum community.
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Well, I was just on it for part of the first Westpac, I got my dolphins at crews meeting after breakfast and 30 minutes later was on the way to Clark Air Force Base to fly back to the states. Nookie Poo School was the priority I guess. I have always regretted that I never had the time to stay and just be part of the crew. But right from the start, it was quite a boat. The dolphins on my Scorpion Belt buckle are my qual dolphins from the Snook. The ones I wore on the Scorpion are on my sporran that goes with a kilt I used to fit into.
I have all the files downloaded and am going through them as I can find time. I would like to get the radios up and running, so will start looking into that. An eyepiece for the scope is another priority, but don't want to ask for things until I see what might be in the storage shed. When I first got out of the Navy and before starting to build houses on my own, I worked with electronics for awhile and in a service shop where we worked on two way radios, hi fi and other electronic equipment, so will see what is in the files I downloaded. Thanks as always for the help.
Viejo :)
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Bill,
A while ago John Clear bought the handles for a scope and he may or may not have a lead on getting the eye pieces that you are missing. Let me know what I can do for you and the Marlin, you guys have a lot (or is it a little :2funny:) to work with and be fortunate that most of your boat is there and not hollowed out like the Torsk was 10+ years ago when the vol's were given permission to work on her to restore her once more.
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Darrin, thanks. The reason I haven't asked for anything yet is that when the city took over, their office was full of stuff from the two ships and Dave and I are going up and inventory it. They also had things donated and just packed them away, so we'll separate out what goes where and probably use some of the donated stuff for trades and so forth. I don't want to waste people's time looking for things that we might already have, but once the inventory is done, then I'll start making lists of things I know we need. The scope is raised and is all there from what I can see but the eyepiece. I'll get numbers etc if I don't find it in a box.
Thanks,
Bill :coolsmiley: