The AM Forum

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050701/ts_nm/thailand_submarine_dc

Interesting stuff, Bud. Thanks for posting. Picked up a book last fall entitled "Lost Subs", I'll have to take a look at the entry for this one.

A few years back, they pulled one up from (I think) the English Channel or somewhere around there. A German sub, supposedly full of gold. It was completely intact when they raised it. Supposedly full of gold bars and other goodies.

When they opened it, they found something along the lines of several cases of fine french champagne and many cases of condoms. Wonder what they were planning?  :shock:

Sounds like they knew my ex wife!!!!

As a submariner (no submariner is ever an EX-submariner), I've spent a lot of time visiting many of the submarine museums around the country.  If you haven't been to the sub memorial at Pearl Harbor ( in Bowfin Memorial Park) it's definitely worth the trip if you go to Oahu.  Puts the magnitude of the number of boats and sailors that didn't come back in perspective.

There is also a memorial to subs lost/missing in WW-II inside SUBASE Pearl, but it is not publicly accessible.

Info on Lagarto

http://www.subvetpaul.com/LostBoats/Lagarto.htm

Excellent stuff, Grant - thank you for sharing. I have great dreams of visiting many of these sites in coming years, being a history buff and the related interests in radios, airplanes, boats, subs, etc...  If you ever get to the Cape Cod area, there's a small monument there as well to our WWII submariners. It's right on the Cape Cod Canal in the area of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges (the two big truss bridges seen in many photos of that area). It's been a number of years since I was there, and the last time I stopped to visit it was in a raging downpour, so I my memory is a bit furry.

I decided to do a bit more poking around about the salvaged uboat, it was the U-534 and it was found between Sweden and Denmark, not the English Channel. No champagne, either - just a lot of German wine (they have some excellent whites!). But a 'gross' of condoms, whatever that is. Apparently they used them as weather balloons since they were out of the real thing. Sub was outfitted with Helium cannisters for inflating them since it was used primarily for weather reporting after being a training boat. And here I always thought they had no helium, hence the Hindenburg disaster. Probably had it, just not in the quantities needed for a balloon that size.

Some links:

The salvage:
http://u534.coolfreepages.com/Basis_Frame.htm

At Merseyside:
http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/u534.html

Since the crew escaped, it wasn't a war grave and therefore could be raised. Pretty interesting stuff.

Bill, your ex sounds like the exact opposite of mine!   ;)

Gee Grant, I didn't not know your background in Submarines.  No wonder you like dark places with little red light.

Hi Grant,



I wonder what boat you were on? I was a radioman on the subtender USS Fulton. We were the command ship for Subron Ten. Squadron Ten was all fast attack boats and included the USS Nautilus.

You know what they say about submariners Bill? One hundred brave sailors go to sea, 50 happy couples come back.

http://www.usscod.org/

Permantly on display in Cleveland, Ohio just a few minutes walk from the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame.

The NOARS (Northern Ohio Amateur Radio Society) has done a good job equipping her.

 http://users.stargate.net/~noars/contest.htm

There's also a beautiful WW2 sub memorial at Groton, which is a moving place to visit.  I can't imagine what's going to happen with the memorial and submarine base  if they actually close the place down.

Grant/NQ5T

You know, standing Deck watch at night with the control room rigged-for-red IS one of those things that sticks with you.  To this day, if I get up at night to use the head or whatever, and have to turn a light on, I keep my right eye closed.  That way when the I turn out the lights I can still see in the dark, even though I don't generally have to worry about the possibility of needing to bring the house to periscope depth  :D

I also have a permanent round indentation around my right eye from the scope eyepiece :lol:

If I were young enough to get my Commission back I'd love nothing more than to go do it again ... they wouldn't even to pay me!

"Take her down
Take her deep.
Make you're depth five two feet.
Damn the torpedoes,
Full speed ahead"               anonymous

Grant/NQ5T

I was on the USS Queenfish, SSN-651, homeported in Pearl.  Sadly, she went through SRP (that's scrapping, for those of you who don't know) in the early 90's after 25 years in commission as THE most decorated boat ever.  She was the first of the 637-class nuclear subs commissioned.  Fine boat, great crew, no question the finest experience of my life (which most submariners --- that's pronounced sub-ma-REEN'-ers, and NOT sub-MARE'-in-ers -- would also tell you.

I also had the opportunity to spend some time on the USS Orion, AS-18,  in Norfolk, so I do know a little about tenders ... and enjoyed it greatly -- especially Virginia Beach and a place called the "Peppermint Twist" :p

i havent the experience to be a
"Rocks and Shoals" fellow such as yourself Grant.

;-)

But I do remember the Peppermint Beach Club on Atlantic in VA. BCH.

Barry/W3AFH

It takes some kind of BAs to be a sub guy.
I work with a guy who's Dad was a sub commander in WW2 before they could trust there would be a bang when the other bad guy got hit.
I met his mother who lived in Groton once. Man did she have stories to tell. His name was Lake.
I need to get over to the base this summer only 20 minutes away.
Work load getting lighter and bucks low this year.