As both of my regular readers know, I love my job at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. One of the things that I love most about it is the opportunity to look at history moored at the piers and moorings all around me. One cannot walk 50 yards in the Shipyard without seeing an important historical artifact.
I noted long ago, While still on active duty in the Navy, an old diesel submarine moored with the inactive ships. I got tired of being curious the other day and walked into the offices of Naval Sea Systems Command Inactive Ships On-site Maintenance Office (NISMO) and asked them. They have a map of all of the inactive ships moored at the facility. It turns out that the submarine in question is the ex-Sailfish.
She is the last American diesel submarine not sunk or used in a memorial. The guys at NISMO tell me that there has been some interest in taking her and using her as a museum or other kind of memorial, but sadly no one has been able to come up with the required money. She will likely be towed out into the ocean and sunk.
In the photograph above she is shown moored outboard ex-Midway. The Midway is now the San Diego Aircraft Carrier Museum. The Sailfish is now moored outboard ex-Constellation.
The photograph below shows USS Sailfish before she underwent conversion and received the PUFFS Sonar Ranging System (which is visible above).
What an amazing boat this was!
USS Sailfish (SSR-572).
See also;
USS Sailfish (SS572) Homepage
USS Sailfish (SSR-572) (SS-572) Photo Archive
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