Nautilus Museum
 

Took a trip here yesterday: http://ussnautilus.org/ Alot to see! Explore the website, and take the virtual tour of the museum, and Nautilus. The Museum is right next door to the US Sub Base. Hopefully my Brother in Law e-mails me the pics he took, so I could post them for everyone.

Yep, I've always wanted to go there, maybe one day, just lil too far for me.

Hope you can post pics later.

WOWSER! I remember the headlines when Nautilus was launched, and when she went under the North Pole, but I never knew about this website!

Thanks! :rock::sunny:

No problem Steve. It was really a great experience. The virtual tour on the website could explain the stuff better than I can, but the things that stood out for me, was the WWII era equipment. They had a room that was set up to depict the conning tower of a fleetboat, complete with working periscopes (they looked pretty authentic to me) and a TDC. I played around cranking the dials, and exerything seemed to work. A cut away Mk14 torpedo, 20mm AA gun, an TBT set up on a pedestal, plus some battle flags from various subs added to the collection. And let's not forget the Nautilus! All in all a great day!:yeah:

I just discovered that I'm only minutes away from the USS Ling memorial. I'll have to add that to my "To Do" list for this summer's events.:ping:

Hey Werner, you must be in NJ. The Ling is probrably a little over a half hour drive from Yonkers. Except for the traffic horror on the GWB, not far at all. I'd love to hook up with you one day and do the tour. The website says the museum is only open on weekends, with the first tour beginning at 10:00 AM. What sucks is, I work afternoons and weekends to boot. I'm sure I could arrange something though.... uhemm , uhemmm, I feel sick.. uhemm.:haha:

I remember when.......
 

Back in the day, when i was was in Sub School at New London, she was (sometimes not so fondly) referred to as Building 571 - mainly because she rarely left the docks. That was in 1972.

Adm. Hyman Rickover promised the Navy she'd be in service for at least 20 years, but she spent most of her last 8 tied up at Groton as an "unofficial" museum. During my six weeks at Sub School, Nautilus got under way just once, got as far as the mouth of the Thames and snapped a shaft. When a hurricane came up the east coast later that month, everything that could get underway & out of harm's way did so - except for the Nautilus. They just added extra lines and tied her down real good till it blew over.

But when she was finally retired, her crew put in extra hours to make damn sure her last days at sea were as ship-shape and proud as her first. Adm. Rickover lived just long enough to see it all - and I'm absolutely certain he spent his first week in the hereafter grinning ear to ear and collecting on his bets.

I was there a while back in the winter, and being my usual self, I checked the real functionality of the periscopes, I couldn't find the stadimeter. I think they removed that function, else my stepdad and I would've had a good setup on a passing barge. We must've spent a half hour in that room while I explained to my mother (who bought me the first Silent Hunter back in the mid 90's, I was 6) what the guys on the looped recording were talking about, the targeting setup and everything. I got so into it that when he said "Down periscope" I went to slap the handles up and backed away from the scope X_X
I spent a lot of time on the kiddie scope, crouched really close to the floor like you see when they do a shallow water attack.
I try to go there every year:yeah:

Yea Sledge, you're right about no Stadimeter. Believe me I played around with the thing trying to find it! I did find the focus wheel worked, but couldn't locate the magnification function. Mabey that dosen't work either. I was surprised, unless I was doing something wrong, that if I put my eye directly up to the eyepiece, I couldn't see anything. If I held my eye slightly away, I saw perfectly. The scope was rather clear to my surprise, and there was no prob at all seeing the crosshairs and calibration lines!

I have a whole bunch of pictures from when I visited this museum last May, and a couple from when I went in 2000 here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/2741763...268872/detail/

The museum is part of the official itinerary for the 2010 meet, so don't be afraid to stop by when we go this September!

If you haven't already done so, check out the info & pics on Nautilus at my website :DL

:ahoy: