A former U.S. Navy submarine will embark on its final journey Friday. The ex-USS Clamagore will be towed away from Patriots Point Navel & Maritime Museum Friday and taken to Norfolk, Va. where it will be recycled.
The submarine has been closed to the public since Dec. 2021 because of a leak in the main ballast tank. The Patriots Point Development Authority Board voted to recycle the Clamagore in March 2022 and a contract was secured in August. Crews have been working to remove materials and improve buoyancy on the submarine since August.
The museum says 504 batteries, each weighing 900 pounds, have been removed from the submarine along with the boat’s sail. The Clamagore was commissioned in 1945, but it was too late to serve in World War II. The submarine went through several reconfigurations with the final conversion in 1962. The Clamagore operated in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean and earned the nickname “Gray Ghost of the Florida Coast.”
The submarine was decommissioned in 1975 and became part of the museum in 1981.
