View Full Version : One for the Onkel: Want to load a Mark 14 torp onto a WWII sub?
Neal you may know about this already,but to the rest of you within reach of Galveston the Cavalla is going to be loading some fish!!
http://messdeck.com/Forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1655
Anyone who wants to help, please contact John McMichael, curator and SWP manager at macm@airmail.net (macm@airmail.net)
.
Sailor Steve
02-15-07, 06:24 PM
KEWL!!:sunny:
Of course, the next time there's a Subsim get-together there they'll have to watch Drebbel REAL close!
Onkel Neal
02-15-07, 11:23 PM
Good post, anyone in the Houston-Galveston area, come on down to Seawolf Park. The date is Feb 24 (Sat). How many of you can say you loaded a Mark 14 torpedo onboard a WWII submarine? Now is your chance to do it!
Neal
http://cavallabase.org/images/DSC00011.JPG
http://cavallabase.org/images/DSC00031.JPG[/URL]
[U]Seawolf Park directions and map (http://cavallabase.org/images/DSC00031.JPG)
USS CAVALLA Website: www.cavalla.org (http://www.cavalla.org)
http://www.cavalla.org/title_right_01.jpg
mookiemookie
02-15-07, 11:55 PM
I will be there! I'm even trying to recruit my dad who served on the Skate (SSN-578) in the early '70s to come down with me.
I've emailed for more info on whats exactly involved. Anyone else whos going to be there, send me a PM!
Looking forward to it! One question though....can we go sink some Marus with the eels we load? :arrgh!:
geetrue
02-16-07, 12:31 AM
How many of you can say you loaded a Mark 14 torpedo onboard a WWII submarine?
Me ... I volunteered to be ships swimmer in the summer of 64 on the USS Salmon SS-573 http://www.usssalmon.org/
I thought, hey if someone falls overboard I'm a pretty good swimmer, I can help them, right? Not exactly what the COB had in mind.
I found out the hard way that the job of a ships swimmer was to row out to the practice torpedo's after we fired them. Then tie a line in the nose for purposes of retrieving said torpedo and saving the US Navy a lot of money in not having to send out a special boat to do this for us.
The COB explained the job to me, a young 19 year old naive seaman, after we fired a practice torpedo off the coast of California somewhere near San Clemente Island.
We surface and the topside torpedo retrevival party reports topside. The boat held the record at 15 minutes from time of surfacing till the time the fish was back onboard.
I managed to break the record for the longest time it ever took on that beauitful summer day in the Pacific Ocean. I got into the little yellow rubber raft with a line tied to the raft and a line tied around my waist and I rowed my little raft to the practice torpedo rising and falling like a bouy with the wrll marked pointy end up.
I get to the fish in about ten minutes, but the darn thing won't stand still ... it goes up and me in my little raft go down. Everyone is yelling at me on the deck ... the captain is yelling at me from the bridge ... the scene starts to get comical.
I get the line through the bull nose and wham the boat goes down and the line slips out, everyone is yelling, so I left the saftey of the little raft and grab the fish by the nose and hog tie it like a calf roper.
Fall back into the water, grab the raft and by that time they are hauling the fish back in. I didn't have enough strength to row back to the boat, so they had to pull me back razing me of course on the way.
You learn in a hurry what volunteer means when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would ... I was very careful the rest of my time in the service not to willingly volunteer for anything again. :)
Never
Again
Volunteer
Yourself
:-j
...But on this occasion, how can you not!
I wish I could...:roll:
elite_hunter_sh3
02-16-07, 09:22 AM
will we be allowed to load a real warhead torpedo and will we be allowed to fire up her engines and set to sea for a few weeks??, it would be good to sink a ship or two on purpose:arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!:
Konovalov
02-16-07, 10:43 AM
will we be allowed to load a real warhead torpedo and will we be allowed to fire up her engines and set to sea for a few weeks??, it would be good to sink a ship or two on purpose:arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!:
Of course you can if you would like to spend 20 years in jail. :lol:
USS Sea Tiger
02-16-07, 03:58 PM
I work just across the bay from her at the Coast Guard base, I'll for sure be there, thanks for the posting!!
I am beginning to wish I was selling tickets!!Just wish I could be there!
Sixpack
02-16-07, 05:07 PM
I'll be there !!
Yeah right.:rotfl:
I'll try to be there. My son usually has track meets on Saturday but I'll check the schedule again. :D What time is the party getting started?
Sailor Steve
02-16-07, 05:47 PM
will we be allowed to load a real warhead torpedo and will we be allowed to fire up her engines and set to sea for a few weeks??, it would be good to sink a ship or two on purpose:arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!:
Of course you can if you would like to spend 20 years in jail. :lol:
They don't hang pirates anymore? How times change!
JSLTIGER
02-16-07, 05:59 PM
How many of you can say you loaded a Mark 14 torpedo onboard a WWII submarine?
Me ... I volunteered to be ships swimmer in the summer of 64 on the USS Salmon SS-573 http://www.usssalmon.org/
I thought, hey if someone falls overboard I'm a pretty good swimmer, I can help them, right? Not exactly what the COB had in mind.
I found out the hard way that the job of a ships swimmer was to row out to the practice torpedo's after we fired them. Then tie a line in the nose for purposes of retrieving said torpedo and saving the US Navy a lot of money in not having to send out a special boat to do this for us.
The COB explained the job to me, a young 19 year old naive seaman, after we fired a practice torpedo off the coast of California somewhere near San Clemente Island.
We surface and the topside torpedo retrevival party reports topside. The boat held the record at 15 minutes from time of surfacing till the time the fish was back onboard.
I managed to break the record for the longest time it ever took on that beauitful summer day in the Pacific Ocean. I got into the little yellow rubber raft with a line tied to the raft and a line tied around my waist and I rowed my little raft to the practice torpedo rising and falling like a bouy with the wrll marked pointy end up.
I get to the fish in about ten minutes, but the darn thing won't stand still ... it goes up and me in my little raft go down. Everyone is yelling at me on the deck ... the captain is yelling at me from the bridge ... the scene starts to get comical.
I get the line through the bull nose and wham the boat goes down and the line slips out, everyone is yelling, so I left the saftey of the little raft and grab the fish by the nose and hog tie it like a calf roper.
Fall back into the water, grab the raft and by that time they are hauling the fish back in. I didn't have enough strength to row back to the boat, so they had to pull me back razing me of course on the way.
You learn in a hurry what volunteer means when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would ... I was very careful the rest of my time in the service not to willingly volunteer for anything again. :)
I've never been in the service, nor was I even close to being alive in '64, but if there's one thing I've discovered in my study of the military: The first rule of the armed forces is never volunteer yourself.
Captain_Jack
02-16-07, 06:56 PM
Good post, anyone in the Houston-Galveston area, come on down to Seawolf Park. The date is Feb 24 (Sat). How many of you can say you loaded a Mark 14 torpedo onboard a WWII submarine? Now is your chance to do it!
Neal
http://cavallabase.org/images/DSC00011.JPG
http://cavallabase.org/images/DSC00031.JPG
Seawolf Park directions and map (http://www.cavalla.org/park.html)
USS CAVALLA Website: www.cavalla.org (http://www.cavalla.org)
http://www.cavalla.org/title_right_01.jpg
Sounds like an Awesome Opportunity! I'll be there!:up:
Having been on board at one point I sure wish I could take the time to go back down 'home' and lend a hand. However...work will not let me out for that:cry:. You guys have fun doing it and please, PLEASE don't hit that little ship next to her...
GakunGak
02-17-07, 09:41 AM
will we be allowed to load a real warhead torpedo and will we be allowed to fire up her engines and set to sea for a few weeks??, it would be good to sink a ship or two on purpose:arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!::arrgh!:
Of course you can if you would like to spend 20 years in jail. :lol:
They don't hang pirates anymore? How times change!
Hell, no! They make 'em walk the plank!!!
hyperion2206
02-17-07, 11:34 AM
How many of you can say you loaded a Mark 14 torpedo onboard a WWII submarine?
Me ... I volunteered to be ships swimmer in the summer of 64 on the USS Salmon SS-573 http://www.usssalmon.org/
I thought, hey if someone falls overboard I'm a pretty good swimmer, I can help them, right? Not exactly what the COB had in mind.
I found out the hard way that the job of a ships swimmer was to row out to the practice torpedo's after we fired them. Then tie a line in the nose for purposes of retrieving said torpedo and saving the US Navy a lot of money in not having to send out a special boat to do this for us.
The COB explained the job to me, a young 19 year old naive seaman, after we fired a practice torpedo off the coast of California somewhere near San Clemente Island.
We surface and the topside torpedo retrevival party reports topside. The boat held the record at 15 minutes from time of surfacing till the time the fish was back onboard.
I managed to break the record for the longest time it ever took on that beauitful summer day in the Pacific Ocean. I got into the little yellow rubber raft with a line tied to the raft and a line tied around my waist and I rowed my little raft to the practice torpedo rising and falling like a bouy with the wrll marked pointy end up.
I get to the fish in about ten minutes, but the darn thing won't stand still ... it goes up and me in my little raft go down. Everyone is yelling at me on the deck ... the captain is yelling at me from the bridge ... the scene starts to get comical.
I get the line through the bull nose and wham the boat goes down and the line slips out, everyone is yelling, so I left the saftey of the little raft and grab the fish by the nose and hog tie it like a calf roper.
Fall back into the water, grab the raft and by that time they are hauling the fish back in. I didn't have enough strength to row back to the boat, so they had to pull me back razing me of course on the way.
You learn in a hurry what volunteer means when it doesn't work out the way you thought it would ... I was very careful the rest of my time in the service not to willingly volunteer for anything again. :)
Isn't there an old saying: He who volunteers didn't understand the question?:p:rotfl:
Puster Bill
02-17-07, 09:10 PM
I'm still waiting for my QSL card from the Cavalla. Contacted them on 20 Meters over a year ago, in fact it was a memorable contact because the operator on the Cavalla had a high noise level and couldn't hear me on SSB, so I switched to CW and we had a cross-mode contact. Sent them a card, and never got one back. Which sucks, because I collect submarine QSL cards.
elanaiba
02-18-07, 08:11 AM
Gee, I'd love to be there. Of course I wont :( There's an ocean in the middle.
GakunGak
02-18-07, 12:52 PM
The hard part is to swim there...
Maybe I catch a U-boat from Kiel....:rock:
RickC Sniper
02-18-07, 03:29 PM
Geetrue that's a great story.
How far out did they run a practice torp? I ask because 15 minutes seems like a damn fast retrieval time.
geetrue
02-18-07, 09:46 PM
Not sure how far the torpedo went ... you see they didn't tell me about the record or the complete job description of the duties of the ship's swimmer till I was topside and being lowered into the raft.
But the record was for our boat and it didn't start till we surfaced. We had four big fairbanks morse diesels that could move the boat at 25 kts on the surface and we were using the old steam Mk 16's that could really boogie somewhere around 40kts.
Which reminds me of another sea story by the way ... We also fired live fish. We tried to sink an old WWII destroyer one time. They towed it out to the firing range and we lined up the shot, but the Mk 16 blew up right after it left the tube, raising the deck plates a few inches.
So the captain lines up for another shot, taking different angles and lets the second one go, right? The Mk 16 was traveling so fast it hits the destroyer and goes right through the ship blowing up after it comes out the other side.
The ship is still just sitting there dead in the water ... We secured from battle stations and spent the night checking out the remaning fish.
We come back at it the next day and fired an electric Mk38 ... blew her out if the water and she sank right away.
Not the end of story however, just a few weeks later we go out on a special run to test the crews skills, called battle efficency "E's" ... This one was for our fifth in a row which would be a first for subs and earn us a gold "E".
We had observers and everything ... We fire two Mk38 electric fish at the same time, set for passive homing and they both came back and skimned the teak decks behind the sail , crossing each other and kept on going. Scary and glad that it didn't happen when it was live fire exercise.
They gave us the fifth "E" anyway ... we had a skipper that was all american halfback at Navy called, "Big Daddy" later to become Admiral Liscomb.
Captain_Jack
02-18-07, 10:23 PM
The hard part is to swim there...
Maybe I catch a U-boat from Kiel....:rock:
Nahhh...before you reached Pelican Island the Coast Guard would nab ya! :p
I'd be jealous if the Yorktown wasn't within walking distance of my apartment. :p
Onkel Neal
02-24-07, 09:34 AM
Morning breaks on the bow of CAVALLA as she awaits her new fish:
CAVALLA CAM (http://www.galveston.com/webcams/seawolf/home.htm)
I'll be there in an hour, cheers
Neal
HunterICX
02-24-07, 09:50 AM
Morning breaks on the bow of CAVALLA as she awaits her new fish:
CAVALLA CAM (http://www.galveston.com/webcams/seawolf/home.htm)
I'll be there in an hour, cheers
Neal
:huh: are you going to wave in the camera neal?
Yayy! Wave to the camera!
HunterICX
02-24-07, 10:13 AM
Warning: Suspects on the Target Area!
Who is neal?
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9816/seawolfmpqy7.jpg
CUT THAT FRICKING TREE!!! ffs! :rotfl:
They're gone!! Off to load the fish I suppose. :arrgh!:
http://www.imagewoof.com/view_thumb/90f721153/seawolfmp10.jpg (http://www.imagewoof.com/view_image/90f721153/seawolfmp10.jpg)http://www.imagewoof.com/view_thumb/8372f1125/seawolfmp44.jpg (http://www.imagewoof.com/view_image/8372f1125/seawolfmp44.jpg)
http://www.imagewoof.com/view_thumb/93fd51109/seawolfmp48.jpg (http://www.imagewoof.com/view_image/93fd51109/seawolfmp48.jpg)
http://www.imagewoof.com/view_thumb/6d16b1152/seawolfmp55.jpg (http://www.imagewoof.com/view_image/6d16b1152/seawolfmp55.jpg)
I just had to post some pics.
Well i made a video or slideshow for everybody that couldn't be at Seawolf park!
And the video can be found here -----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anuAMWGMkUY
It took me like 4 hours to make this video so don't tell me it's bad.
Onkel Neal
02-24-07, 05:44 PM
I was in the foreward compartment, on the receiving end :)
http://www.subsim.com/sh4/1_1can6.jpg
Setting up the first fish.
http://www.subsim.com/sh4/1_1can7.jpg
(L-R) MookieMookie, Andy, Chief McMichael (Cavalla curator and Seawolf Park Manager)
http://www.subsim.com/sh4/1_1can9.jpg
It's me :ping:
No one lost any fingers, but sure glad we were not at sea. Mookie and I discussed how the subsims should model this in the game. If you are loading external torps, you cannot dive!
Neal
ASWnut101
02-24-07, 06:14 PM
Wow, Neal, I always thought you were bald.:o
Thanks for the pics Neal! Tho, makes me kinda sad to see you guys having all the fun! :cry:
mookiemookie
02-24-07, 06:44 PM
I had a blast today. Here's my photo album from the torpedo load, as well as pictures I took of the interior of the Cavalla and some from the DD USS Stewart, which is also at Seawolf Park.
http://public.fotki.com/mookiemookie/uss-cavalla-torpedo-load/
Warning: Suspects on the Target Area!
Who is neal?
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9816/seawolfmpqy7.jpg
That dashingly handsome man in blue with his hands on his hips is me :up:
GakunGak
02-24-07, 08:16 PM
Handsome? Yeah, right....:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :smug:
geetrue
02-24-07, 08:35 PM
Those bow planes might come in handy for the next hurricane, uh?
I use to work at Four Season's on the Gulf for Mr. Phillips back in 81 there.
GakunGak
02-25-07, 05:51 AM
I see flak guns on the bridge, but do not see deck gun on the deck...:doh: :smug:
I never did ask the Onkel why they were loading fish.Has the torpedo room just been renovated or have you just acquired the fish as an exhibit?
geetrue
02-25-07, 12:03 PM
I see flak guns on the bridge, but do not see deck gun on the deck...:doh: :smug:
Fram II got to her, a update to moderize old fleet boats in the early 50's ...
She was made even more special than other boats with the sonar bow addition.
Still a submarine, just a specialized submarine ... some were even turned into oilers and one was converted to refuel seaplanes.
Trapper
03-07-07, 01:00 AM
Hey Neil,
I was out there Saturday, things look great on the Cavalla. Its been at least ten years since I had been out to Seawolf. I didn't realise that those Mark-14s were recent additions. I know the one parked aft of her stern tube came from the Texas. I can't say enough how impressed I was how much progress the Cavalla has made since I was last there, but the Stewart still looks rough. Beaching a ship in dirt is not a good idea, I have seen that first hand, on the Texas, where bulkheads have rippled and bowed 6 inches or more out of true.
If you want to volunteer out at the Texas doing honest to god restoration work you can. If your interested I can put you in touch with the person you need to make contact with.
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