Secret Museum !

[Vonotto]

Ok for some not a secret, but if you are near the east coast stop in its very nice. At the Washington Navy Yard in Washington D.C. is a submarine museum. They have a seehund and lots of photos, torpedoes ect. Lots of other naval things to see including a corsair, working periscope you can use ect.

Just thought I would let everyone know since it is not really advertised and know mostly to people that work on base.

[Tikigod]

What is the secret? are they giving out the torpedoes for resupply? I will look into that the next time I am attacking stuff around the D.C. area.

[jasondef]

Anything "secret" like that in Seattle? We have a permanent Russian Cobra sub at the waterfront you can tour, but so far that's all I've found. There's sub base Bangor nearby, does anyone know if they let you tour a nuke sub these days?

[Torplexed]

Anything "secret" like that in Seattle? We have a permanent Russian Cobra sub at the waterfront you can tour, but so far that's all I've found.

I'm afraid we lost the "Cobra" Foxtrot class sub to a naval museum in San Diego about a year ago Jasondef. :(

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20050422/news_1n22sub.html

However, the Keyport naval museum on the Kitsap peninsula does have a Japanese kaiten on display along with quite a collection of torpedoes and mines.

[jasondef]

Whoa, didn't know that about the Cobra! Toured it once about five years ago, haven't been back since. Too clausterphobic for me! That's the only sub I've been in, and I couldn't imagine doing patrols for weeks in those things. Incredible.

[Torplexed]

Had no air conditioning either....and it operated in the tropical Indian Ocean a lot. Nasty.

Was a lot roomier than a U-Boat though.

[Tikigod]

does anyone know if they let you tour a nuke sub these days?

The Nautalis can be toured its across from Coast Guard Academy in New London, CT. It was the first nuclear powered sub.

http://www.ussnautilus.org/

[Luuraja]

Estonian Maritime Museum in Tallinn has submarine too.

Submarine 'Lembit' is still floating!

In December 1934 the Estonian Government concluded a contract with the British shipyard Vickers-Armstrong to have two submarines built. Twin submarines 'Kalev' and 'Lembit' were festively launched at Barrow-in-Furness on July 7th, 1936 and the ensign of the Estonian Navy was hoisted on Lembit on May 14th, 1937.

Both submarines belonged to the Estonian Navy until Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940. During WW-II they both were complemented to the Soviet Baltic Fleet and participated in the war with replaced crews; Kalev hit the mine on October 30, 1941.
The submarine Lembit, which was serving as a museum ship at Soviet navy museum, was brought back to Estonia on April 27, 1992 with the support of Estonian naval veterans and the sea museum. Finally after 52 years the Estonian flag was raised again on Lembit.

In 2001-2004 she was significantly repaired and restored and stands now in Air Harbour (Lennusadam, former base of seaplanes) with other museum ships.

Bitter, but Estonian Maritime Museum's website doesn't have proper information for english-speakers. But the address is http://www.meremuuseum.ee

I visited submarine in 2001 just before restoration and sadly did'nt have any camera with me. I'm planning to visit it again during next month, now fitted with digital camera:)

Anyway - some images of sub I found on the net:
Lembit now - http://www.online.ee/~peeprada/lembit/ekskurs.html
Cross-section - http://www.online.ee/~peeprada/lembit/m6te.html
Historical pre-war photos - http://www.online.ee/~peeprada/lembit/prewar.html
Annotations are in Estonian - sorry!

[U-Dog]

Wow, very interesting stuff Luuraja.
Thanks & don't forget to post your pics when you get back!
:ping:

[Luuraja]

The story of collecting money for two modern in these times subs is interesting too.
Partly it was collected by people, both money and scrap iron were collected. Admiral Johann Pitka, very charizmatic person and head of Estonian Navy, started campaign in 1933. Later, in 1944 he died as hero trying to organize restoration of Estonian Republic and hopeless defence against Red Army.
About half million Estonian chrones were collected.
It was'nt enough. Estonian Navy had two russian 'Novik' class destroyers, which were captured in 1919 from bolshewik's with help of Royal Navy. Both were sold to Peru for 2,5 million dollars (equal 410 000 dollars in these times).
Then government finally woke up and invested 6,7 million chrones...

[Luuraja]

Did my visit to 'Lembit' today.
Some notes.
This was amazing - we have real winter here, Tallinn Gulf is covered with ice and white-white snow and weather was clear and sun was bright. Oh, how good it was I realized to pick sunglasses with me - in another case I would be snowblind now.

Air Harbour (Õhusadam) where 'Lembit' is docked was originally seaplane harbour built by russians in 1916-1917 for Peter-the-Great Sea Fortress. Nearby are lot of military installations built for same fortress, for example infamous 'Battery Prison' (Patarei vangla). No connection with artillery - it was supply depot but served as prison since 1920's. Now it's empty and rumors say it will be restored-renewed for Estonian Academy of Arts :o

Back to Air Harbour. Main installation is hangar. Impressive building, huge if you see it. Maritime Museum has plans to use its huge under roof area for 'Lembit' and another ships recovered by marine archaelogists.

Submarine itself seemed unhabited when we reached it. But just when we started to board ship, door in sub's tower opened and very friendly elder step outside and conducted us through the ship.

Uhh, it was good that my wife decided not to go with me and our daughter. She's pregnant and it's eighth month now. Getting her through torpedo loading hatch (now used for entrance) is simply impossible :D

Ok, thats all for now. Downloading of photos from camera ended. Starting to sort, analyze and describe them.
It will be first specialized website of 'Lembit' I think. And I try to translate for you too.