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Old 05-28-18, 06:13 PM   #4
ET2SN
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I think you're talking about the ship's piping and wiring tabs.
Good luck finding one on-line. The Barbel class are pretty old.
The tabs were also considered as "ship's property" for practical reasons (they were used heavily for regular maintenance and paperwork, which was why they weren't supposed to leave the boat besides being used as a kind of study guide for non-quals). They were also stamped as "confidential" which meant they were not to become souvenirs.

The term "qual book" is kind of mis-leading. Most of ship's quals are "hands on" and result in initials or "sigs" on a ship's qual card. The qual card might be in the form of a bound pre-printed tablet with a cardboard cover or could be on sheets of photocopied paper or cardboard. It really depends on what the command has available.

Overall, enjoy the tour.

The Barbel class has a fairly unique history. They were the follow on to the USS Albacore (which is still on display in Portsmouth, N.H.) and were constructed in conjunction with the first nuke subs. Kind of like a fall-back in case the nuke propulsion thing didn't work out. The three boats of the class were not built in Groton, BTW. The Barbel was constructed and launched in Portsmouth, N.H. (aka Kittery). Blueback (as I remember) and Bonefish were built at the "old school" shipyards like Pascagoula and Charleston. Still, all three boats served at least thirty years and all three could run as fast as a Permit or Sturgeon class attack boat if the main motors were set up to run in series configuration.

One thing to notice about the class is how much room you'll find below decks compared to an older "fleet"/GUPPY diesel boat. The sails were also huge and I used to enjoy climbing around inside the sail of the Barbel to do maint. work. It was like having your own, personal, jungle gym.

My underway watch station was located in the port side aft corner of control. I mostly split my time between running the ESM gear or the radar.

This class was also the last US attack subs to have a topside superstructure and wood deck. The deck should be made out of either mahogany or teak.
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