81 Personal photos from the USS Pampanito

[SeaQueen]

My suspicion is that the safe was for storing any classified documents that the boat might have had onboard. Such things might have included code manuals, technical manuals, the boat's orders, tactics manuals, etc. My suspicion is that back then things were pretty much the same as they are now with respect to storing classified material, and so almost all warships would have had at least one safe, and maybe more, so that certain material could only be accessed by those with a "need to know." Most warships have safes aboard them. One of them is typically located in the captain's cabin.

[AVGWarhawk]

ATR,

I hope you do not mind, I swiped a couple of your photos. I need these for the Torsk. Some things of interest in the pictures for us

[ATR-42]

AVG,
Let me know if you want any of the originals. they are 8 megapixel shots, the originals are HUGE.

[AVGWarhawk]

What you have will work. My interest is the manuevering room panel. The Torsks is currently nasty green. The original was like Pampanito. Work is to begin on the panels in a week or so. I wanted to show the restoration crew this picture for reference and what it will look like when completed. We have a lot of pictures in the archives but they are in black and white. Colored photos are a huge help. Thanks for offering!

[Gino]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

The Torsks is currently nasty green. The original was like Pampanito.

Are you really sure about that?
Working on the Cod, I learnt one thing pretty fast. The color you see may not be the color it was. And during the years of service colors changed.
So it could well be that that nasty green is the original color, whereas the grey from Pampanito was done later. (maybe even after the boat was decomissioned)

Many museum boats were painted with the 'we-had-it-cheap-or-for-free-i-like-this-paint' So, you have to figure out what timeframe you want to show the boat in (early WW2, Late WW2. Fifties)Then you have to get somewhere the info on what colors were used. Then you have to get that exact color (it still is a museum so it has to be perfect). Then you paint it. And then the visitors can say:"I don't think this is the real color, because all submarines are white within...says Hollywood"

Our curator is very interested when it comes to painting. No paint of the above described brand is used on our boat...

Success painting,

groetjes,

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by M. Sarsfield

I believe that SV replaced SD in the late 40's/early 50's.

SV started to come into use in the last months of the war. Pampanito got hers in July of 1945.

[AVGWarhawk]

Originally Posted by Gino

Are you really sure about that?
Working on the Cod, I learnt one thing pretty fast. The color you see may not be the color it was. And during the years of service colors changed.
So it could well be that that nasty green is the original color, whereas the grey from Pampanito was done later. (maybe even after the boat was decomissioned)

Many museum boats were painted with the 'we-had-it-cheap-or-for-free-i-like-this-paint' So, you have to figure out what timeframe you want to show the boat in (early WW2, Late WW2. Fifties)Then you have to get somewhere the info on what colors were used. Then you have to get that exact color (it still is a museum so it has to be perfect). Then you paint it. And then the visitors can say:"I don't think this is the real color, because all submarines are white within...says Hollywood"

Our curator is very interested when it comes to painting. No paint of the above described brand is used on our boat...

Success painting,

groetjes,

Yep, the panels were grey. Where the visitors walk between the two panels going to the aft engine room, their hands have worn off the green right down to the original gray. As she found her way into the 80's there was a plethora of free cheap paint colors flying around the boat. Not to mention what the City of Baltimore did to her when they got her. Looking like a jungle gym in the playground. We have light green, light blue, the forward engines were painted dark blue(long since corrected by yours truly). Also, we have one on the boat that served on the Torsk in the 60's, Chuck Weaver, Tim Calvert served on a sister ship, USS Diablo. Their memory is still good! We attempt to keep the fabric of the boat to the best of our ability and substantiated with archive photos and those that served on her. I'm sure you have seen the layers of paint on the Cod. Sometime 4-5 coats deep on the Torsk are found. Each boat has her own story of how she came to be at the present day. Mechanically we are restoring to the 1960's configuration as the missing parts are easier to find then the parts from the 40's. Basically we stripped the USS Trout for the parts. As far as the paint, the decision was made to get to the original coat. Just this weekend I finished restoring the differential temperature panel (1 of 4 for each engine). I removed a coat of white and a coat of blue. The original color was grey. Not to mention they slapped on paint all over the gauge glass, the red indicator light covered in friggin blue and the rubber reset button water proof cover painted white. Quite colorful really. I have three to go. It is trifling when you see how the white paint was just slapped on everything and I mean, EVERYTHING. At any rate, we have a very stalwart historian on the boat who will beat you to the very inch of your life if changes are made that are incorrect

[LukeFF]

forward bulkhead of the control room. radar??

That would be the Loran unit:

http://www.maritime.org/radio-das.htm

[ATR-42]

nice find!

[DaveyJ576]

Originally Posted by ATR-42

lol i knew someone was gonna say that! you got me thinking mush, i love these high res shots, i was able to zoom in on that plaque.

the prop shown is from the USS Darter a Tang class, built in 1953. The prop weighed 2000 pounds. was 7' in diameter.

Gentlemen,

The prop in question is the only surviving major piece of my old boat, the USS Darter (SS-576). When I visited the Pampanito in 2003 I was shocked to see it sitting on the pier. The Darter had been sunk as a target in 1992 and I was unaware that any piece of her still existed. If you look closely the prop has a nick in one of the blades that probably drove our Sonar Techs nuts with the whine it created.

The Darter was a unique boat of her own class. Commissioned in 1956, she was an update of the preceeding Tang class, her major innovation was the introduction of airplane style controls, set against the forward bulkhead of the control room as opposed to the port bulkhead in all previous submarines. This enabled rapid changes in depth to be combined with banking turns, greatly increasing maneuverability. The Darter also incorporated three conventional and reliable Fairbanks-Morse 38ND8 1/8 diesel engines from the very start, the Navy having learned their lesson with the accursed GM 16-338 Pancake diesels in the Tang class. She was supposed to have two sisters, the Grayback (SS-574) and Growler (SS-577), but these boats received major modifications to become Regulus cruise missle submarines.

The original design proved to be a bit cramped, and in 1966 she received a 16 1/2 foot addition between the after battery and the engine room, along with some other upgrades. The Darter provided the USN with outstanding service for 35 1/2 continuous years, currently a record for USN submarines. She was a good boat that is fondly remembered by her crews.

For some good photos, check out the following link:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/08576.htm

[runningdeer]

Thank you for sharing. Very interesting photos. I had never seen the inside of a torpedo, the steam torpedo was neat, so much more inside of one than I imagined would be.

[Morpheus]

i think some of you might find this here very interessting:











The Pampanito, and especially her rebuilt and the worlds one only remaining TDC is presented here ... (Part 2 i think ...)

kr morph

P.S. Damn, i have been to San Francisco serveral times and never thought of having a visit to that old beauty

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by ATR-42

nice find!

I knew someone had taken a whole set of good photos of the Pampanito sometime in the past, but I couldn't figure out who it was. By a stroke of luck the search engine turned up this thread. This time I made sure to save them all to my computer.

[Folducker]

Sure looks a lot different than it did the first time I took the tour. It was in the early 1980's I am guessing not long after it opened. I thought the interior probably looked like it did during WWII, It was in need of paint at the time. I went on the Bowfin at Pearl a few years ago and amazed at the difference.

Thanks for posting the photos, If I ever get back to SF, I will definaltely want to go back to the Pampanito.

[captgeo]

Excellent pic's,......a "wealth of info gained",.....thanks.