SF CHRONICLE "Pampanito See-worthy again"

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Commander Wallace

The Pampanito is / was well worth saving. The article mentions attaching 60 plates below the waterline so the structural integrity is maintained.

Wouldn't it be easier and more cost effective to keep it out of the water as was done with U-995 in Laboe, Germany ?

Better still, create an enclosure to house the Submarine as was done with U-505.

Good point and your probably right but there's a little money involved here as well. The sub is moored directly behind the SS Jeremiah O'brien Liberty Ship; creating a lucrative 1-2 punch for enthusiasts to tour both: at $20 a head...each along famed Fisherman's Wharf. With proper reserve funds for a refit every 7-10 years and the more than adequate drydock facilities of the Bay Area it's $till a better arrangement and in a proper setting. It opened for tours in 1982 and attracts more than 100,000 (U do the mathematic$!!?) visitors a year. This is its fifth time in dry-dock, and this visit finally happened after $200,000 was secured in a National Maritime Heritage Grant. The funds come from scrap metal sales as ships in the Mothball Fleet in Suisun Bay are dismantled. Considering they're sanding the sanitary tank and replacing the torpedo gaskets for the first time...it's a happy ship. <Said Suisun Mothball fleet, just 50 miles NE, over my boat's stowed whisker-pole: Down to about eight ships now. The vessels' old lead-based flaking rust & hull-paint has created a decades-old considerable toxic-environmental mess; so the demise of old cargo ships is not a bad thing, in addition to helping preserve the USS Pampanito.