USS Batfish

[Oleander]

Flooding is so bad in Oklahoma that the USS Batfish started to heel over in drydock. They had to call in the local fire department to flood its ballast tanks.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/28167/...o39cPDAE8234Ls

[Jeffg]

I hope everything works out and that the USS Batfish comes out of this mess OK.

Jeffg

[bstanko6]

I know it’s kinda tragic, but cool to see a killer shark back in the water!

[Aktungbby]

EVERYTHING LOOKS OK TO ME; BEEN FOLLOWING THIS SINCE IT APPEARED ON MY VERIZON TABLET A WEEK AGO. THE F.D. FILLED THE BILGES TO PREVENT LISTING-GOTTA BE SOME SUBMARINERS ON A RESPECTABLE FIRE DEPT! AND THE VESSEL APPEARS ON EVEN KEELED. VIDEO IS FROM 2 DAYS AGO: IT'S WORTH NOTING THE MUSEUM BATFISH HAS BEEN PREVIOUSLY EMPERILED BY ARKANSAS RIVER FLOODS AND THIS EVENT IS NOT TOTALLY UNEXPECTED:

...At the shipyard, Batfish would be raised on steel lifting straps and cradled between two pairs of bare-decked barges, so the submarine's draft would be high enough to make phase two of the tow, 1,350-mile (2,170 km) upriver, possible. Strike action at the Orange drydock caused the submarine to instead be towed to the Bethlehem Steel drydock in Beaumont, Texas. After a general inspection and clearing of fuel and ballast tanks, Batfish was sealed up and was ready to tow to Avondale on 1 March 1972. At Avondale, it was found that the four barges were insufficient to reduce the submarine's draft, and a new plan for six 120-by-32-foot (36.6 by 9.8 m) barges, ballasted to the outside and linked together by steel cables. On 13 March, Batfish was partially secured to the barges by lifting straps, but no cables had been placed to bind them together. That afternoon, the English tanker Silverman passed through a nearby 5-knot (9.3 km/h; 5.8 mph) zone at 11 knots (20 km/h; 13 mph): the resulting wake sank one barge and seriously damaged several others, (DAMN BRITS-NO WAKE MANAGEMENT??!!) although Batfish herself escaped major harm.
The flotilla of barges was re-assembled, and Batfish was slowly moved up-river by two tugs at 4 knots (7.4 km/h; 4.6 mph). On 3 May 1972 she passed with ease through Lock-and-Dam Number 6, but her superstructure had trouble clearing a bridge on the way into Little Rock, Arkansas, and was only able to pass under when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered the river level by 3 feet (0.91 m). One tug returned downriver, and the second tug continued the tow towards Fort Smith. Batfish arrived at the Will Brothers Port of Muskogee Terminal on 7 May 1972: this was her temporary home until a 120-foot (37 m) wide, 1⁄4-mile (0.40 km) trench could be dug to the boat's permanent berthing site. On 4 July 1972, while still at Muskogee Terminal, Batfish was unofficially opened to the public. Heavy spring rains flooded the Arkansas River on 12 March 1973, which caused Batfish to strain at her moorings, with fears that she would rip loose and damage the surrounding docks or collide with the new U.S. Route 62 bridge downriver and block the channel. Although the submarine remained moored, the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation Commission wanted to return the submarine to the Navy

THAT 1350 MILE PRE-TUG '72 INSPECTION OF BALLAST TANKS IS PAYING GOOD DIVIDENDS NOW: 37 YEARS LATER IMHO

[Red October1984]

I drove through there on Friday. The flooding there is no joke.

[Immelmann]

https://ktul.com/news/local/fundrais...wwii-submarine

https://kfor.com/2019/05/30/gofundme...u-s-s-batfish/

https://www.gofundme.com/bsujq4-a-ca...out-needs-help

Found these recent news links and felt that I should share them here. I visited the USS Batfish last August. This boat has the distinction of three sub vs. sub kills in the space of 76 hours. A feat truly unmatched by any other submarine in history. I sure hope they are able to restore things to normal. It's a piece of history that deserves to be preserved.