Ed S.
Well-known Member
- Location
- Middle Tennessee
My Dad is a former submariner, who served during the Korean War. He qualified on the SS-447 Congor (I have his qual book), and was on the SSR-312 Burrfish during patrols along the Atlantic seaboard as well as to the Mediterranean Sea.
The SS-312 Burrfish was a Baleo-class boat and was commissioned in September, 1943 and she carried out six patrols during WWII, winning six battle stars.
She was decommissioned after the war, but in 1948, was recommissioned and converted to a radar picket submarine (now SSR-312), the second such conversion of a total of 11 radar picket boats, and the only Baleo-class conversion. The conversion involved turning the crew's mess and galley into an air-control center, and stripping the after torpedo room for crew berthing. The conversions were hastily designed, and due to numerous teething issues, were referred to as the Migraine conversion. Later radar picket boats would be purpose-built, culminating in the SSRN-586 Triton, the only nuclear radar picket sub.
Dad was a Machinists Mate and kept the two forward Fairbanks-Morse 38D8-? Nine-cylinder, opposed piston diesel engines in running order. He also had charge of the distillation plant, and said that a common crew punishment was to have to spend an off-watch sitting next to the plant, which was located between the forward engines - hot and very noisy.
He tells a story of how they were cruising on the surface on all four mains, heading out to sea through the Straits of Gibraltar. They hit a rapid seawater temperature drop, which cracked a number of cylinder liners on all four engines, which put them out of commission (he never told why they didn't just motor back to port on battery power). At any rate, they had to disassemble all four engines to recover enough good liners to put one engine back on line.
Dad left the Navy after his four years were up and went on to get a Doctorate in Education and ran several Vocational Education schools (that I attended in high school). He has late-stage dementia now and is in a care facility. He's the tall sailor second from left in the back row.
The Burrfish would be decommissioned in 1956, and was converted back to her WWII configuration before being leased to Canada in 1961 for use in training their antisubmarine forces. The Canadian Navy would rename the boat the SS-71 Grilse, after a famous Canadian Yacht of the same name. She would serve through 1969, before returning possession to the United States Navy, which struck her from the Navy List that year.
On 19 November, 1969, the Burrfish was rigged as a radio-controlled target ship and was sunk in a test of Mark 46 torpedoes. She rests today off the coast of San Clemente Island, California.
es
The SS-312 Burrfish was a Baleo-class boat and was commissioned in September, 1943 and she carried out six patrols during WWII, winning six battle stars.
She was decommissioned after the war, but in 1948, was recommissioned and converted to a radar picket submarine (now SSR-312), the second such conversion of a total of 11 radar picket boats, and the only Baleo-class conversion. The conversion involved turning the crew's mess and galley into an air-control center, and stripping the after torpedo room for crew berthing. The conversions were hastily designed, and due to numerous teething issues, were referred to as the Migraine conversion. Later radar picket boats would be purpose-built, culminating in the SSRN-586 Triton, the only nuclear radar picket sub.
Dad was a Machinists Mate and kept the two forward Fairbanks-Morse 38D8-? Nine-cylinder, opposed piston diesel engines in running order. He also had charge of the distillation plant, and said that a common crew punishment was to have to spend an off-watch sitting next to the plant, which was located between the forward engines - hot and very noisy.
He tells a story of how they were cruising on the surface on all four mains, heading out to sea through the Straits of Gibraltar. They hit a rapid seawater temperature drop, which cracked a number of cylinder liners on all four engines, which put them out of commission (he never told why they didn't just motor back to port on battery power). At any rate, they had to disassemble all four engines to recover enough good liners to put one engine back on line.
Dad left the Navy after his four years were up and went on to get a Doctorate in Education and ran several Vocational Education schools (that I attended in high school). He has late-stage dementia now and is in a care facility. He's the tall sailor second from left in the back row.
The Burrfish would be decommissioned in 1956, and was converted back to her WWII configuration before being leased to Canada in 1961 for use in training their antisubmarine forces. The Canadian Navy would rename the boat the SS-71 Grilse, after a famous Canadian Yacht of the same name. She would serve through 1969, before returning possession to the United States Navy, which struck her from the Navy List that year.
On 19 November, 1969, the Burrfish was rigged as a radio-controlled target ship and was sunk in a test of Mark 46 torpedoes. She rests today off the coast of San Clemente Island, California.
es
