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| This is a silverside. It is 15 cm long. Photo taken from http://richardkingwildlifephotography.com/portfolios/foragefish.html |
USS Silversides is the name given to a United States World War II Gato-class submarine SS-236 (1941) that has been restored and is berthed at Muskegon Lake, Muskegon, Michigan, USA. We explored this museum on 1 July 2014. Naming a submarine after such a tiny fish would be like the Republic of Singapore Navy naming one of our submarines RSN Ikan Bilis! (grin!)
How did we discover this museum? Pat was ruing over the fact that we could not bring the children to HMS Belfast or to see a submarine whilst in London as our stay there had been very short. Coupled with that, John had caught a chill one night when the hot water ran out and he had showered with cold water! Along the way, she searched on Google to see if there were any World War II sea craft on display in Michigan and she found the USS Silversides Museum.
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| Opened in 1987, this museum in Muskegon, Michigan has real World War II artefacts like this Mark 14 torpedo! |
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| Christy tries out the periscope of submarine USS Drum - SS228. Periscopes allow what is on the surface of the water to be seen by the people in the submarine. |
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| Christy, John and Geoff on the conning tower of USS Drum - SS 228. This tower sat atop the submarine and offered some defence capabilities when the submarine had surfaced. Do note the hand-cranks Christy and Geoff have their hands on to swivel the gun, something similar would have been used centuries ago to generate power for the submarine! This is not a playground! |
How did submarines come to be used in modern day warfare?
The children headed straight for the museum to look around, giving the Coast Guard Cutter a miss. They had realised from experience that it takes a while to go through all the exhibits and they did not want to miss any!
I went in search of the answers in Wikipedia and the internet. This is what I discovered...
Credit must be given to the website Submarine History Timeline where I found most of my answers namely the bits of information and these lovely diagrams and photos you see. This is a summary below.
Years of experiments, failure, set-backs and delays led to an improved design which used gasoline, diesel and later steam engines and to the invention of guns and later torpedoes. Some inventors went bankrupt and another had to take on a low-pay job. One was even committed to a mental asylum by his relatives for squandering his fortune.
Now let's turn our attention to exploring USS Silversides, also known as SS-236, a World War II submarine.
Man’s dream to conquer the ocean had found ready
believers in men who tinkered and experimented to bring man where no man had
gone before – under the sea.
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| This sketch is attributed to William Bourne's 1580 design for an underwater boat. |
The idea of submersibles (vehicles that travel under the
surface of the water) has been around since 1580 when William Bourne, an English
innkeeper and scientific amateur designed an underwater mechanism.
In 1623,
Dutchman Cornelius Drebbel, hired as a “court inventor” for James I built what
seems to have been the first working submarine which was tested on the River
Thames. (Yes, King James I was the one who authorised the King James Version of the Bible - see my entry on An Afternoon of History at Hampton Court!)
In 1654, the 72-foot long (22-metre) “Rotterdam Boat”
designed by a Frenchman for the Dutch was specifically aimed to attack an
enemy, the English Navy.
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| A sketch of Rotterdam Boat 1654 |
In 1776, in the American War for Independence against the
British, Yale graduate David Bushnell built the first submarine to actually
make an attack on an enemy warship. It was named the “Turtle” because of its
shape. It was used in an attack against a British ship in New York harbour.
The submarine was used in various armed conflicts like
the War of 1812 between European and American nations but with very limited success.
In the American Civil War 1861-1865, both sides built and used submarines. These early designs were hand or feet-propelled.
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| 1852 Phillips patented a Steering Submarine Propeller |
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| Submarine design 1865 by WA Alexander |
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| Submarine called Pioneer 1865. It was also human-powered. |
In 1870, French novelist Jules Verne brought submarines
to full public consciousness with “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” where
Captain Nemo uses his submarine “Nautilus” to sink among others, the
then-fictional USS Abraham Lincoln. Where did he get the idea from? Likely in
1833, when his compatriot Brutus de Villeroi demonstrated what he called “Water
Bug” a submarine about 10 feet (3 metres) long and two feet (60 cm) in diameter which could hold
about three men, Jules Verne had been in college where de Villeroi had been a
professor.
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| Cover for Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne published in 1870 (book jacket design date unknown) Taken from http://www.rmg.co.uk/researchers/collections/by-type/archive-and-library/item-of-the-month/previous/jules-verne-twenty-thousand-leagues-under-the-sea |
From the 1800s to the First World War (1914-1918), various inventors like
Irish immigrant to the United States John Phillip Holland tried to interest
various governments in their submarine designs. In 1878, the Irish
revolutionaries even backed Mr Holland’s inventions in order to harass the
British Navy but the plans fell through with delays and failures.
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| Inventor John Phillip Holland's first design in 1874 which was human-powered |
Years of experiments, failure, set-backs and delays led to an improved design which used gasoline, diesel and later steam engines and to the invention of guns and later torpedoes. Some inventors went bankrupt and another had to take on a low-pay job. One was even committed to a mental asylum by his relatives for squandering his fortune.
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| 1887 Nordenfeldt III was 123 feet (37 metres) long and could go to a depth of 100 feet (30 metres) but it ran aground. The Russians refused to accept delivery and it was eventually scrapped. |
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| Plunger 1897 designed by Mr Holland failed to leave the dock because of design flaws. Note the many compartments in the design. |
In 1900, the British had five Hollands (the submarines were named after the designer) but also a moral dilemma: they like many others through the years believed that covert (secret) warfare was basically illegal. Gentlemen fought each other face to face, wearing easily recognised uniforms. The navy agreed to proceed with caution, primarily to "test the value of the submarine as a weapon in the hands of our enemies."
An English Rear Admiral declared the submarine was "underhand, unfair and ...unEnglish." He proposed submarines be treated as pirates in wartime and their crews be hung!
Regardless of the views held about the submarine, they were increasingly being used on the seas by countries at war.
On the eve of World War I, the art of submarine warfare
was barely a dozen years old. No nation had submarine-qualified officers
serving in senior staff level. They represented an unethical form of warfare –
they did not fit into the classic, balanced structure of the navy where the
battleship was king. No nation had developed any method for detecting
submarines or attacking them if found. However, the nations at war all had a
huge number of submarines either in service or under construction. They would
be used to deadly effect in sinking ships and cutting off supplies of food and equipment.
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| 1902 -1912 British Submarine called Holland No 3 (yes, named after the John Phillip Holland, the manufacturer) |
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| 1908 -1918 British D-1 used in World War 1 It was streamlined like a surface ship unlike the earlier porpoise-like hull shape |
The submarine will be remembered as one of the causes why
the United States of America entered World War I on the side of the Allies in
1917. On May 6 1915, the ocean liner Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat
20 killing 1, 198 passengers onboard of which 128 were Americans. Leaving her
isolationist policy, the USA entered the fray in 1917. German U Boats sank over 5,000 ships in World War 1.
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| Painting of the May 1915 sinking of the ocean liner Lusitania by German U Boat 20 which launched one torpedo that sank the ship in 18 minutes! |
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| View of control room of German WW1 U Boat |
By the time World War II was declared in by Germany in 1939, all the major warring powers had their own fleet of submarines having developed faster and more sophisticated ones in the inter-war years.
Boarding the USS Silversides
Silversides is credited with sinking 23 ships as can be seen by
the flags of the then-enemy, Japan, painted on her conning tower
Then we went down into the belly of the submarine so we went to fathom the depths below.
“They Open A Door And Enter A
World”
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| Kor squeezes through the entry hatch. |
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| The engine room. Navigation dials and gauges as well as steering wheels. |
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| Don't touch that dial...um WHICH one???!!! The USS Silversides is a working submarine so these dials are still operational after extensive restoration and overhauling of her engines in 1975. |
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| Hatchway leading to the next compartment |
The sanitation system aboard the submarine
From April 1942 to July
1945, USS Silversides went on fourteen patrols from her base in Pearl Harbour,
Hawaii, mainly to the Pacific Ocean. Her patrols took her to Japan, the
Caroline Islands, Solomon Islands, Midway Island and down to Brisbane,
Australia. These patrols would last from two to four months, usually resulting
in the successful sinking of enemy war ships, submarines, trawlers and cargo
ships.
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| Is there a doctor on board?
A successful appendectomy was done on board the USS Silversides on Christmas Eve 1942 by the submarine's pharmacist PM1 Thomas More on FM2 George Platter with rudimentary equipment fashioned mainly from kitchen utensils!
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John, Geoff and Christy checking out the sleeping arrangements.
This is either the forward or after torpedo room. The huge black tubes above the children's heads are Mark 14 torpedoes!
Due to space constraints, there are even bunks here for the crew to sleep on, as there are all over the submarine!
Some submarines had more men then bunks so they practiced "hot bunking" where three men shared a bed over a 24-hour period of 8 hours each. The bunks were always "hot" for the next user. USS Silversides had a crew of 72 men, but did not need to "hot bunk". By the way, there was air-conditioning in the submarines as the temperatures generated by the machinery were way too high!
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| Definitely not in a yellow submarine! Overnight camps are held on board USS Silversides in the summer! Check out the website for details. |
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| Mum, can I get a door just like this one for our bedroom at home? |
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| Each compartment has a hatch which can be locked to prevent air or water coming into the next compartment. |
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| After engine room which means we are at the other end of the submarine. Note the mascot, the silversides, painted on the engine. Each submarine was named after a sea creature as well as number. |
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| Stepping Into the Danger Zone Geoff stands at the hatchway below a cautionary note to visitors NOT to touch any levers, buttons, hatches as this submarine is operational. |
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| John steps out at the other end of the submarine. |
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| Christy climbs the vertical ladder up to the deck |
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| Back on deck |
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| Trying out the gun on deck which has been immobilised for safety |
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| Ready, Aim, FIRE! |
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| Kor and family with the 3-inch gun on deck where gunner TM3 Mike Harbin lost his life on 10 May 1942 under enemy fire |
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| If moored in freshwater, USS Silversides can last 25 years without dry docking. She lies in a channel in Lake Muskegon, Michigan. |
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| Moored next to USS Silversides is Coast Guard Cutter Mc Lane. Can you spot the duck on the piece of wood floating next to the submarine? |
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| Mama at the wheel of the Coast Guard Cutter |
Submarine Rescue Chamber which can be used
to free men trapped in a submarine and
the underwater mine called the Hedgehog.
The children headed straight for the museum to look around, giving the Coast Guard Cutter a miss. They had realised from experience that it takes a while to go through all the exhibits and they did not want to miss any!
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| Looking at the insides of one of the Mark 14 torpedoes. |
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| Submarine USS Flier SS-250 which sank when it hit a mine on its second patrol in the Philippines. Only eight of the 80-men crew survived the sinking and went on to successfully evade the Japanese. |
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| An exhibition of the USS Flier SS-250 and also a memorial to those who lost their lives in their fight for freedom |
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| Getting a taste of being in control |
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| Christy and Geoff try their hand at being in command |
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| Is this better than being an F1 driver, Geoff? |
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| Artefacts from the Pacific War |
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| The end of World War II 14 August 1945 |
Do we have submarines? The Republic of Singapore Navy started purchasing submarines from the Swedes in 1995 and refitted them for tropical waters. We have a few now. Submarines are used by the military as part of navy forces, protecting aircraft carriers performing reconnaissance and carrying out other tasks.
Submarines are now used for many other areas such as marine research, undersea exploration and salvage missions.
Modern submarine used for underwater exploration
Like all visits to war museums, the visit to the USS Silversides Museum leaves one sober at the thought that Man has such a bent to fighting and with such terribly destructive force.
Give to us peace in our time, O Lord.
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Ironically, I post this entry on the 73rd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour by the Japanese. This would be my Christmas list but I know it will not fully come to pass until the Second Advent of Christ. Till then, what can we help to fulfill? |
References
Wikipedia
http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAone.htm
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