Seawolf Park

 

Seawolf Park

One morning, Jeff and I visited Pelican Island to see the ships at the Galveston Naval Museum, the historical arm of Seawolf Park.

The USS Stewart was also known as the “President’s Escort”. She was called that because she escorted President Roosevelt’s yacht to rendezvous with the USS Iowa in 1943 for its mission to Egypt and Tehran.  It was commissioned on May 31, 1943 and conducted over 30 missions in the North Atlantic.  It was the ship that rescued 15 merchant sailors when 2 freighters collided.  It could go as fast as 21 knots and had a range of 9100 nautical miles.  It carried a crew of 209 – 8 officers and 201 enlisted men.  It is 306 feet long and 37 feet wide.  The USS Stewart was a destroyer escort (DE).  The main mission was to hunt and destroy Hitler’s submarines during WWII.  This ship was one of 563 built for the same purpose – to “break the back” of the submarine blockade Hitler had placed around Europe.

When We started our tour of the ship, we thought we’d start with all that was on the deck.  As it turns out, we started with the stern (rear) of the ship.  There were several weapons located here.  Depth charges contained about 300 lbs. of TNT.  They were either fired from the “K” guns (the image on the right) or rolled off the back of the ship (center image).  They were detonated by a spring-loaded firing pin that went off when a certain water pressure was reached, usually between 30 feet and 600 feet.   The photograph on the left side was of a deck canon.  Those were located all over the ship, and not confined just to the stern.

Here are some deck cannons that we saw at other parts of the ship, and the rounds (center image) that were used in the deck cannons.  Needless to say, the supply of these rounds was located all over the deck, handy just in case they were needed.

The small green mortar bombs were called hedgehogs.  They were fired from the “stand” on which they are shown and were launched about 250 feet forward and to the side of the ship, in an elliptical pattern.  The pattern allowed for them all to hit the water at the same time.  They did not explode unless they hit something.  This weapon had a higher “kill” rate regarding submarines than the depth charges had.

Located at the bow of the ship were the two anchors (image on the left) and the search/signal light (image on the right).  Although there are two anchors, usually only one is lowered at a time, depending on conditions. There’s also sometimes an anchor on the stern of the ship, although we didn’t see it on this tour. The search/signal light has two purposes – to search for aircraft above, ships or submarines on the surface, or possible survivors.

We couldn’t leave the deck without mentioning the anti-aircraft guns located on both sides of the deck.  The other weapons I mentioned so far were manual shooting weapons, in that they had to be re-loaded after every shot.  Anti-aircraft guns are automatic weapons which fire multiple rounds when the trigger is pulled.

We couldn’t see the full areas below deck, but we were able to see a few areas. The Combat Information Center (CIC) was the room that tracked air, surface and sub-surface contacts that were analyzed, evaluated, and then passed on to the commander of the ship, so that he could make decisions about the course the ship would take.

The Bridge of the ship is where the piloted on its journey.  The information from the Combat Information Center is relayed to this area, so the commander can choose the best possible course for the ship to take.

Finally, the accommodations onboard the ship a leave something to be desired from today’s perspective, but when one needs to use the facilities, it’s good to have them handy!  The sleeping bunks were located on a lower deck, accessed by a very steep and narrow ladder that I chose not to attempt!!

The USS Cavalla, dubbed the “Lucky Lady”, is a submarine that is 311 feet long, and 27 feet wide.  It was commissioned on Leap Year Day (Feb 29), 1944.  When on the surface, it could speed along at 21 knots, and 9 knots when submerged.  It could be out 75 days and cover 11,000 nautical miles.  Its crew consisted of 60 men – 6 officers and 54 enlisted.  This is the sub that sunk the Japanese navy Carrier, Shokaku, that attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  It was her first mission.  It was decommissioned in 1946, and then recommissioned in 1951 – 1952, and then again from 1953 – 1968, this last time for Cold War Operations.  Aside from this brief entrance (and later exit), most of the tour is below deck.

We started our tour at the bow (front) of the submarine.  While at sea, the crew ate in three sittings in the crew’s mess.  The kitchen facilities were next door to the mess.  Breakfast was served at 7:15am, lunch at 11:15 am, soup or light snacks at 3:15 pm, and dinner at 7:15 pm.  Bakery items (pastries) were served at 11:15 am and 3:15 pm.  Submarine messes received extra funding, so that the food served on submarines was the best in the Navy.  The image on the right is of another kitchen – the one for the officers.

Sleeping accommodations were also a bit different, depending upon one’s rank on the sub.  Captain’s and Officer’s quarters were semi-private, and even when the officers had to share a room, their bunks were quite nice, relatively speaking.

Enlisted men’s sleeping accommodations were very different.  The men would have “hot bunks”, meaning that when your shift was over and you left the bed, another sailor was sure to take it over for his sleeping shift.  The other interesting thing about these bunks is where they are located.  The green item shown below the two bunks in this image is a torpedo.  Enlisted men slept with the torpedoes.

There were a couple of rooms that were responsible for the navigation of and directing of the submarine.  The lower right image is the room where the route the sub will follow is plotted.  The other two images are of the room where the route developed in the plotting room is carried out.

There were also a couple of other rooms that we saw on the tour.  The image on the left is the ship’s office, where the day-to-day issues are handled – transfers, promotions, mail distribution, etc.  The communications office is where, obviously enough communications between the submarine and other ships, commanders, etc., occurs.

And, finally, there are 4 engines in the submarine, General Motors, each with a bank of 8 cylinders arranged in a v-design.  The engine drove an GE 1100-kilowatt generator.  This is an image of just one of those images.

Enjoy!