A Maritime!

We decided to run to Manitowoc today and visit the Wisconsin Maritime Museum there. The big draw? They have an actual World War II submarine on display there.  Actually, during the war there were 28 submarines built in the shipyard at Manitowoc. The submarine on display is the USS Cobia.  Not one that was built there but of the same class. It is a GATO class submarine

The museum is right in the mouth of the Manitowoc River as it comes in from Lake Michigan.

The USS Cobia sits at dock, as if it was just waiting for resupply before going back out.

In the museum they had a periscope set up.  You could even look through it and see out across the town.  I thought it was pretty cool.

In the forward torpedo room

There was a tour of the sub just getting ready to go as we arrived so we jumped on it and did the tour. The sub was launched November 28, 1943 in Connecticut.

Playing on the ladder in the forward torpedo room. 

The USS Cobia did six war patrols during the war and is credited with sinking six ships, a total of 20,000 tons of enemy ships. During all those patrols and battles there was only one fatality among the crew.  An ammunition specialist was killed during a surface battle when he was hit with machine gun fire.

The forward torpedo room. 

I was amazed at how nearly every surface inside the ship was covered with instrumentation, cables, knobs, or dials

The officersʻ mess. 

The spaces were just tiny. The officersʻ mess was luxurious with all the space. There was actually room for several people in there.  Not necessarily comfortable, but they would fit.

In the control room. 

The control room was in the midsection of the ship.  Above it was the conning tower, where the periscope was.  Thatʻs also where the captain was usually found when he was on duty. Below the control room was the pump room. They sounded the klaxon for us, the horn they sounded whenever they were diving the ship.  The radar on the sub is still functional.  Its figured to be the oldest working radar mechanism in the world. They get it up and running once or twice a year just to make sure it still works.  Each time they do they have to notify the local airport as it interferes with the airportʻs radar system.

The control room.  The red wheels controlled the dive planes. 

From the control room we continued aft to the crewʻs mess room.  It had seating for 24 people at a time.  The crew ate in rotations.

The crewʻs mess room. 

Moving back from the crewʻs mess was the crewʻs sleeping quarters.  Room for 36 bunks.  However, they were not assigned to individuals.  You just took what was open when you got a chance to take a nap or get some sleep.  The lights in the crewʻs quarters were always red so the crewʻs eyes didnʻt have to adjust after being in there for a while. Each man had his own locker, a small one, but that was it. Submarines were sometimes called "pig boats" because water was at a premium and the crew usually was allowed to shower only once every week or two.  Only the cook got to shower daily, for food sanitation reasons. When the ship first put out to sea the shower was usually packed with canned food anyway.  Nobody could shower until theyʻd been out long enough to have eaten enough to clear the shower.

The crewʻs quarters, 

Next came the forward engine room. The pistons were as big as gallon cans. The engines actually heated the water to produce steam that propelled the ship.  So the room was always hot.  They said the temperature normally was around 120 degrees.  The rest of the submarine usually was a cool 90 degrees.

The forward engine room. 

Even though the ship was decommissioned in 1970 the engine room still had a heavy smell of diesel. There was also an aft engine room, divided into separate compartments in case one was compromised and flooded.

The rear torpedo room. 

The USS Cobia has been designated as a National Historic Landmark.  On the tour I made it through all the hatchways between compartments and only banged my head once that really hurt. I think I made it through one hatch without banging my head.  The bottoms of the hatches were about two feet off the floor and the hatch was probably only four feet or so tall.  Not a big opening.

After we toured the submarine we went back inside the museum and looked over the exhibits they had in there.

They had several small boats on display, one of which they had stairs so you could get into it.

The kids had a good time playing. in the sailboat.

They had another room with exhibits on building boats over the ages.  Lots of nautical gear and equipment.

They also had a "hands on" room where the kids (and grown ups) could play in the water. They had tanks set up around the room that represented the different lakes in the in the Great Lakes - they were set at different heights to show how each of the lakes is at a different elevation.

They even had a little section that illustrated how locks worked to raise and lower ships as they moved between the lakes.

When we finished at the museum we headed over to the Cedar Crest Dairy for some ice cream. Reputed to be the best in town, it was very good.

No soft serve, this was hand dipped ice cream, made on site. And lots of yummy varieties. I had teh black cherry.

Their landmark was a giant cow out front of the store.  The kids loved it

No trip to Manitowoc would be complete without a visit to the site where a piece of Sputnik crashed to earth 54 years ago.

The only thing marking the spot was a marker set in the sidewalk in front of an art museum.

We found the museum easy enough but then we all spread out until we found the marker.  Flat in the sidewalk, it took a few minutes to find.  But we did find it.

Then we headed back home.  It was a fun day.  Lots of interesting things to see and good ice cream.  How could you do any better?