USS Alabama (BB-60) and USS Drum (SS-228)

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Recently I went and visited the WW2 Battleship BB-60, USS Alabama, and WW2 Submarine SS-228, USS Drum. Both served in the Pacific Theater during WW2.

The Alabama was commissioned on 16 August 1942, and during the course of the war earned 9 Battle Stars.

Class: South Dakota Class Battleship
Length: 680 ft.
Displacement: 35,000 tons
Crew: 1739
Armament: 9 x 16 in, 20 x 5 in, 24 x Bofors 40mm, 22 x Oerlikon 20 mm

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

The USS Drum was commissioned on 1 November 1941, and throughout the course of the war she sank 15 ships totaling 80,580 tons, earning her 12 Battle Stars.

Class: Gato Class
Length: 311 ft.
Displacement: 1490 tons (surface), 2060 tons (submerged)
Crew: 83
Armament: 10 x 21 inch torpedo tubes (24 Torpedoes), 1 x 3 in cannon, 1 x Bofors 40 mm, 1 x Oerlikon 20mm

 

[fubar57]

Very cool, Alder

 

[vikingBerserker]

Man, I love BB's. Great pics!

Being on a sub in WW2 as a cook had to be an interesting job.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Man, I love BB's. Great pics!

Being on a sub in WW2 as a cook had to be an interesting job.

I was wondering where the fumes and "smoke" would vent to if they were submerged. Or did they only cook on the surface?

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I was wondering where the fumes and "smoke" would vent to if they were submerged. Or did they only cook on the surface?

I spent six hours as an invited guest underway on SS-483, USS Sea Leopard, serving as a target for an aircraft ASW exercise in 1972 when she was one of the last diesel boats in the Nav. She was a Tench, not a Gato, but not much different. Submerged the only edibles were coffee and sandwiches. Those boats didn't normally stay submerged all that long. They were essentially surface warships with a submersion capability in order to conduct stealthy attacks. Their submerged speeds were so slow that they had to run fast on the surface to get ahead of their target, then submerge and attempt to get into torpedo range without getting left behind.
The P-3 dropped a noisemaker on us twenty minutes after takeoff, despite the fact we were silent on the bottom in nearly 300 feet of water.
In 1973, Sea Leopard was sold to Brazil, and her US crew trained their Brazilian counterparts. She was renamed Bahia SS12 and served til 1993, turned into a museum, then scrapped in 1998.
Cheers,
Wes

 

[Crimea_River]

Great pics Chris. Thanks for posting.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Great shots Chris!

 

[jmcalli2]

Recently I went and visited the WW2 Battleship BB-60, USS Alabama, and WW2 Submarine SS-228, USS Drum. Both served in the Pacific Theater during WW2.

The Alabama was commissioned on 16 August 1942, and during the course of the war earned 9 Battle Stars.

Class: South Dakota Class Battleship
Length: 680 ft.
Displacement: 35,000 tons
Crew: 1739
Armament: 9 x 16 in, 20 x 5 in, 24 x Bofors 40mm, 22 x Oerlikon 20 mm

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Nice!

Recently I went and visited the WW2 Battleship BB-60, USS Alabama, and WW2 Submarine SS-228, USS Drum. Both served in the Pacific Theater during WW2.

The Alabama was commissioned on 16 August 1942, and during the course of the war earned 9 Battle Stars.

Class: South Dakota Class Battleship
Length: 680 ft.
Displacement: 35,000 tons
Crew: 1739
Armament: 9 x 16 in, 20 x 5 in, 24 x Bofors 40mm, 22 x Oerlikon 20 mm

View attachment 493082 View attachment 493083 View attachment 493084 View attachment 493085 View attachment 493086 View attachment 493087 View attachment 493088 View attachment 493089 View attachment 493090 View attachment 493091

Nice pics!

My pics from 2016 are here;
View: https://m.facebook.com/james.mcallister.33633/albums/409915969215567/?ref=bookmarks&m_sess&cancelled_edit_album

Enjoy!

 

[Luftace43]

Very nice pictures! The volunteer team did a fantastic job restoring the Drum. I was there back in January. Luckily I only live an hour away, but still don't get to see the park very often.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Very nice pictures! The volunteer team did a fantastic job restoring the Drum. I was there back in January. Luckily I only live an hour away, but still don't get to see the park very often.

I live about 2.5 hours to the west, but come to Mobile often for work.

 

[Airframes]

Impressive stuff, and a great set of pics Chris.

 

[Jimbob]

Very cool photos. Here is some photos taken of the USS Iowa BB-61 taken in 2012. Not much was open below decks then.

 

[Jimbob]

A photo of a 2 year old sitting on a 16 inch round in the San Pedro, Ca. Maritime Museum in 2009 before the Iowa got there.

 

[mikewint]

My childhood friend Rick was a Lt-Commander on the USS Patrick Henry and while conditions were vastly superior to WWI and even WWII subs it was still highly restrictive.
WWI subs were refered to a Pigboats with good reason. WWII subs were better ventilated and conditions were somewhat better. Within 500mi of enemy waters the sub remained submerged during the day and surfaced at night. The crew essentially went into reverse doing normal daytime activities at night when the sub's diesels were running. Nonetheless subs had a unique ODOR of diesel fuel, sweat, cigarettes, hydraulic fluid, cooking, 80 unwashed (every 10 days maybe) men and sewage.

 

[parsifal]

An Oberon class sub is a reasonable approximation of the working environment for a diesel electric sub

This is a report I found regarding principal hazards

https://www.dva.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/consultation and grants/healthstudies/oberon_report.pdf

Fumes from the galey directly aren't mentioned, but the layout of the sub influded a number of gadgets called "Fume Extractors". All I know about them is that they utilsed activated carbon filters to extract certain fumes from the air.

On the few occasions I was on board, it wasn't the galley smells that made it unpleasant. The worst odours were of diesel fuel. Several of my friends after a couple of weeks of active deployment would reek of diesel for a few weeks.

Ozone was another issue, and people using the head could make the boat rather unpleasant at times. The scrubbers removed a lot of these smells, but some would just escape for a while until re-circulated through the ACS

 

[Builder 2010]

I've been to the Alabama, the USS Texas and the New Jersey three times. The Alabama is nice since it still has all of its WW2 armament and fittings whereas the Iowa class ships were all pretty radically modified in the 80s. The Iowa's 16" guns were different from all the others in the US arsenal. They were 16"-50 caliber, not 16"-45 caliber. So they were 6.6 feet longer giving higher muzzle velocity and greater range. It's also interesting to see how they had to cram all five Mk 57 Twin Mounts into that mid-ships space. The Iowas were 207 feet longer than the Alabama class ships and some of that length appeared in the bow, but a lot was amidships and the addition of the second funnel. This led to a much more balanced design and room for those 5" guns and more 40mms. It also gave it about 5 more knots so it could keep up with the Essex class carriers. IMHO, the Iowas were the handsomest battleships ever built.

 

[jmcalli2]

Very nice pictures! The volunteer team did a fantastic job restoring the Drum. I was there back in January. Luckily I only live an hour away, but still don't get to see the park very often.

Thanks!
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