growler
“Growler is the sole survivor of the Navy’s fleet of pioneering strategic missile diesel powered submarines.”
- Historic Naval Ships Association
U.S.S. GROWLER SSG-577
Class: Grayback/Regulus II Submarine
Launched: April 5, 1958
At: Portsmouth Navy Yard, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Commissioned: August 30, 1958
Length: 317′ 7″ / 96.8 m
Beam: 27′ 2″ / 8.3 m
Draft: 19′ (surface trim) / 5.8 m
Displacement: 2,768 tons (surfaced)
Armament: Regulus I and II missiles
Speed: maximum surfaced – 20 knots
maximum submerged – 12 knots
Complement: 9 officers, 11 chief petty officers, 68 crewmen
Decommissioned: May 25, 1964
Growler was destined to be sunk as a target, but was saved at the last minute by the Intrepid Museum. More details here. Cool old photos on NavSource.
Pier 86 is the location of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum (West 46th Street & 12th Avenue).
We were surveying some piers located north of the museum, and would have to take tide readings regularly off a tide board posted up just east of this submarine, so these workers would watch us go back and forth, and wave:
And they know what many of us know: any day on the water is better than a good day at the office.
However, if you are in the office, check out Maritime Monday’s submarine edition and order a sub for lunch.
towmasters
tugster
Simply delightful. Check out our two subs at the San Diego Maritime Museum. The Russian sub is horrific.
wow – looks kind of Moby Dick, but then I suppose that makes sense.
Bowsprite, have you thought of doing a poster of all the ship ‘elevations’ in your collection?
I ask that cause I really like them and the posters of lighthouses in my workshop need replacing.
A guy (artist) by the name of Stephan Majorim draws cars…invents them actually, and has done some great sets …..its true, look it up
J. P. Holland designed and tested the first successful subs for the US Navy less than 25 miles from Growler’s location. Two can be seen at the Patterson Museum. Holland’s subs, built 100 years ago in Elizabeth and other places of NJ, were 1/10th the length. Nothing is visible today at the Crescent Shipyard. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Philip_Holland Here see Hull #s starting with #88: http://shipbuildinghistory.com/history/shipyards/2large/inactive/bethelizabethport.htm
sorry . .. i meant to conclude that NOTHING of the sub shipyard in elizabethport is visible today, not even a historical plaque. nothing.
In Groton Connecticutt there is the USS Nautilus and I think somewhere there is a ring that compares the hull size of an Ohio Class Ballistic Missile Sub to the hull size of the Holland. Think Yugo going up against a Semi. Anyway, going on the Nautilus is pretty cool especially when you can compare it to one of the Gato class subs strewn around the country or the U-505 in Chicago.
At my office, I have a coffee mug that shows every US Submarine class from the Holland to the Seawolf Class. With the Virginia class now, it’s a bit outdated.
Also, if I recall this was based on a late war German design (Type XXI or XXIII I think).
@Ken, those rings are at the entrance to the submarine museum just down the street from SUBASE in Groton.
@Will, unbelievable how easy history gets lost.
@Bowsprite, wonderful that some history is saved and shared!
I didn’t remember if I had a picture of that or not, so I looked through my files and sure enough….
http://michiganexposures.blogspot.com/2012/05/comparison.html
russian subs, moby dick, lighthouses, comparison rings (that photo is crazy! how did men fit through the smaller one? I was shocked to read that Growler had onboard once a complement of 98 men!) Thank you everyone for writing: i’m so sorry to be remiss in replying. Swamped with work…which is good!
love! c
John Phillip Holland – they wrote a song about him!
(ps – I was fully expecting to see a shark-faced tugboat when I opened this – I forgot that King’s Point hasn’t quite got a Growler monopoly in these parts!)
There’s some “GROWLER” s docked at the Cape Ann Brewing co. here in GLOSTA.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8427660@N02/2586169093/
ok, paul. i guess i have to try the GLOSTA flavors, but my favorite from way back when was from around to the base of cape ann: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ambientspace/6866780381/in/photostream/ i’ve seen these growlers from time to time in my queensian postage stamp size food market.
and a . . . bowsprite, do you suppose you could use your pen and ink to conjure up a round of these growlahs??
And then there was our failed attempt at a new new boating safety mascot
The Growler has sister and brother subs, the Grumbler and Mumbler (I believe the Mumbler was a “Red October” of its day…running quiet to get past sonar and so forth. Never heard much about the Grumbler.)
I’m not making that up.
Growlahs…ain’t they what one buys alottabeer in?