Razorback Historical sub ‘junk’ handled with care

Since 06-23-04
 

BY JAKE SANDLIN
ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

NEW ORLEANS — Rolled up blueprints, tools and a pair of old shoes are usually destined for a garbage bin or a garage sale if pulled from someone’s attic.

   Removing those same items from a 60-year-old submarine that has served two nations makes them museum-worthy pieces of history.

   North Little Rock officials and a submarine historian have been working for the past two days removing everything they can from the USS Razorback submarine while it is docked near the French Quarter on the Mississippi River.

   Everything removed is identified by where it was found, then packed in airtight containers for transport to North Little Rock where the Razorback will become part of a proposed $15 million Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum on the Arkansas River.

   Notable items found so far have included architectural drawings of the submarine’s still-complete sonar system and a set of torpedo tools now "only seen in textbooks," said Greg Stitz, an amateur naval historian from Arlington, Va.

   "Finding the drawings and the torpedo tools I think were a shock," Stitz said Monday before returning to Virginia where he is a defense contractor. "And also how complete this boat is. All the bunks, all the mattresses. A complete sonar system. To my understanding, [no other museum submarines] have their sonar system.

   "A lot of boats now in museums were to be scrapped," Stitz added. "A lot of stuff got taken off of them, sometimes to be spare parts. You can’t get that stuff back. So this is kind of a unique opportunity since the Razorback never got that far down the road to being scrapped."

   The Razorback served two years in World War II and is one of two submarines still existing that were present for the Japanese surrender in Tokyo Bay in 1945. It later served in the Vietnam War and ran covert Cold War patrols into the early 1960s.

   North Little Rock obtained title to the Razorback from Turkey where the submarine had served since 1970 as the Murat Reis. Mayor Patrick Hays and a central Arkansas submarine veterans group worked for more than two years to save the Razorback for historical preservation.

   Because of a lack of time, and the need to work around public tours allowed since Saturday afternoon, everything is being taken off the Razorback as is, to be identified and documented for any historical significance later in North Little Rock.

   The tours have made retrieval difficult in other ways, too. Just hours after the Razorback had docked here Saturday, four knob caps on levers in the boat’s maneuvering room were missing, said John Adams, owner of Yachts One International in Port Orchard, Wash., who managed the preparation and tow of the Razorback.

   The artifacts are being removed in 5-gallon orange buckets either tied to a rope or handed person-to-person up through a 24-inch-round entryway onto the sub’s deck.

   "We’re taking pictures, labeling everything and pretty much putting it all in storage boxes as we pack it up," said Sandra Taylor-Smith, executive director of North Little Rock’s History Commission.

   Submarine veterans who toured the boat offered their help in identifying items, Taylor-Smith said.

   "Every one of these guys can say ‘This is the da-da-da,’" she said.

   Blueprints and operations manuals are among other items, plus several bags that had been used by Turkish enlisted men, said Dan Scott, North Little Rock’s neighborhood services director who is helping Tayor-Smith lead the archival effort.

   "As a pack rat, those are the kinds of things you love," Scott said.

   A more thorough search for hidden items will be done in North Little Rock, and for good reason, Taylor-Smith said.

   "Sailors, particularly submariners, are notorious for hiding things," she said. "And there are places all over where you can stash things."

   Maybe not stashed away, but simply forgotten, were a pair of dress shoes, Stitz said. From their black, uniform style design, and their location — in an officer’s area — the shoes become more important than being just some leftover personal item, Stitz said.

   "It’s all context," he explained. "They would be just stuff, but being here, in an officer’s area and if you know from a specific officer’s stateroom, you can get his story as to what life was life as a Turkish submarine officer.

   "Then you have a biography and a story to go with them. Otherwise, they are just another pair of shoes that you can buy for 50 cents at Goodwill," Stitz said.

   The Razorback is here for maintenance and to change from being pulled by an ocean tow to placement between two barges for its trip up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers to North Little Rock.

   The submarine is scheduled to reach North Little Rock on July 18, two days after stopping at the dedication of the $262 million Montgomery Point Lock and Dam in southeastern Arkansas.

This story was published Tuesday, June 22, 2004
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(Ret)