Since 07-02-04
Storied sub negotiates mighty Mississippi on final voyage
Since 07-02-04
Navy Times,
5 July 2004 Issue
Taking the long way home
Storied sub negotiates mighty Mississippi on final voyage
The USS Razorback, a World War II submarine and one of the world’s
longest-serving subs, is back in U.S. waters, starting a voyage up the
Mississippi River to be part of an inland museum in Arkansas.The Navy
decommissioned the 312-foot vessel Nov. 30, 1970, and handed it over to the
Turkish navy, which recently agreed after 2½ years of negotiations to sell it to
North Little Rock, Ark., for $1.“This has never been done before — bringing a
submarine back to the U.S.,” said John Adams, a retired U.S. Navy officer and
the project manager of the operation.
The rusty, barnacled Razorback entered the Mississippi June 19, towed by the tugboat that had been with the submarine since its departure from Istanbul on May 5, and docked in New Orleans. It is scheduled to get underway in July, pushed up the Mississippi and Arkansas rivers by tugboat to North Little Rock, to become the centerpiece of a planned maritime museum. “It really looks good. It’s like going back home when you look at that thing,” said Edward Monroe-Jones, a submarine historian and author of a history of the Razorback.
He served on the Razorback for seven months as a seaman in 1953.The Razorback, also known as SS-394, was launched in 1944 and took part in the surrender of Japan on Sept. 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay. It was awarded five battle stars during World War II and four during the Vietnam War. Ironically, the submarine isn’t named after the famed mascot of the University of Arkansas but, rather, a species of whale.
Submarine veterans in decorated vests and caps snapped photographs as it came upriver. Max Bassett was the only veteran who made the entire trip from Turkey.“How many guys who are 69 years old get a chance to do this?” Bassett said.
He
was a machinist and engineer on the Razorback from 1959 to 1962. During the
crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, the vessel picked up an extra passenger, an
injured bird that crew members fed.“He just crash-landed on the deck ... the
night we left Gibraltar,” Bassett said. “Hopefully, he’ll make it on to
Arkansas,” Bassett said. “He’s free, he’s wild, he comes and goes.”
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Contributed,
YNCS Don Harribine, USN(Ret)