WWII vessel to start trip up Arkansas River on Sunday

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The Log Cabin Democrat of Conway, Arkansas Sunday, August 1, 2004

WWII vessel to start trip up Arkansas River on Sunday

By TOM PARSONS Associated Press Writer

NORTH LITTLE ROCK - The World War II-era submarine Razorback will start its trip up the Arkansas River to central Arkansas today, Mayor Patrick Hays of North Little Rock said Saturday.

Workers at Rosedale, Miss., succeeded on Friday in raising the bottom of the submarine enough - by suspending it between two barges - to negotiate the Arkansas, which has a shallower navigation channel than the lower Mississippi River that the vessel had to negotiate from New Orleans to Rosedale."We got her up, she's up somewhere around the 10- or 11-foot range, which is in our minds enough for safe passage" with as much water as the Arkansas River is carrying now, Hays said.

The navigation channel in the Arkansas is maintained at a minimum 9-foot depth. Hays said the submarine and the barges, being pushed by a towboat, would leave Rosedale on Sunday afternoon, entering the Arkansas River Navigation Project through the new Montgomery Point dam and lock.

The entourage will travel 15 to 20 miles up the Arkansas River before stopping for the night, he said.The submarine will be moved on the Arkansas River only during the daylight hours, Hays said.

 It will get under way again Monday at daybreak, he said, and is expected to make it up the river that day to a point a short way downstream from Pine Bluff.On Tuesday, he said, the Razorback should reach its temporary mooring point in the Port of Little Rock.

It will stay there until its permanent home on the north bank of the river is prepared and ready, the mayor said, probably the last weekend in August.

The city acquired the submarine from Turkey to serve as the centerpiece of the $15 million Arkansas Inland Maritime Museum near North Little Rock's downtown riverfront. The Razorback was built for the U.S. Navy and served during World War II and afterward until it was decommissioned in 1970 and provided to Turkey.

Hays said those interested in tracking the submarine's progress up the Arkansas River should be able to do so on the city's Web site."We are going to keep up with it ... on almost an hourly basis," Hays said.

The process of raising the submarine high enough in the water so its bottom clears the bottom of the river involved securing it by cables and nylon netting between two partially submerged barges, and then pumping water out of the barges to raise them - and the sub - higher in the water."She was (drawing) about 14 1/2 feet - we've got her about 10 or 11 feet," Hays said.  
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Contributed, YNCS Don Harribine, USN(Ret) NCPOA NAVetsUSA

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