Vacation Travelogue - Pearl Harbor Pt II

After seeing the Arizona memorial when headed over to the next exhibit the USS Bowfin museum and park. As you approach the entrance you are greeted by examples of various torpedoes, which for some reason I didn't take any pictures of, as well as two examples of the Polaris missile. It was all quite fascinating. We were quite fortunate that there wasn't a line to get into the sub itself. I have never been inside any type of submarine before so I was quite excited. It probably explains the huge number of pictures of the interior of the USS Bowfin.

A little history on the USS Bowfin SS-287: She is a Balao- class submarine and was launched on 12/7/1942, one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. She was nicknamed the Pearl Harbor Avenger. Between 1943 and 1945 she was deployed on 9 war patrols each lasting about 2 months. She was enroute for her 10th patrol when the war ended. She sank 17 large ships, primarily cargo ships, and a host of smaller ships during her 9 patrols.

USS Bowfin battleflag

Lets take a look inside:

You enter through the deck into the forward torpedo room. She has six tubes forward.

Officers Mess

Officers' compartment

Yes, those hatches really are that small. I was waiting for the two girls to clear the shot and then I decided that they were pretty good scale indicators.

I have never seen so many dials and gauges in my life

The galley

Enlisted Mess

a bunkroom, I think there must have been a deck under this that we were not allowed on. I'm still trying to figure out how 80-100 men were aboard this boat during a patrol.

One of the four massive diesel engines. These are General Motors' V16 engines.

A small machine shop is on board.

I have no idea what this panel does but I could only get a picture through the hatch. I think its the throttles for the engines as its as the back of the second engine compartment.

The four rear torpedo tubes.

4" deck gun, used quite frequently according to what I read.

Looking forward to the bow, that is the 20mm AA gun forward.

40mm Bofers on the rear deck of the conning tower

There are a lot more pictures but I thought I should only include the better ones here. My brother has been on the U-505 in Chicago and he says this one is like a palace in comparison.