In August 1958, USS Queenfish (SS-393) was back in San Diego after her WestPac deployment and quickly moved into a maintenance phase. The deck log shows that beginning on August 21 she entered an availability period, and over the following days the crew oversaw the offloading of her torpedoes. This was standard practice before any yard period, both for safety reasons and to allow overhaul work in the torpedo rooms. The log notes entries where torpedoes were struck below, removed, and transferred off the submarine, marking the transition from an operational posture to one focused on repair and upkeep .
On August 25, Queenfish made a short but important move. Under her own power, she shifted from her berth out in the harbor to a berth between buoys 15 and 16, closer to the naval base piers where submarines undergoing maintenance were typically moored . This relocation was a routine but symbolic step: the war patrol veteran was no longer in an operational anchorage, she was now secured at a yard berth where preparations for dry docking would continue.
The days that followed involved securing equipment, logging the removal of gear, and finalizing arrangements for her entry into dry dock. The log reflects a quieter rhythm compared to a patrol, filled with notes about routine watches, engineering checks, and the paperwork that accompanies every stage of a submarine’s upkeep cycle .
In short, August 1958 found Queenfish transitioning from a sea-going deployment to the hard, unglamorous business of unloading weapons, shifting berths, and readying for dry dock. It was not a dramatic month of combat or Pacific patrols, but it was a necessary chapter in keeping her seaworthy for the next assignment. Would you like me to now expand this into a full narrative article draft, weaving in her war service background and contrasting her combat years with this quieter 1958 scene?
Patrol Reports 
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