Stories From the US Submarine Force
Submariners live for the sea stories, and some are colder than others. On this episode of Patrol Reports, Dave Bowman sat down with Captain Jim Harvey, former commanding officer of USS Queenfish (SSN-651), to revisit a patrol that pushed the limits of technology, seamanship, and nerves: surfacing at the North Pole in August of 1985.
The base commander’s voice carried over the assembled crew on the warm August day. “Torpedoman’s Mate First Class James H. Howard.” He stepped forward, eyes straight ahead, as the medal was pinned to his dress blues. The citation spoke of meritorious service on war patrols. The words were official, clipped, and neat, but they could never match the reality of the months spent in the torpedo room of a fighting boat. He had already been to sea before the war, qualifying on USS Pollack in 1938, but the first three patrols aboard USS Halibut had been his real test.
Continue reading “Torpedoman’s Mate”
USS Bluegill began her life on the ways at Groton, Connecticut, in December of 1942. She was a Gato-class boat, built for the long patrols and hard work the war in the Pacific demanded. When Mrs. W. Sterling Cole christened her on August 8, 1943, she slid into the Thames River looking every bit the part of a warship that would soon prowl far from home. Commissioned that November under Lt. Comdr. Eric L. Barr, Jr., she went through the usual shakedown, torpedo shoots, and workups before making the long transit to the war zone.
Continue reading “SS Bluegill’s 2nd War Patrol: The August 13, 1944 Battle and the Mark 18 Torpedo’s Trial”
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