Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Audit of Hunley is overdue

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The Sun News
By Issac Bailey
May 31, 2006


The (Charleston) Post & Courier has reported that the cost of the H.L. Hunley project - the restoration of a Confederate submarine that was history's first to sink an enemy ship - is closer to $30 million, not the potential $97 million The (Columbia) State reported in a three-day series that sparked debate about the suspect role powerful Sen. Glenn McConnell played in garnering the funding for his pet project.

The Post & Courier suggests the price tag should not have included most of the money for a proposed $42 million Hunley museum in North Charleston and a $35 million Clemson University campus in Charleston.

The purpose of The State's stories, though, was to show how the Hunley was being funded without public debate and through unusual channels, so it seems reasonable to me to include the museum and the involvement of Clemson and other public entities, especially considering senators were surprised when told of those arrangements. You can't get the scope of the project without considering all actual and potential costs. And the series made another important point: the proposed $42 million Hunley museum hasn't had a feasibility study, meaning we don't know how many years taxpayers would be on the hook to keep it afloat if a paying public shows no interest.

What the story in the Post & Courier does is give our elected officials another reason to order a public accounting of the Hunley. The state's largest newspapers have reported wildly divergent accounts, making an official investigation necessary to clear up the confusion, they can say. Or, if it will make them feel less cowardly, they can say it is the only way to clear McConnell's good name, considering it is his alleged backdoor dealing to fund the project that has come under the most scrutiny.

It will take five members of the General Assembly to order such an accounting by the Legislative Audit Council. Gov. Mark Sanford should use his bully pulpit to force an official look. If in the past three plus years he hasn't mustered enough strength in Columbia to make such a thing happen, why should we bother re-electing him? In fact, why should we bother re-electing anyone who doesn't feel compelled to answer the

$97 million question?

Horry County Council has to decide if it's right to ask us to pay for roads for which the state is responsible but has refused to fund while the price tag on the Hunley might reach $97 million. Why aren't our people in Columbia bothered by that?


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Friday, May 26, 2006

Big-bucks compass appraisal doesn’t wreck his day

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Boston Herald
By Gabriel Leiner
May 26, 2006


Earl King of Norton “hit the jackpot” with a compass he salvaged from the wreck of a U-boat, but the German government may be gunning for the sunken booty.

The former firefighter said an appraiser just told him the gyrocompass he removed from the submarine U-853, sunk off Block Island in 1945, is worth tens of thousands of dollars. (He wants to keep the actual figure a secret for now.)

“I’m not keeping it in my car anymore, that’s for sure,” King added.

He came upon his waterlogged treasure on July 4, 1973, with a dive partner. Both men ventured out to the wreck and King cut loose the compass from inside the vessel and lugged it to the surface.

The U-853 is the only documented World War II sinking of a German submarine close to the New England shore. The Navy caught up to the sub a day after the Germans torpedoed a U.S. ship. All hands, about 60 men, perished.

Now the wreck is back in the news thanks to an eagle-eyed appraiser.

“I brought it in and the appraiser told me, ‘You hit the jackpot,’ he blew my mind,” said King.

King said he has written to the German embassy to see if they’ll bid on this golden compass.


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 25, 2006

A fascinating plunge into the mysteries of a Civil War sub

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SHNS.com
By Karen MacPherson
May 24, 2006




Librarians call them "informational" books. But the best non-fiction books for kids easily belie such a dull-sounding label. These books, filled with tales of courage and adventure, will inspire young readers _ not bore them.

In fact, non-fiction books often are a great answer for reluctant readers. Just like many adults, lots of kids prefer non-fiction. Unfortunately, well-meaning adults tend to equate "reading" with "reading fiction," and either forget or refuse to offer the choice of non-fiction to kids.

As one way to remedy that, children's librarians established a new award for non-fiction books five years ago. The annual award, called the Robert F. Sibert Medal, is given to the most distinguished informational book published in English during the preceding year. The award is sponsored by a Jacksonville, Fla., bookbinding company and named for its longtime president.

The winner is chosen by a panel of librarians and announced at the annual winter meeting of the American Library Association. The panel often names at least one honor book as well.

Although the Sibert Medal is overshadowed by the better-known Newbery and Caldecott medals, it is helping to raise awareness about the importance of non-fiction for young readers, librarians say. In addition, the medal has helped establish a core collection of well-written non-fiction for kids.

This year's Sibert Medal winner is "Secrets of a Civil War Submarine: Solving the Mysteries of the H.L. Hunley" (Carolrhoda Books, $18.95). Written by Sally M. Walker, the book is a fascinating, carefully documented look at how scientists are piecing together the story of the Hunley, which disappeared after it became the first submarine to sink an enemy ship, on Feb. 17, 1864. The book is filled with color photographs and maps that add further interest to the intriguing tale.

As Kathy Simonetta, chair of the Sibert Medal committee, put it: "Walker's unique integration of history and science will appeal to the natural curiosity of young readers."

In her book, Walker first tells the historical story of how and why the Hunley was built during the Civil War, and how Confederate officials hoped to use the sub to overcome the crippling Union blockade of the port of Charleston, S.C.

Walker then switches gears to recount how scientists have worked painstakingly to unearth the Hunley from the bottom of the sea and to learn her secrets. As the book ends, Walker notes that many questions remain, including why the Hunley sank. As she concludes: "The Hunley ... teachers everyone the value of a good story. And like the very best of storytellers, she spins her tale slowly, one chapter at a time. We're still waiting for her conclusion."

Although "Secrets of a Civil War Submarine" is published in a picture-book format, it isn't a book for the youngest readers. But kids ages 10 and up who love the idea of a real-life mystery will definitely enjoy this book.

"The Sibert winner will probably have to be introduced to young readers, but once that happens, well, they're sure to become caught up in it," says Maria Salvadore, who teaches children's literature at the University of Maryland. "One of the things that I most appreciated about 'Secrets of a Civil War Submarine' is the fact that it conveys the notion that even history evolves, that ... mysteries remain but there are clues to those who look and can see.

"That ...breathes life into dusty subjects," she added.

The 2006 Sibert committee also chose one honor book, "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" (Scholastic, $19.95). Written by Susan Campbell Bartoletti, the book also was named a Newbery Honor book this year.

In her book, Bartoletti shows how young people were an important force in helping Adolf Hitler rise to power. She focuses particularly on 12 young people: some were true believers, some were fearful of the consequences if they didn't go along, and some ended up defying the regime.

Filled with photographs, Bartoletti's powerful, thought-provoking book spurs young readers to ask themselves what they would have done if they had lived in Germany at the time of Hitler. (Ages 12 up.)


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Nuclear submarine 50 years of the USSR to be scrapped

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Bellona
May 24, 2006


Canada sponsors dismantlement of the Russian multipurpose submarine K-38.
Z
vezdochka shipyard prepares to launch dismantling of K-38 multipurpose nuclear submarine, project 671 (Victor-I), Interfax reported. The submarine is placed in the floating dock where it should prepared for spent nuclear fuel unloading.

Multirpurpose nuclear submarine K-38 joined the Russian navy in 1967. It suffered two accidents in 1984 and 1985. K-38 will be the fifth nuclear submarine, dismantlement of which is sponsored by Canada in the frames of the Global Partnership Program, Interfax reported.


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Saturday, May 20, 2006

The Living Shipwreck - Replica of a Sunken World War II German Submarine

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The Free Press
By Janette Pippin
May 18,2006


PINE KNOLL SHORES — All in all, it was quite a backdrop.

There were two sand tiger sharks — each 8 feet long. Nearby, some sandbar sharks swam with several hundred other varieties of fish. All had room to roam in the 306,000-gallon ocean tank that houses the signature exhibit now almost ready for this weekend’s opening of the newly expanded N.C. Aquarium at Pine Knoll Shores.

They call it the Living Shipwreck tank. Folks will get their first chance to see it Friday after a 10:30 a.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony.

What they’ll see are the results of a $25 million expansion that tripled the size of the aquarium. And the 65-foot-long Living Shipwreck exhibit far surpasses the 12,000-gallon tank that was the former facility’s largest.

The exhibit includes a three-quarter-size replica of a sunken World War II submarine and duplicates the marine community typical of an offshore shipwreck.

On Wednesday, divers were among those making final preparations this week at the aquarium, performing maintenance tasks within the tank and taking time out to demonstrate the underwater microphone that will allow them to communicate with visitors during daily programs at the exhibit.

After the long effort to complete the expansion and get the aquarium ready, the staff is anxious to greet visitors and introduce them to the nearly 40 exhibits.

“There’s a sigh of relief,” said Steve Broadhurst, a dive safety officer who worked at the previous facility in the late 1980s and just rejoined the staff. “We’ve been working on this for so long and we’re ready to cut the ribbon on this project.”

While construction workers completed the last details, aquarium staff worked on finishing touches, from cleaning windows to adding fish to tanks.

At the Smoky Mountain Trout Pond, aquarists added the first 12 fish to the exhibit. The mix of rainbow, brook and brown trout were brought in from a hatchery in western North Carolina.

And while the exhibit will eventually hold 30 or more trout, the process of introducing animals to their new habitat is gradual, said aquarist Ben Wunderly.

“Because of water quality issues, you can’t slam a tank full all at once. We’re going to have fish in every tank but maybe not as many as they will hold down the line,” he said.

Aquarium Director Jay Barnes said that’s one reason for visitors to come out for the grand opening and then make plans to return again.

“We encourage everybody to come see us now and then come back again later,” he said.

The new aquarium depicts aquatic life from North Carolina’s “Mountains to the Sea.” Visitors begin their tour with the 32-foot Smoky Mountain waterfall and continue a trip through the Piedmont, Coastal Plain, Tidal Waters and Ocean galleries.

The new features include a river otter exhibit. Their names are Pungo and Neuse.

The otters, caught in the wild in the Sneads Ferry area, have been kept in a holding facility at the Roanoke Island aquarium since February and were introduced to their new habitat earlier this week.

Aquarist Meredith Owens said they’ve adjusted to the new environment well, and she’s looking forward to teaching the public more about the animals.

“By making people more aware they are out there we can protect their habitat,” she said.

Overtrapping, pollution and wetlands drainage drastically reduced the river otter population in the 20th century. While coastal otters survived deep in the swamps, western North Carolina otters were virtually extinct by the late 1930s, according to the information that is displayed as part of the exhibit.

River otters were reintroduced by the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the population is rebounding.

Barnes said the staff and team of volunteers provide the educational programming and the care of the animals that makes the aquarium more than just a new building.

“The facility is in itself wonderful. The exhibits are great. The animals are spectacular,” he said. “To me, though, the aquarium is really about the people who bring it all together. Our talented staff and volunteers share their knowledge and their commitment to conservation with our visitors in remarkably creative and memorable ways.”


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Friday, May 19, 2006

With no market study, sub museum risks sinking

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The State
By John Monk
May 16, 2006



C. ALUKA BERRY/CABERRY@THESTATE.COM
A Hunley submarine replica built by Clemson College

students in 1960 is on display at the State Museum.

$42 million facility could be one of S.C.’s most expensive, least studied
Officials who want to build a $42 million museum for the Hunley submarine in North Charleston haven’t done feasibility, site and market studies that experts say are crucial to knowing whether the project will work.

And, if the dwindling numbers of visitors to other, smaller Hunley exhibits are any gauge, it’s possible the mostly taxpayer-supported museum might fail to draw sufficient visitors and wind up being a white elephant.

It would be an expensive white elephant.

At $42 million, the future Hunley museum will be among the most costly in South Carolina, above the $16 million Columbia Art Museum but below the $70 million Charleston aquarium.

A state panel called the Hunley Commission has chosen a site for the museum whose star attraction would be the Confederate sub. The site is on a portion of the former Navy base in North Charleston, less than a mile from where the Hunley hangs in a sling in a tank of water at a conservation laboratory.

To build the museum, officials are counting on aid from the city and hefty infusions of state and federal taxpayer dollars.

But no market studies have been done, according to Freedom of Information Act requests filed with the Hunley Commission, the Friends of the Hunley foundation and the city of North Charleston. And visitors at other Hunley exhibits are not turning out in the numbers expected.

Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, Hunley Commission chairman and the museum’s biggest promoter, declined to answer questions about the museum. In the past, he has said — apparently without any studies to support it — that 1 million people would visit a Hunley museum in its first year.

Experts say no big museumlike facility should be built without in-depth market studies. Such studies would test the viability of a location, a project’s cost versus its expense and the appeal of the subject matter, most importantly.

“This is like investing in a stock. How could you possibly invest in a stock without doing due diligence?” said Harry Miley, a state economist who headed the S.C. Board of Economic Advisors for eight years after being appointed by the late Gov. Carroll Campbell.

“If you asked a real estate developer to put up a $42 million project without doing a feasibility study, it would look very odd,” Miley said.

Already, a $3 million Hunley exhibit in one of the state’s hottest tourism markets — complete with a full-scale Hunley replica and a gift shop — has failed.





In December, the Hunley exhibit at Myrtle Beach’s Broadway at the Beach closed two years into an anticipated 15-year run. Broadway at the Beach is a 350-acre tourist Mecca that draws 12 million people a year.

“For us, in our market, it had limited appeal,” said Pat Dowling, spokesman for Burroughs & Chapin, the company that owns Broadway at the Beach. Dowling declined to discuss attendance figures.

Two years ago, Hunley promoters and Burroughs & Chapin officials said the Myrtle Beach exhibit would attract up to 500,000 people a year.

But that exhibit, too, opened with no marketing studies to see whether tourists would actually visit.

Meanwhile, the number of tourists visiting the Hunley lab is falling off. Half of the lab’s approximately 276,000 visitors went through by 2002, the first year it offered consistent tours. The 48,000 visitors in 2002 slid down to 37,000 in 2005, despite a climb to 41,500 in 2004, when the burial of the Hunley’s crew increased interest.

Officials at five other museums in Virginia and North and South Carolina told The State that professionally commissioned, detailed studies are essential before launching a museum project.

A few years ago, before going ahead with an $18.5 million expansion plan for an observatory, planetarium and IMAX theater at the State Museum in Columbia, museum officials did a feasibility study and learned an IMAX wouldn’t pay for itself.

“It said we couldn’t support an IMAX, so we backed off on that,” museum director Willie Calloway said.

Such studies ideally are done by academics who use sophisticated research techniques and who have “no political or business ties” to the project to be studied, said Michael Johnson, an expert in feasibility studies and location analyses at the Carnegie Mellon business school in Pittsburgh.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey acknowledged no market studies have been done for a Hunley museum. An attraction as special as the Hunley will draw enough visitors to get the museum launched, he said. After that, the right kind of marketing and advertising will take care of the rest, he said.

In North Charleston’s vision, the Hunley would have its own museum. It beat out sites in Mount Pleasant and downtown Charleston that would have made the Hunley part of existing museums and cost much less.

But critics say a lack of market studies is just one potential drawback to putting a $42 million museum in North Charleston.

Others shaping up are:

• Fundraising limitations

• Traffic woes

• Crime

• The politics of the Confederacy.

FUNDRAISING

The Hunley project has struggled to raise private dollars.

The Hunley hasn’t proved to be the kind of project that prompts many major gifts from corporations and wealthy individuals. Originally, Hunley supporters said big donations would pay for much of the project.

In February 1998, Warren Lasch told the Hunley Commission his goal was to raise $15 million in private funds. That money would go toward the Hunley’s raising, preservation and a fledgling endowment, Lasch said.

From 1998 to 2005, Lasch headed the Friends of the Hunley, a fundraising foundation that also oversaw the excavation and preservation of the Hunley. The foundation was created by the Hunley Commission to handle day-to-day Hunley affairs.

From 1998 to 2004, Lasch’s foundation attracted $4.8 million in contributions, falling far short of $15 million, according to foundation audits and IRS records. During the same time, the foundation spent $1.1 million for professional fundraisers, according to those records.

The Hunley foundation disputes some of The State’s numbers. Foundation spokeswoman Raegan Quinn, for example, said the organization has received about $10 million — not $5 million — in cash, equipment and donated services. That total was not apparent in The State’s reading of Hunley audits and IRS statements.

The fundraising failed to hit the $15 million goal despite having professionals doing the job and despite widespread publicity on the Hunley — a television movie, a front-page story on The Wall Street Journal and statewide television specials.

But North Charleston is helping out.

Summey said the city is donating $50,000 a year toward the Hunley’s preservation. And the city has $3 million in hand to move forward with the museum’s design, he said.

TRAFFIC, CRIME

The traffic woes in North Charleston are only going to grow, critics say.

The former Navy base where McConnell and North Charleston officials want to put the Hunley museum is in large part an abandoned industrial complex with no easy access from interstate roads.

The I-26 corridor, while nearby, suffers from severe congestion during morning and evening rush hours. And, in recent months, plans have been firming up for the State Ports Authority to build a port just two miles south of the proposed museum.

To accommodate the port, the state plans a $300 million, 1.8-mile access road from I-26. Once the port is in operation, and the road is built, that area will see over time 6,500-plus extra truck trips a day, according to a 2005 study by the U.S. Corps of Engineers.

“It will be a catastrophe — the worst traffic congestion in South Carolina — gridlock,” said Dana Beach of the S.C. Coastal Conservation League, a group tracking the development.

Phoebe Miller, North Charleston’s mayor pro tem, said the new port is located on the old Navy base’s southern edge, while the museum is at the north end. “I don’t think we’ll feel the impact.”

Another problem that might diminish the lure of a museum in the city of 84,000 is crime.

For two years in a row, North Charleston has ranked in the nation’s top 50 cities for crime, in a survey by Morgan Quitno Press, a Kansas research firm. North Charleston ranked 42nd last year and 22nd in 2004. (Charleston last year ranked 116th; Columbia, 49th.)

Miller said crime isn’t as big a problem as some people think.

“Oh, but we get a bad rap!” she said. “In my neighborhood, we keep the doors open. We’re safe. We have good police.”

Summey said since he became mayor 11 years ago, North Charleston’s police force has increased from 170 to nearly 300 officers. Three years ago, he said, the city’s crime rate ranked it 12th-worst in the nation on one study.

“We are dealing with the issues,” he said.

POLITICS OF THE CONFEDERACY

Politics, too, might limit the appeal of a museum.

Hunley Commission members — most of whom belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans — insist on flying the Confederate flag in front of a Hunley museum, according to commission minutes.

That could rekindle the bitter debate that racked South Carolina during the 1990s over whether to fly the Confederate flag atop the State House dome.

Already, black leaders like the Rev. Joe Darby of Charleston are vowing that if the Confederate flag flies at the publicly financed Hunley museum, they will do all they can to keep schoolchildren away from it.

Despite all that, Hunley supporters insist attendance would be strong.

“Yes, this (the Hunley museum) will probably be the premiere (sic) tourist attraction in South Carolina,” McConnell said in a 2004 letter to state lawmakers.

The state’s largest tourist draw is Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia. It gets more than 850,000 visitors a year.

ELSEWHERE

Other states with major underwater finds have put their wrecks in existing museums rather than build new ones.

In Virginia, the turret of the Monitor, the first ironclad battleship — also from the Civil War era — will go into a $30 million new wing of a maritime museum in Newport News, officials said.

Before deciding to build the wing, officials did about $500,000 worth of market and feasibility studies. Those professional studies were “essential” in developing a realistic idea of whether people would visit the exhibit, said maritime museum public relations director Justin Lyons.

In Texas, another major underwater find — a French ship called the La Belle — is undergoing about 20 years of preservation in a laboratory. When that is finished, it will be exhibited at the state museum in Austin.

One person who is surprised at the growth of the Hunley project, especially a proposed $42 million museum, is former Sen. Larry Richter, R-Charleston.

In 1996, Richter co-sponsored the McConnell bill that established the Hunley Commission, giving it the authority to find a home for the Hunley.

Richter said he always assumed the Hunley would go in an existing museum — not a new expensive one.

“In tough times like these, we have to use the assets we have as opposed to expanding our asset base,” Richter said.

WHY NORTH CHARLESTON

What a Hunley museum might lack in national name recognition it could make up for in the sub’s sheer mystique.

What the Hunley has going for it, according to McConnell, is the secrecy in which it was developed, the mystery of how it sank and the story of how a gold coin found on board had stopped a bullet that might have otherwise killed the Hunley’s commander at the Battle of Shiloh.

McConnell envisions the museum as an expensive, world-class facility.

“To do it right, you have to have a state-of-the-art, world-class facility,” McConnell said during a Feb. 12, 2004, Hunley Commission meeting. “Not only will it be a great world attraction, but it will be an asset to the taxpayers rather than a burden, but it takes money.”

He has said, for example, he wants computer-enhanced “virtual reality” experiences so visitors will feel they actually are on the Hunley.

And he plans a Hunley replica that will take people on a water voyage into the Cooper River.

The riverfront city of North Charleston had plenty of Lowcountry competition in its bid to be the Hunley’s home.

But it offered what the other cities did not: lots of land and a large incentive package.

Weeks after the Hunley was discovered in 1995, McConnell had the General Assembly pass a resolution saying the “remains of the Hunley” should go to Patriots Point museum in Mount Pleasant “for enshrinement.”

Patriots Point, a state-run waterfront museum, has a collection of naval ships, including the USS Yorktown aircraft carrier and two submarines. And, with 275,000 visitors last year, it is one of the state’s major tourist destinations.

In the site’s favor is its location just off U.S. 17, the coastal roadway traveled by millions of tourists each year.

Several years later, The Charleston Museum near downtown Charleston and the city of North Charleston became interested in the Hunley.

For years, The Charleston Museum had displayed a Hunley replica and kept the sub’s memory alive in a city visited by millions of tourists each year.

North Charleston became interested after the Hunley was raised in August 2000 and placed in a lab at the old Navy base.

In February 2004, after lobbying from all three cities, the commission chose North Charleston. And it made that recommendation to the Legislature, which by law has to sign off on a site.

The reasoning: North Charleston offered $13 million in incentives, including lots of land. It was, McConnell said, the best financial package.

Under North Charleston’s plan, the state will pay $7 million; the federal government, $9 million; and North Charleston and Charleston County together, $18.9 million. Foundations and grants are expected to pay $6.9 million.

State money for the museum has not been secured. Summey said the private sector and local government could pay more, if they need to.

Hunley Commission member state Rep. Kenny Bingham, R-Lexington, said in a recent interview that one reason he and most other commission members were impressed by the North Charleston proposal was its choice of architect. Ralph Appelbaum, who designed the U.S. Holocaust Museum, is world-renowned.

“With him, visiting the Hunley becomes an experience,” Bingham said. “If it’s just the Hunley sitting there, that is not going to draw people again and again.” Moreover, Bingham said, the North Charleston site is on the water, and the city has a special tax district that allows it to raise money for the museum.

A SURPRISE TO SOME

In March 2004, the state Senate, where McConnell is president pro tem, quickly approved the North Charleston site.

In the House, Rep. Chip Limehouse, R-Charleston, who represents the Patriots Point museum area, got the museum resolution bottled up in a committee.

Limehouse thinks North Charleston is isolated from traditional tourist centers and would attract few visitors. He said he stalled the resolution to provoke a public debate.

“When you build a shopping mall or motel, you have a market research study,” Limehouse said in a recent interview. “They look at things like demographics and traffic count.”

McConnell, reacting to Limehouse, wrote a letter to all House members, criticizing Limehouse.

Later, someone slipped the museum resolution into a budget measure. It quietly passed both legislative chambers in 2004.

Limehouse, told by The State recently that the General Assembly had approved of North Charleston, said he thought the measure had died in 2004. He’s not sure lawmakers knew they had not only selected a site but had signed off on a free-standing, more expensive museum.

The mayors of Charleston and Mount Pleasant say their cities are still good candidates to exhibit the Hunley.

Mount Pleasant Mayor Harry Hallman said the state already has one major naval museum — Patriots Point — so why build a second one just for the Hunley?

Charleston Mayor Joe Riley said more people will see the Hunley if it is at The Charleston Museum.

“People don’t have unlimited time, and our location is in the thick of things,” Riley said.

But Summey wants North Charleston to be a major tourism destination and “get a piece of tourism pie.” Besides the Hunley museum, the city is planning a $7 million firetruck museum.

The Hunley museum won’t be a moneymaker, Summey said.

But “it is going to be something that adds to the quality of life, the quality of perception of our greater Charleston area.

“It’s just going to be in North Charleston.”


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Thursday, May 18, 2006

USS Requin dives into world of high tech

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Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
By Adrian McCoy
May 12, 2006



USS Requin, which has unveiled
state-of -the-art interactive
technology to give visitors a feel
for submarine life, lies moored in
the Ohio River with the Golden
Triangle behind it.

In its day, the USS Requin set standards in technological advancement. Starting today, Carnegie Science Center visitors will see some 21st-century technology at work deep inside the World War II-era submarine.

"Living History" is a multimedia installation designed by graduate students from Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center, or ETC. Several compartments in the Requin's interior have been outfitted with a series of interactive displays designed to explain more about the sub and its crew.

The Requin -- pronounced ray-quinn -- took its name from the French word for "shark." Commissioned in April 1945, the sub never saw combat in World War II; the war ended days before it was scheduled to set out on its first mission. The Requin later served throughout the Cold War on missions in the Atlantic and the Pacific and the Mediterranean and to the Arctic Circle.

It underwent several technological conversions and was the Navy's first radar picket submarine. These were used to increase radar range and prevent forces from surprise attacks.

It was decommissioned in 1968, then took on a new mission in 1990, when it came to Pittsburgh as one of the science center's attractions.

The new elements create an immersive -- all puns intended -- experience. The series of kiosks with touch screens are designed to appeal to everyone from World War II veterans to toddlers, and everybody in between. Very young children can explore the kids' menu, which features submarine sound effects. For history and technology buffs, there is more detailed information on how things work, history and specifications.

It's also a vessel for oral histories about submarine life.

"Sailors are great storytellers," said Patty Rogers, Carnegie Science Center coordinator of historic exhibits.

New generations will be able to hear first-person accounts from Requin crew members. Some came from recordings made at radio station KQV-AM during the 2004 Requin crew reunion. Others were gathered by Carnegie Mellon students who traveled to interview the vets. They talk about accidents and mishaps, their daily routine, camaraderie and ultimately their attachment to the Requin.

Taken together, their stories explain, as one crew member puts it, "how you learn to love a piece of iron."

The tour starts in the torpedo room. The interactive screen shows how a torpedo is fired, complete with sound effects and vibrations. Surround-sound speakers and sub-woofers under the floor create the sounds and feel of being on board during a torpedo firing.

The control room kiosk illustrates how a submarine dives and surfaces, and how a periscope works. In the forward engine room, visitors see how engines work, and hear the sounds of the diesel engine and crew accounts about explosions and floods. In the stern room, there's original video footage of Requin members and other submariners talking about life underwater.

The project cost less than $20,000, a fraction of what a commercial exhibit design company would have charged, said ETC executive producer and co-founder Don Marinelli.

The ETC is an interdisciplinary master's program that combines the resources of Carnegie Mellon's College of Fine Arts and School of Computer Science. Its mission is to develop new technologies for entertainment and educational applications. Retrofitting the Requin was an opportunity too great to miss, Mr. Marinelli said.

The team of Carnegie Mellon students benefited, too. Installing equipment in such a unique environment gave them plenty of problem-solving experience.

"This is a real-world laboratory," Mr. Marinelli said.

The new multimedia displays are the second phase of an overall revamping of the Requin. Last year, it was repainted. New artifacts were added, like a vintage movie projector, which was bought on eBay and is identical to the original one on board. Other period items include posters, pinup girl photos and personal effects, like toothpaste and hair tonic.

"It's a lot of fun scavenging for artifacts and trying to re-create the feel," said Ms. Rogers. "You feel like you're getting a glimpse into a particular slice of time."

The Requin is open daily for self-guided tours and exploration from March to November, and on weekends during the winter.


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

WWII sub outfitted with 21st century gizmos at Pittsburgh museum

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PhillyBurbs.com
By Michael Cowden
May 12, 2006


PITTSBURGH - A blast jolts the submarine as a torpedo is loaded and fired at an unsuspecting destroyer, which explodes in a shower of water and debris. Virtually, that is.

Thanks to 21st century speakers and subwoofers planted under the WWII-era submarine's deck, visitors to Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center can learn not only about the science behind the watercraft but also how it sounded and felt.

They can even fire a virtual torpedo or two.

"A chance like this to inject drama is just something that we ate up," said Don Marinelli, a Carnegie Mellon University drama professor and the executive producer of the university's Entertainment Technology Center. The university center collaborated with the science center to create the "Living History" exhibit that opens Friday.

From touch-activated computer screens planted in the torpedo room, the engine room, the mess deck and other main areas, visitors can select whether they want to learn more about how a certain part of the submarine works, what its history is or what part of it might be of interest to kids.

The "How It Works" section queues interactive graphics that explain in detail the science behind the diesel engines, torpedoes and other parts of the submarine. It has been a hit with the analytically minded, said Bei Yang, a CMU student who worked on the project.

Kids seem to prefer firing mock torpedoes and virtually flushing the submarine's toilets.

The multimedia kiosks are designed to supplement the exhibit, not distract visitors from it, so there is no video to watch.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the history section, which records stories from veterans who served on the USS Requin. Some recorded their memories live, others sent in letters that were read and recorded by CMU students.

Michael Hemming, a former machinist on the USS Requin, remembers waiting and listening, terrified, as a 900-pound torpedo approached the submarine. The Requin had fired a live round during a training exercise but had missed its target, only to see the torpedo boomerang back.

"This one turned around and came back at us somehow," Hemming, 62, told the AP by phone from his home in Easton, Md. "Those torpedo screws are noisy, it's almost like a screaming sound. It went right over top of us."

At the computer kiosk in the torpedo room, visitors can relive that near disaster - right down to the harrowing sound and feel of the torpedo screaming overhead.

Other veterans' stories are more lighthearted.

In one re-enacted recording in the mess hall, former Requin torpedoman Robert "Dex" Armstrong recalls how sailors on the Requin strongly preferred Peter Pan peanut butter over other popular brands.

"We were a Peter Pan boat. Skippy eaters were treated like subversive, nonbelieving heathens," an actor reads from a letter by Armstrong. "The cooks knew that bringing Skippy on board could lead to physical violence. You either rode with the good guys or became a Skippy eater."

But there is one aspect of submarine life that exhibitors will not have to rely on high-technology to recreate: the smell.

"Still has a little aroma to it," said Jeff Sammel, a volunteer guide at the science center who served on the USS Grampus, a submarine similar to the Requin. He said the smell was a heady mix of diesel, hydraulic fluid, cigarettes and sweat.

"World War II, when the crews came in, most just threw their clothes away," he said.

But Tim Cantwell, 62, a former electrician on the Requin, said that was never a problem for him.

"When you come home, it doesn't matter how many times you shower, that diesel smell stays on you," he said from his home in Dahlonega, Ga. "But my wife, she says she loved it."

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On the Net:

http://www.carnegiesciencecenter.org

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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Hunley preservation complex

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The State
By John Monk
May 15, 2006


Work on Civil War sub will also be costly, could take seven-10 more years.
Although the Hunley was raised from the ocean almost six years ago, long-term preservation of its salt-infested iron hull isn’t expected to begin until later this year.

“The Hunley turned out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated,” said Robert Neyland, who directed the Hunley project from 1998 to 2001. Now head of underwater archaeology at the Naval Historical Center, Neyland is still involved with oversight of the Hunley project.

“I’m guessing you are probably looking at seven to 10 more years” before the work is completed, Neyland said.

Preserving sunken wrecks like the Hunley is complex, lengthy, costly and uncertain.

“This is why most underwater archaeologists insist that shipwrecks should be preserved in place rather than excavated, recovered and conserved,” Neyland wrote in a 2005 article.

In the Hunley’s case, scientists and politicians determined that if the Hunley were left in place, it might be looted by scavengers. Led by Sen. Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, South Carolina assured federal officials the state would take care of the Hunley and eventually exhibit it.

Long-term preservation will remove salts from the hull and make the Hunley museum-ready. If the salts are not removed, they will combine with oxygen in the air and turn the Hunley into a pile of rust.

The Hunley sits in a North Charleston conservation laboratory, in a tank of cool water that retards the rusting process. The sub is exposed to air only in short bursts while scientists continue the final exams of its innards.

Originally, Hunley officials said excavating the sub’s inside would take 10 months — which turned out to be an optimistic prediction. The Hunley was not only filled with 10 tons of claylike silt, it contained skeletal remains of eight crewmen, as well as thousands of artifacts.

Thus, it was both a tomb and a wreck, said Hunley senior conservator Paul Mardikian, an internationally respected underwater scientist who has worked on the Hunley since it was raised.

Rarely, if ever, has such a combination tomb/intact wreck been lifted out of the sea, he said. Many wrecks aren’t intact, and few have preserved bodies.

Artifacts in the silt included more than 1,600 bones (from eight complete skeletons), 140 buttons, shoes, clothing, pieces of thread, leather, a watch and a gold coin — some 9,700 items in all, each of which was identified and labeled.

Each kind of material retrieved — bone, leather, cloth, wood and metal — had to be treated differently. Once in the fresh air, those items start to rot, rust or decay.

Most people think that once a wreck is brought up, the hard part is over, Neyland said. That’s when much of the work — and the expense — comes into play.

When the Hunley was raised in August 2000, McConnell already had helped arrange some $3 million in public and private money to ready the lab. It paid for cold-water tanks and an array of high-tech equipment, including a morgue for human remains. Raising the sub and readying the lab cost about $6 million in all.

Since 2000, Hunley work has cost about $1 million yearly. Long-term preservation is expected to cost about the same.

Shortcut possible?

The work has been both high-tech and low-tech. Scientists held the silt in their gloved hands, rinsing it with water to uncover the artifacts. But expensive computers with lasers were used to do three-dimensional mapping of each item before it was removed.

“The level of recording and documentation is exceptional,” Neyland said.

Scientists from many disciplines have participated — archaeologists, geologists, conservators, corrosion experts, mechanical engineers, ocean engineers, soil engineers, forensic anthropologists, physicists, DNA experts, genealogists, and computer and radiation experts.

The long-term preservation will be similar to treatments used for other wrecks. But there is a different recipe for each wreck, based on what the wreck is made of and its particular problems.

In November 2004, Hunley scientists submitted an initial 175-page long-term preservation plan to the U.S. Navy. Before preservation can begin, the U.S. Navy, which owns the Hunley even though South Carolina has custody, must approve the preservation process.

Since then, the Navy has circulated the proposal to 19 experts around the world for comment. This process, called “peer review,” is in its final stages. The Friends of the Hunley foundation declined to let The State see the document. It will be made public once the Navy approves the plan, a foundation spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, professor Mike Drews of Clemson University, who has been working with Hunley scientists for five years, is experimenting with a new preservation process he hopes will cut years from the traditional process.

Essentially, Drews’ process involves putting the Hunley in a chemical solution in a big tank, pressuring the solution and heating it to more than 270 degrees Fahrenheit, while still under pressure. This will trigger the rapid release of salts, he said.

If it works — and it has worked in small tanks with small items, Drews said — the Hunley could be preserved in a matter of months.

But because it’s both expensive and experimental, Drews first must test his method on increasingly larger items — meaning he has to build two more intermediate-sized tanks — before finally getting to the Hunley. All this still would take years and would require the Navy’s approval.

OTHERS’ EXPERIENCES

The slow pace of preservation is typical of old wrecks.

In Virginia, museum officials said it will take 15 years to preserve the iron turret of the Monitor, a Union ship destined for a new $30 million wing of Mariners’ Museum in Newport News, Va.

In Texas, remains of a 1686 French wreck — La Belle, found in the Gulf of Mexico — are taking 10 years or more to preserve.

Scientists say it’s important to do this work correctly because the Hunley is one of a dozen or so world-class wrecks discovered in the 20th century.

“This has been a very hard project, very tough, because there is no textbook for it,” Mardikian said.


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Thursday, May 11, 2006

Self-help project brings antique sub back to life

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The Dolphin
By Ira J. Elinson
May 11, 2006


Sailors from the Base Telecommunications Center unload rocks that will surround the base of the World War II era Japanese Katen I submarine, which is on display in front of Building 83 in Dealey Plaza.

The stones will be painted and used to simulate the sea floor. The long-neglected piece of history will receive a face-lift, thanks to the Self Help Program and one Sailor's gratitude.

Machinist's Mate First Class (SS) John Schepis has enjoyed his Navy career and was looking for a way to say, "Thank you. The Navy has always been there for me."

Schepis said, "I saw the sub, recognized its potential as a gem rather than an eyesore, so it was logical for me to do something about it. It's my way of showing the Navy my gratitude, to give something back."

Schepis has a history of making the Navy look better. While stationed on the West Coast, he was involved in restoring a Navy F8 Crusader in NAD Park in Bremerton, Wash. When he arrived at Naval Submarine Base New London, he learned of the Self Help Program, and how it was possible to make positive changes in his surroundings.

"This is a great program," said Schepis. "There are so many possibilities for Sailors to take initiative and do things to improve their quality of life. I had no idea how easy it was."

The renovation of the sub, unfortunately, was not as simple as painting a building at Naval Submarine Support Facility. Schepis ran into a long list of qualifications, training and screenings when the sample of paint he submitted for analysis was determined to contain lead. He began this process five months ago.

"There was a phenomenal amount of paperwork, schools and safety training required for me to remove this much lead paint," said Schepis. "It was difficult, but not impossible. This project needs to be done, and I couldn't drop the ball just because the Navy wants to keep me safe."

The project, when completed, will include a stone walkway to the sub, viewing panels cut into it, and a plaque explaining the sub's mission and dimensions.

"I will bring this as close as possible to its original state," said Schepis. "The clear vision ports will allow visitors to see inside, and I think it's important for people to understand what they are looking at, and how important a role it played in our history.

As if that's not enough, Schepis is working on the two 5-inch guns in front of the base gym, Morton Hall.

"I thought it would be easier to do both at the same time," said Schepis. "Since they are essentially across the street from each other, I could shuttle back and forth between them, saving time and materials."

Schepis estimates both projects will take from eight months to a year. He is not asking for help, nor is he asking for recognition. He just wants to inspire people, and to have them understand that they have a valuable tool in the Self Help Program.

"I want people to know that they have the ability to make things happen, and that SUBASE is there to support them," said Schepis. "I want to encourage people to pick a project of their own, and that Self Help will meet them more than halfway."


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Royal Navy's last 'human torpedoes' tracked down

_________________________________________________________________

By Jan McGirk
May 10, 2006

"Tiny" and "Slasher", the last two "human torpedoes" used by British Royal Navy commandos in combat, may have been found in the southern Andaman Sea east of Phuket, some 60 years after they were abandoned and sank.

Chris Parton, a marine salvage expert, told The Independent that he and his former business partner, Adam Douglas, tracked down the Second World War-era miniature vessels to the seabed near Dok Mai island, a haunt of leopard sharks and moray eels.

After the Boxing Day tsunami pounded the reefs in 2004, the rare sneak- attack weapons came to rest at a depth of nearly 40 metres. A strong current makes recovery difficult, but Mr Parton, 58, said they could be retrieved within three months if government permits come through.

A surprise attack using human torpedoes was launched from the British submarine HMS Trenchant on 28 October 1944, just after midnight. War records recount how four British commandos, sitting back-to-back astride the two top-secret MK II Terry Chariot torpedoes, were sent to sabotage two Italian cargo ships anchored off Japanese-occupied Phuket. The frogmen were meant to plant explosive charges on the ships' hulls, set the timers, and ride their battery-powered torpedoes, minus the warheads, back to the command submarine.

One team was detained an extra20 minutes because they could not dive beneath the bigger ship, and had to sneak into its engine room to plant their time-bomb. The cargo ships Volpi and Sumatra blew up just after the commandos made it back to the submarine.

But when a monitor picked up the sound of propellers, the four frogmen, William S. Smith, Albert Brown, Anthony Eldridge and Sid Woolcott, were ordered to jettison before the Chariots could be stowed. A Japanese warship was reported lurking nearby, so the Trenchant dived and sped back to base at Trincomalee. The pair of Terry Chariots sank in the jade-green waters off Thailand.

Mr Parton reckons it was "an intelligence fiasco", and that the likely source of the propellers heard on the submarine's sonar was the returning Chariots.

Three of the retired commandos later came back to Phuket to revisit the site where they had earned Distinguished Service Medals.

Mr Brown described the operation in graphic detail to a member of the Submariners' Association, Dave Barlow, before his death.

"I took the charge with me and lashed it to one of the deck fittings and took the pin out of the time-setting clock. I had about 45 minutes on the clock when the lashing parted and my hand was cut. I had to grab the charge again and struggle with it across the deck. The fuse-clock was ticking away and I knew my time was running out as I negotiated a series of steps down into an engine-room and placed the charge where it could not move.

"Then I had to take a chance and put another four hours on the clock; that's when my life was in my hands. But I was too preoccupied with several personal discomforts: my suit was full of water and one of my hands were bleeding badly ... a further fall had torn open my head piece and gashed the top of my skull. I could feel my hair sticky with blood. However, as I made my way up the engine-room ladder and across the deck to where I thought Smith would be waiting, I was able to reflect on the big bang I had left just below me.

"By the time I rejoined Smith I had to been aboard for some 20 minutes - long minutes they had been too. I let Smith feel the split pin that meant the charge had been set, we shook hands and were away."

It was Mr Parton's business partner Adam Douglas, whose father had piloted a miniature submarine during the war, who recognised the silhouettes of these rare weapons on the sea bed. Only six were ever made. As historic curios, the rusty Chariots have generated considerable international excitement. Thai maritime law is explicit, however: any antique found in Thai waters belongs to the nation.

Complicating the case is confusion over whether these MK II Chariots are vessels or spent weapons. Thai officials are waiting for advice from the British Admiralty.

There may be more war souvenirs on the seabed around Dok Mai. Each of the four frogmen was issued 20 gold sovereigns, silk maps of Siam and Malaya, a telescope and heliograph, watch and compass, a revolver, a commando dagger, plus a cyanide capsule.

Mr Parton said he would hate to see the memorabilia auctioned on eBay.

"Tiny" and "Slasher", the last two "human torpedoes" used by British Royal Navy commandos in combat, may have been found in the southern Andaman Sea east of Phuket, some 60 years after they were abandoned and sank.

Chris Parton, a marine salvage expert, told The Independent that he and his former business partner, Adam Douglas, tracked down the Second World War-era miniature vessels to the seabed near Dok Mai island, a haunt of leopard sharks and moray eels.

After the Boxing Day tsunami pounded the reefs in 2004, the rare sneak- attack weapons came to rest at a depth of nearly 40 metres. A strong current makes recovery difficult, but Mr Parton, 58, said they could be retrieved within three months if government permits come through.

A surprise attack using human torpedoes was launched from the British submarine HMS Trenchant on 28 October 1944, just after midnight. War records recount how four British commandos, sitting back-to-back astride the two top-secret MK II Terry Chariot torpedoes, were sent to sabotage two Italian cargo ships anchored off Japanese-occupied Phuket. The frogmen were meant to plant explosive charges on the ships' hulls, set the timers, and ride their battery-powered torpedoes, minus the warheads, back to the command submarine.

One team was detained an extra20 minutes because they could not dive beneath the bigger ship, and had to sneak into its engine room to plant their time-bomb. The cargo ships Volpi and Sumatra blew up just after the commandos made it back to the submarine.

But when a monitor picked up the sound of propellers, the four frogmen, William S. Smith, Albert Brown, Anthony Eldridge and Sid Woolcott, were ordered to jettison before the Chariots could be stowed. A Japanese warship was reported lurking nearby, so the Trenchant dived and sped back to base at Trincomalee. The pair of Terry Chariots sank in the jade-green waters off Thailand.

Mr Parton reckons it was "an intelligence fiasco", and that the likely source of the propellers heard on the submarine's sonar was the returning Chariots.

Three of the retired commandos later came back to Phuket to revisit the site where they had earned Distinguished Service Medals.
Mr Brown described the operation in graphic detail to a member of the Submariners' Association, Dave Barlow, before his death.

"I took the charge with me and lashed it to one of the deck fittings and took the pin out of the time-setting clock. I had about 45 minutes on the clock when the lashing parted and my hand was cut. I had to grab the charge again and struggle with it across the deck. The fuse-clock was ticking away and I knew my time was running out as I negotiated a series of steps down into an engine-room and placed the charge where it could not move.

"Then I had to take a chance and put another four hours on the clock; that's when my life was in my hands. But I was too preoccupied with several personal discomforts: my suit was full of water and one of my hands were bleeding badly ... a further fall had torn open my head piece and gashed the top of my skull. I could feel my hair sticky with blood. However, as I made my way up the engine-room ladder and across the deck to where I thought Smith would be waiting, I was able to reflect on the big bang I had left just below me.

"By the time I rejoined Smith I had to been aboard for some 20 minutes - long minutes they had been too. I let Smith feel the split pin that meant the charge had been set, we shook hands and were away."

It was Mr Parton's business partner Adam Douglas, whose father had piloted a miniature submarine during the war, who recognised the silhouettes of these rare weapons on the sea bed. Only six were ever made. As historic curios, the rusty Chariots have generated considerable international excitement. Thai maritime law is explicit, however: any antique found in Thai waters belongs to the nation.

Complicating the case is confusion over whether these MK II Chariots are vessels or spent weapons. Thai officials are waiting for advice from the British Admiralty.

There may be more war souvenirs on the seabed around Dok Mai. Each of the four frogmen was issued 20 gold sovereigns, silk maps of Siam and Malaya, a telescope and heliograph, watch and compass, a revolver, a commando dagger, plus a cyanide capsule.

Mr Parton said he would hate to see the memorabilia auctioned on eBay.


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www.schnorkel.blogspot.com

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Looking Back @ May 9

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News 14 Carolina
May 09, 2006


Looking back in history on this day in 1942, the German submarine U-352 attacked the Coast Guard cutter Icarus off the coast of Cape Lookout.

Capt. Hellmut Rathke thought his torpedoes hit their target, so he ordered his crew to surface. A glance through the periscope showed the Icarus was intact, barreling in his direction. The sub dived, hoping to hide in the murky waters.

The Icarus' commander, Lt. Maurice Jester, ordered his crew to drop a series of depth charges. Large bubbles surfaced, revealing the U-boat's location. More depth charges followed, heavily battering the sub.

Rathke ordered his men to surface, don life jackets, and scuttle the sub. The Americans rescued 33 Germans, but one died on the way to Charleston Navy Yard.

Fifty years later, a dozen U-boat crewmen visited Morehead City to meet the Americans who sank their ship but saved their lives.


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Monday, May 08, 2006

Veterans mark Battle of the Atlantic

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CBC
May 07, 2006


Canadian veterans on Sunday recalled the Battle of the Atlantic , the six-year struggle the Allies waged to keep vital war supplies flowing from North America to Britain during the Second World War.

More than 3,000 Canadian sailors and merchant seaman died in fighting on the Atlantic Ocean between 1939 and 1945. RCAF airmen also played a key part in the battle.

In Halifax, HMCS Sackville laid a wreath in the waters of the city's Point Pleasant Park. The Sackville is the last surviving corvette, a small escort vessel in which many Canadians served.

As part of the ceremony, the ashes of 16 veterans who recently died were committed to the sea. Capt. Samuel Lillington served on corvettes during the war and later commanded the Sackville.

He was among the 16 sailors buried at sea. It was "one of his last wishes," his wife, Joan, said.

In Winnipeg, Steve Logos recalled being on the destroyer HMCS Ottawa when it was torpedoed in 1942.

"In 20 seconds we had to abandon ship," he said, and then the survivors floated on rafts in the North Atlantic for about six hours before being rescued.

Logos is one of 65 people who survived; 113 sailors from the ship were killed.

There were also ceremonies and memorials in Victoria and Ottawa.

The Battle of the Atlantic was only deemed to be won when Germany surrendered on May 8, 1945.

The Department of National Defence said the Royal Canadian Navy carried much of the burden of fighting the battle. The navy had just six destroyers and a few smaller ships when the war began, but was among the largest military fleets in the world in 1945.

Canada built more than 120 corvettes during the war.


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Saturday, May 06, 2006

Suspected discovery of lost WWII sub brings relief at last

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JS online
By Scott Williams
May 05, 2006


At age 18, Joyce Sinkula married a handsome sailor and watched him ship out for battle in World War II aboard a submarine built in her native Wisconsin.

It was a time of innocence and romance, but it ended in heartbreak a few months later when Sinkula learned that her husband was missing in action, along with the rest of the crew aboard the USS Lagarto.

During the war against Japan, the U.S. government was so secretive about its submarines patrolling the Pacific Ocean that family members got little information whenever a crew was lost.

Sinkula visited fortunetellers and used Ouija boards in a futile attempt to learn the fate of her beloved husband, Thomas Hardegree, who was just 19 years old.

But after 60 years of lingering uncertainty, those who lost loved ones aboard the USS Lagarto have received unexpected news: The wreckage of the submarine built and commissioned in Wisconsin apparently has been found.

"I thought, 'My God, after all these years,' " Sinkula, 79, said from her home in Kewaunee. "This was a jolt."

Divers contacted by a Wisconsin submarine veterans group have reported finding the sunken vessel under more than 200 feet of water in the South China Sea off the coast of Thailand.

If confirmed, the discovery would resolve decades of unanswered questions about how Thomas Hardegree and the Lagarto's 85 other crew members perished during the final months of WWII.

"It's huge news," said Karen Duvalle of the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc, where about 160 family members are gathering this weekend for a special Lagarto memorial service.

"The families are very shocked," said Duvalle, the museum's events coordinator. "For most of them, it's been pretty much of a mystery."

Activities planned this weekend include a presentation by the diver who discovered the wreckage and a visit from Rear Adm. Jeffrey Cassias, commander of the U.S. Pacific submarine force, based at Pearl Harbor.

Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Davis, spokesman for the submarine force, said Cassias will tell families that the Navy plans to send its own dive team into the South China Sea next month in an attempt to verify whether the wreckage is, in fact, the Lagarto.

In accordance with longstanding practice, the Navy would leave the wreckage undisturbed as a mass burial site.

But Navy officials decided to look for themselves after examining photographs and other evidence supplied by the Lagarto dive team.

"It's very compelling," Davis said. "We have no reason to believe it's not the Lagarto."

Subs produced in Manitowoc
Assembled in Manitowoc at a shipbuilding facility that closed in the 1960s, the Lagarto was one of 28 submarines produced there for WWII. The 300-foot-long vessel was commissioned for military service in October 1944.

In an area near Thailand where U.S. ships worked to disrupt Japanese military supply routes, the Lagarto vanished on May 3, 1945 - just three months before President Truman ordered atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, setting the stage for Japan's surrender.

Lagarto family members received only cryptic notices from the military that their loved ones were missing and presumed dead.

Rae Kinn, 84, of Oconomowoc recalls struggling to remain optimistic that her husband, crew member Harold Todd, would be found alive on a remote island somewhere. She eventually gave up hope and moved on with her life.

She had given birth to the couple's only child, a boy, after the Lagarto shipped out.

Hearing that the ship's wreckage had been located 60 years later filled Kinn with a mix of shock and gratitude.

"It was a comfort that I knew where he was," she said.

Owen Williams, commander of the Wisconsin chapter of the U.S. Submarine Veterans of WWII, said his organization long ago adopted the Lagarto as Wisconsin's official missing submarine.

Annual memorial services seldom attracted anyone with a direct connection to the lost vessel, Williams said.

"It was more make-believe, because it wasn't anybody we knew," he said of the missing crewmen. "Well, now it's totally different."

Since learning that divers in Thailand had reported finding the wreckage, members of the veterans group have been working to contact Lagarto family members and plan this weekend's gathering.

Along the way, another tragedy occurred when a key organizer, Roy Leonhardt, 58, of Eagle, died of natural causes in March.

Williams said Leonhardt was a Vietnam War-era submarine veteran and was the first to contact British diver Jamie Macleod, who operates a private shipwreck search operation in the South Pacific.

Although Macleod's diving team first located the wreckage in May 2005, word of the discovery has spread slowly among family members and others, as this weekend's gathering in Manitowoc approached.

Among those planning to attend is Michael Todd, who was 3 months old when his father, Harold, vanished. Todd will accompany his mother to the memorial.

Todd, 61, a real estate appraiser from Hartland, said the discovery of the Lagarto's final resting place would help him deal with the loss of a father he never knew.

"We always wondered what happened," Todd said. "It means a little closure, I guess, closure that I didn't have."


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Friday, May 05, 2006

Salvage plan for 'human torpedoes'

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Bangkok Post
By Achadtaya Chuenniran
May 05, 2006


Phuket - A British company wants to salvage two ''human torpedo'' submersibles which sank off Phuket during the Second World War. East Marine SBS Co claims the two powered, manned torpedoes, known as chariots, are Britain's national assets. They are thought to be lying at the bottom of the sea near Dok Mai island.

Phuket governor Udomsak Assawarangkul said if the submersibles belonged to Britain as claimed, the firm must get an official letter from the British government before seeking Thailand's permission to salvage them.

Under Thai law, the team needs approval from the Fine Arts Department. Any salvage must comply with the Thai Navigation Act, the Historical Sites and Ancient Artifacts Act and regulations of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment.

The governor spoke after meeting with Capt Chris Parton, managing director of East Marine, who sought the governor's backing to raise the two craft. Mr Udomsak pledged full cooperation.

Surin Peerakulpisut, head of the Region 5 water transport office, said the submersibles were each about nine metres long and weighed 850kg, and were clad in steel almost 3cm thick.

On Oct 27-28, 1944 the British submarine Trenchant launched two Mk 2 chariots nicknamed "Tiny" and "Slasher", each carrying two frogmen, to attack two Italian ships in Phuket harbour.

Six hours later the frogmen rode their craft back to the submarine. The chariots were eventually jettisoned so the submarine could more easily avoid a Japanese naval vessel in the area, according to war records.

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Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Amateur radio operators bring USS Cobia's signal back to life

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Manitowoc Herald Times
By Kristopher Wenn
April 30, 2006


Calling all submarines
MANITOWOC – Amateur radio operators shared their love of communicating over the airwaves around the world Saturday during the "Submarines on the Air" event at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum.

For two days, members of the Manitowoc County Amateur Radio Club (MANCORAD) brought the radio room of the USS Cobia at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum back to life and shared their knowledge with visitors — including a Boy Scout troop.

Every year during the last week in April, the Submarine Veterans Amateur Radio Association sponsors the Submarine Radio Reactivation Weekend involving dozens of museum submarines and memorial sites in the U.S. and around the world. The weekend honors the "Silent Service" and the 52 submarines lost in World War II.

"We try to get as many subs on the air. We get out and broadcast on amateur radio bands to other ships or to radio amateurs who want to talk to the operators on the submarines," said Fred Neuenfeldt, who is also known by his call signal "W6BSF" on the radio waves.

MANCORAD, which is celebrating its 60th year, hosted Boy Scout Troop 612 from Milwaukee on Saturday evening to give the scouts hands-on experience with amateur radio operation in preparation for earning their radio merit badges.

"I'm excited about being on the ship," said Ryan Schaefer, 15, who has been in the Boy Scouts for five years. "The most fascinating aspect is being able to talk between countries over the radio."

On average, the group makes 200 contacts during the event, though one year they were able to communicate with as many as 350 other operators.

MANCORAD members are able to contact operators from as far away as France, Germany and Guatemala when atmospheric conditions are ideal.

"We exchange reports, tell them where we are and how well their signal is coming in. We also tell them about the museum. It lasts about one or two minutes," Neuenfeldt said.

"It's amazing you can talk to somebody about radios, and about different (areas of) the country and different areas of the world. The time goes by quickly when you're exchanging this information," said Walter Lukitsch, also known as "K9WL."

Sometimes operators talk for minutes on end about subjects such as gardening or the weather.

"This is what they call 'rag chewing,' where you have a relative or another amateur radio operator that you talk to a lot and you get on the radio and talk for 10, 20 or 30 minutes," Lukitsch said.

The club mails each contact they make a commemorative card picturing the USS Cobia and the call sign "N9BQV," the call sign for the USS Cobia Amateur Radio Club, which operates from the museum.

Ham radio operation is more involved than Citizen Band, or CB, radios, club members say, because they are licensed by the FCC and must take written tests on electronic theory and Morse code.

Those skills helped Neuenfeldt, who qualified for a radio operator assignment in Camp Pendleton, Calif., when he was a Marine in the mid-1960s.

With the advent of cell phones and other high-tech devices, amateur radio operators have kept under the radar in recent years.

But they played a critical role in communicating with those in distress during the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in New York City, and again following Hurricane Katrina when the storm blew down cell phone towers along the Gulf Coast last year.

Recently, some MANCORAD members were part of the local response team during an alert issued at the Kewaunee Power Station on April 26.

"We're kind of a back-burner group, when everything else fails then they come running to us," Neuenfeldt said.


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