Tuesday, October 21, 2008

USS San Francisco is Afloat

I just found an article in Military Times about the USS San Francisco. I had not realized that they had left dry dock, yet, but they were afloat about 11 days ago, following a bow-transplant from the USS Honolulu. There are a couple of pictures posted with this article, a before and an after. Nice to see the San Fran looking like a whole submarine again, although all of the equipment topside on the boat shows that she is still deeply entrenched in the shipyard.

2 comments:

reddog said...

I was on a boat that had a fifty foot section added aft of the TR and FWD of Crew's Mess/Wardroom. At 15KTs she started to corkscrew and the faster we went, the worse it got. I don't know if they put it in crooked, it was an unsolvable trim problem or she was just too damn long in the nose. I think a little of everything.

Never was a problem. We rarely got above 8KTs and for stealth, such as it was, it required 4KTs. Twin screws, step sail, and all kinds of bulky, angular crap, welded onto the super structure. Noise was the big concern, not speed.

Usually, when they do something like this, the boat is never the same. I hope it works out OK.

I wonder if it was worth saving Frisco or were the Masters of the Universe just sparing no expense to save face.

They were starting a refueling and overhaul on my boat, as I mustered out, so that the old girl could get to the thirty years Hymie promised Congress. As far as I know, she really didn't do much the last eight years or so, after it was done. They brought the Parche in and she did everything so much better. Maybe it was a good training platform, except training platforms are supposed to only simulate challenging, life threatening situations on a regular basis.

Navy Blue Cougar said...

I think there must be an element of saving face in this move. Still, they say that it cost less money than refueling the Honolulu, so I guess it could make sense from that standpoint. Hope it works out without limiting the boat too much.