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Maritime Museum working to preserve Navy's last diesel submarine
By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 23, 2007
SAN DIEGO – If some maritime buffs get their way, the former Navy research submarine Dolphin will spend its retirement hosting museum visitors at a San Diego pier instead of swimming with the fishes.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego has submitted the only proposal to the Naval Sea Systems Command to convert the Navy's last diesel submarine into a public memorial.
The museum is making its bid through NAVSEA's ship donation program.
“She's one of a kind, the deepest-diving submarine we've built,†said Norman Polmar, an independent military analyst from Alexandria, Va., who has sharply criticized the Navy's decision to scrap the Dolphin.
“She's worth keeping around,†Polmar said.
The museum's director, Ray Ashley, said the Dolphin would be moored on the San Diego waterfront alongside a Russian Foxtrot-class submarine, the historic Star of India and five other ships.
It would be part of a major expansion over the next several years for the museum. The institution wants to add a full-scale replica of the explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's ship San Salvador and a fishing boat from San Diego's once-significant tuna fleet.
“(The museum) has doubled in size in the last few years, and it will double again,†Ashley said.
Mooring the Dolphin as a museum piece in the city where it spent nearly all of its 39-year career would mark yet another stunning turnaround for the ship.
The Navy commissioned the Dolphin in 1968 as a research vessel. It soon claimed a spot in history by making a dive of more than 3,000 feet – the deepest in U.S. history – and firing a torpedo from the greatest depth ever.
Over the next 3½ decades, Dolphin crews conducted hundreds of scientific experiments for Space and Naval Warfare Systems San Diego. They tested almost every communications, radar and operating system used in today's U.S. submarine fleet.
Then on May 21, 2002, a leaking gasket caused the Dolphin to flood in heavy seas about 100 miles off California. The 41 crew members and two passengers barely escaped, and only their extraordinary efforts kept the sub from sinking.
The Navy spent $50 million on repairs and upgrades before returning the Dolphin to service in late 2005. But a few months later, budget pressures prompted the Pentagon to announce that it would retire the submarine and sink it during a torpedo exercise.
A family of former crew members and SPAWAR engineers with ties to the Dolphin turned its decommissioning ceremony in September into a wake.
“They got a very bad taste about its decommissioning,†said John Benya of Point Loma, who spent his 35-year career at SPAWAR working on the sub. “The Dolphin needs a good home. It doesn't need to be at the bottom of the sea.â€
The Maritime Museum had been seeking the Trout, the only other diesel submarine currently in the Navy's ship donation program. But towing the Trout from its home in Philadelphia would cost about $100,000, Benya said. Moving the Dolphin from its dock at Point Loma would cost a fraction of that amount.
Ashley asked Delores Etter, the Navy's assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, to include the Dolphin in the donation program. The Pentagon listed it as available in the Federal Register on Jan. 31, said Katie Dunnigan, a NAVSEA spokeswoman.
Etter said the museum submitted the only “letter of intent†before the March 2 deadline and must turn in a detailed proposal by Sept. 3.
“There's still quite a bit of work to do,†Ashley said.
The work includes providing specific plans for financing, towing, mooring, maintenance, environmental management, curatorship and community support.
The Dolphin will need some structural changes, including the construction of a hatch for people to enter. But because of its recent overhaul, it doesn't need much other work, Ashley said.
“The Navy has spent a lot of money on her,†he said. “She's in pristine condition.â€
If all goes well, the Dolphin could be displayed at the waterfront in about a year.
In addition, Ashley said the museum has secured donations to start the San Salvador project. He hopes construction on the replica can start next year so the ship will be seaworthy in time to sail to Shanghai, China, to represent San Diego at Expo 2010.
Ashley said the ship would be a big draw.
“Every fourth-grader knows about the San Salvador,†he said. “It's the Mayflower of California.â€
The tuna boat would represent an era when San Diego was called the “Tuna Capital of the World,†a time when the industry ranked third in importance behind only the Navy and aircraft manufacturing.
Ashley said he is talking with several fishermen about donating a boat that is near the end of its career but still in good condition.
“I'd love to have it tomorrow,†he said, “but the boat we'd like most is still fishing, and still making a lot of money.â€
Maritime Museum working to preserve Navy's last diesel submarine
By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
July 23, 2007
SAN DIEGO – If some maritime buffs get their way, the former Navy research submarine Dolphin will spend its retirement hosting museum visitors at a San Diego pier instead of swimming with the fishes.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego has submitted the only proposal to the Naval Sea Systems Command to convert the Navy's last diesel submarine into a public memorial.
The museum is making its bid through NAVSEA's ship donation program.
“She's one of a kind, the deepest-diving submarine we've built,†said Norman Polmar, an independent military analyst from Alexandria, Va., who has sharply criticized the Navy's decision to scrap the Dolphin.
“She's worth keeping around,†Polmar said.
The museum's director, Ray Ashley, said the Dolphin would be moored on the San Diego waterfront alongside a Russian Foxtrot-class submarine, the historic Star of India and five other ships.
It would be part of a major expansion over the next several years for the museum. The institution wants to add a full-scale replica of the explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's ship San Salvador and a fishing boat from San Diego's once-significant tuna fleet.
“(The museum) has doubled in size in the last few years, and it will double again,†Ashley said.
Mooring the Dolphin as a museum piece in the city where it spent nearly all of its 39-year career would mark yet another stunning turnaround for the ship.
The Navy commissioned the Dolphin in 1968 as a research vessel. It soon claimed a spot in history by making a dive of more than 3,000 feet – the deepest in U.S. history – and firing a torpedo from the greatest depth ever.
Over the next 3½ decades, Dolphin crews conducted hundreds of scientific experiments for Space and Naval Warfare Systems San Diego. They tested almost every communications, radar and operating system used in today's U.S. submarine fleet.
Then on May 21, 2002, a leaking gasket caused the Dolphin to flood in heavy seas about 100 miles off California. The 41 crew members and two passengers barely escaped, and only their extraordinary efforts kept the sub from sinking.
The Navy spent $50 million on repairs and upgrades before returning the Dolphin to service in late 2005. But a few months later, budget pressures prompted the Pentagon to announce that it would retire the submarine and sink it during a torpedo exercise.
A family of former crew members and SPAWAR engineers with ties to the Dolphin turned its decommissioning ceremony in September into a wake.
“They got a very bad taste about its decommissioning,†said John Benya of Point Loma, who spent his 35-year career at SPAWAR working on the sub. “The Dolphin needs a good home. It doesn't need to be at the bottom of the sea.â€
The Maritime Museum had been seeking the Trout, the only other diesel submarine currently in the Navy's ship donation program. But towing the Trout from its home in Philadelphia would cost about $100,000, Benya said. Moving the Dolphin from its dock at Point Loma would cost a fraction of that amount.
Ashley asked Delores Etter, the Navy's assistant secretary for research, development and acquisition, to include the Dolphin in the donation program. The Pentagon listed it as available in the Federal Register on Jan. 31, said Katie Dunnigan, a NAVSEA spokeswoman.
Etter said the museum submitted the only “letter of intent†before the March 2 deadline and must turn in a detailed proposal by Sept. 3.
“There's still quite a bit of work to do,†Ashley said.
The work includes providing specific plans for financing, towing, mooring, maintenance, environmental management, curatorship and community support.
The Dolphin will need some structural changes, including the construction of a hatch for people to enter. But because of its recent overhaul, it doesn't need much other work, Ashley said.
“The Navy has spent a lot of money on her,†he said. “She's in pristine condition.â€
If all goes well, the Dolphin could be displayed at the waterfront in about a year.
In addition, Ashley said the museum has secured donations to start the San Salvador project. He hopes construction on the replica can start next year so the ship will be seaworthy in time to sail to Shanghai, China, to represent San Diego at Expo 2010.
Ashley said the ship would be a big draw.
“Every fourth-grader knows about the San Salvador,†he said. “It's the Mayflower of California.â€
The tuna boat would represent an era when San Diego was called the “Tuna Capital of the World,†a time when the industry ranked third in importance behind only the Navy and aircraft manufacturing.
Ashley said he is talking with several fishermen about donating a boat that is near the end of its career but still in good condition.
“I'd love to have it tomorrow,†he said, “but the boat we'd like most is still fishing, and still making a lot of money.â€