Three New Photo-Etch Sets From Eduard

[goose814]

Rick,

According to the book "The

Rick,

According to the book "The Fleet Submarine In The U.S. Navy" by John D. Alden, it states:

Many of the alterations approved in the months immediately after Pearl Harbor were the result of a thorough effort to eliminate every item of equipment that could possibly be spared. The list of candidates was reviewed by the Submarine Officers Conference and approved by the General Board, after which Bureau of Ships took steps to delete the eliminated items fron the plans for ships under construction and issued instructions to remove them from the older submarines during overhauls.

10 January 1942-delete main ballast-tank flood valves except for safety, negative, and fuel-ballast tanks.

Based on this information, any subs constructed prior to Pearl Harbor or under construction at that time would have had main ballast tank flood valves installed. These would have been removed sometime after Jan 10, 1942 during their next overhaul.

In the case of the Grouper, she was launched prior to Pearl Harbor, so it's likely she had the flood valves installed. Since she sailed for Pearl Harbor on March 30, 1942, they may have been removed before then but definately at her first overhaul. So by July 1945, they would have been eliminated altogether. Hope this helps.

Gus

[ricknelson]

Hi Gus,

Thanks for the research.

Hi Gus,

Thanks for the research. I appreciate your effort. I have Aldin's book also but it never dawned on me to look there.

Rick

[Guest]

The Kingstons were installed originally

The Kingstons were installed originally through about SS-220/221 on Electric Boat units, as per Friedman. He isn't totally precise here. I don't know about the other yards, but I would personally hazard a guess that the very early Portsmouth boats like Drum had them, too - just my opnion with no actual evidence to back that up. I would assume that these early boats were retrofitted and upgraded as they came in for refit later in the war and lost theirs', too.

This information is from the Friedman [i]US Submarines] book.

Robert

[ricknelson]

Hi Robert,

Thank you for the

Hi Robert,

Thank you for the info. I do not have that particular book by Friedman.

The list of the first "Unique" Gatos that had the Kingstons, dual anchors, etc. were:

Boat Date of Comm. Yard SS #

Gato 12/31/41 EB 212
Drum 11/01/41 Port 228
Flying Fish 12/10/41 Port 229
Sliversides 12/15/41 MI 236
Greenling 01/21/42 EB 213
Finback 01/31/42 Port 230
Trigger 01/31/42 MI 237
Grouper 02/21/42 EB 214

It's the Grouper, circa July '45, that I'm currently building using Revell's 1/178 Lionfish.

[Guest]

Thanks for the list! I've

Thanks for the list! I've been trying to compile references on Guardfish, so I take it then that she was commissioned riding the vents?

Just to add to what I said earlier, Friedman's language in that part of the book is very noncommittal, so I would take what he said with a grain of salt. Its perhaps the only place in the book where he hedges his language, so I think he wasn't altogether sure about which boats had Kingstons and which didn't. At any rate, he didn't have firm documentation in his endnotes. Given Electric Boat's unwillingness to deviate from the contract plans even when asked nicely by the Navy, perhaps these early boats all had them upon construction but they were removed as soon as the boats were accepted and got to a navy yard?

Robert