Pic from 2001... (submarine)

Uglygreen · 09-07-2003, 07:25 AM

Here is the pic that Wildhawg asked me to upload of the submarine that we saw while Tuna fishing two years ago...

Sorry about the quality, I had to scan it from a film print and blow it up some... Before the days of digital cameras. :grin:

UG

[ 09-07-2003, 11:20 AM: Message edited by: Uglygreen ]

WildHawg · 09-07-2003, 07:31 AM

JEEEEEEEEZZZZYYYY JOSEPHINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I CAN'T TURN IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CRUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IT'S SOUNDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SPLOOSH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
At last report, Brad was still hanging on at 300 fathoms and counting...
These things have sunk Trawlers before that were unlucky enough to tangle their nets in 'em.
Last one was I believe Nova Scotia, and involved a Russian Nuclear Sub.
Thanks Buddy!!!!!

Sea Jypzee · 09-07-2003, 09:02 AM

If that's the sub that popped up about 21 miles off of Depoe Bay in the middle of the tuna fleet, it was the year before last, as I and Marty as well were out there at the time. I didn't fish at all last year, so it wasn't then if it's the same one. :grin:

Marty · 09-07-2003, 09:24 AM

My logbook says it was August 8, 2001 when we saw the sub come up. I remember it was a pretty good bite and we had just got a double when the guys on the sub told us that we had to stay 2,000 yards from their boat. I didn't second guess their request, but I always wondered how they could broadcast on all channels at the same time. My fishing partner is kind of a sub-nut and he says that it was an older (maybe even diesel powered) sub that was most likely heading to San Diego to their museum. OR the sub came up to catch a few tuna for the crew before they went down again. You just never know what you will see on the open ocean.

Marty

Sea Jypzee · 09-07-2003, 09:39 AM

Marty - That sounds about right, early August. And yep, it was a very hot tuna bite at the time as well. :grin: Funny though, that day I got my all-time high of 15 tuna by about noon. After this year, that doesn't seem like all that much anymore.

It's gonna hurt if I have to drop my catch standards after this year.

Uglygreen · 09-07-2003, 10:16 AM

Your right - it was 2001, my my how time flies.

UG

bull285 · 09-07-2003, 02:15 PM

Marty, It's tough to tell but it's definately not an diesel boat. From what I can see I'd say it's Los Angeles class (SSN 688) fast attack boat. Nuclear powered but not a ballistic missle sub. They patrol all up and down the coast. Navy has them doing a lot of colateral duties mapping ocean floors and marine mammal studies. Guess they need work now that the cold war is over. It's truly a rare treat to see one on the surface outside of entering and departing port. Nice catch.

Gun Rod Bow · 09-07-2003, 03:15 PM

I'm no expert but have seen a few in the last two years, and I'd say from the distance from the Con to the Rudder, that's a boomer, not fast attack.

No matter, cool shot.

uboatcdr · 09-07-2003, 04:11 PM

Spent a little time on the boats and it does look like a boomer, although from the angle of the picture it is tough to define.

Death From Below!!!!

bull285 · 09-07-2003, 04:34 PM

GRB, I considered that but the profile is all wrong. Boomers are much longer. Here's a picture of the USS Ohio (SSBN 726) manuevering through the Hood Canal Bridge.

Notice the wide deck and how it extends aft making room for all the missle tubes. Also they move the conning tower forward on the boomers again to make room for the missles. Now heres a picture of the USS Tucson (SSN 770) in Guam.

I think this one fits the profile a little closer. Not to mention that catching a boomer on the surface out to sea almost never happens. They tend to disappear for 90 day at a time.

Wild Hawg, You're to funny. When I was in San Diego I heard stories of people hooking onto them with downriggers but never saw one landed.

Pilar · 09-07-2003, 05:04 PM

My $0.02.

2nd or 3rd flight 688 fast attack boat, SSN, nuclear powered (Los Angeles class). Most of the Permit and Sturgeon class have been retired and they have a sloped foredeck. The level deck and missing dive planes on the sail point to 3rd flight or 688I. They moved the sail planes down to the bow for under ice ops in the artic on the most recent 688 boats. The early ones (1st flight) rode bow high due to not having the dozen or so vertical launch tomahawk missiles in the fwd ballast tanks.

I served on a 1st flight 688. The profile is distinctive and easily recognizable.

I remember that day. I heard the boat announce to keep clear on the VHF. I did not see it however. Nice photo and pretty rare, those guys are very secretive and you will rarely spot one at sea.

Long and black and never comes back or usta fish if you will. You will never see a fleet missile boat, SSBN, anywhere except in transit near shore.

GutshotApe · 09-07-2003, 05:14 PM

I spent almost a year on a submarine tender...so that makes me an expert

.

I'd say UG's sub is a Trident missile boat, not a fast attack boat, because of it's length and long flat area aft of the sail. Looks too long for a Skipjack-type sub. And it almost for sure would be a nuke boat...I think the last US diesel subs were built in the '50s so are probably history by now....in fact, it think the last one (USS Blueback?) was cut open and moored on display in the Willamette in Ptld. after decommissioning a decade or more ago.

Back about 1986 friends & I were fishing on Swiftsure Banks at the western end of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and a commercial trawler just south of Cape Flattery snagged an apparent submarine that dragged it backwards some distance...a mile or more...before it got loose. The sub never surfaced according to the radio conversation between the boat and the CG...and I never heard if the sub was one of ours or not...

bull285 · 09-07-2003, 10:18 PM

Gutshotape,
I hate to disagree with you(actually I don't, I love to debate). However I didn't think I was an expert until I read your post. I guess the eight years I spent assigned to the USS San Onofre and the USS Arco stationed at Point Loma, Ca. (both floating drydocks specializing in the Los Angeles class of fast attack boat) makes me one. I've seen more of them out of the water than in it. I also spent a breif period on the USS Holland (a sub tender) while she was anchored in Diego Garcia (what a rock). And finally a two week run on board the USS Phoenix for sub sound silencing training (couldn't wait to get off her, ain't no port holes on subs and one guy with bad breath or bad gas can foul the whole damn boat).
I may be under qualified however I still stand by mine and Pilar's assesment. I'm not saying it's never happened but I have never seen nor heard of a boomer tying up to a sub-tender. They tend to head back for port to change crews, restock or for repairs. I guess there is not enough security anywhere else. So I don't know what your experience with boomers up close is. I never saw one up close until I went to school on the Naval Sub Base at Bangor, WA. The only place on the west coast those things are stationed. I can tell you that the marines in charge of security there have no sense of humor when they find some drunk squids on the wrong side of the fence trying to get a look at the boomers. But that is a whole new story.
One last thing to look at. Notice that in Uglygeens picture the subs sail has the mast\periscope cluster in the middle. On the boomers they are up front. All of the Boomers that the Navy has now are of the Ohio class (I believe 18 of them) and are constructed the same way. 4 are scheduled to be converted to guided missile boats but will still be boomers but with 154 tomahawks instead of ballistic nukes.
Pilar nailed it when he said you never see them on the suface at sea. Unless there is smoke clearing from the hatches. I've even heard that they won't even come up for minor fires. Just let the scrubbers clean it up. Takes a special breed of sailor to go out and sink a perfectly good boat. My hats off to you Pilar for your time in. I couldn't do it. I was much more comfortable on a target.

Born to be Wild · 09-07-2003, 10:24 PM

I was out there tuna fishing also and on the way in we ran into UG and Wild Dawg and snapped this photo off of Lincoln City.

Of course we hollared at UG to hang a hard left! :grin:

Salmon Stryker · 09-08-2003, 07:09 AM

[img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] UG! Watch out. You're gonna run smack into that sub.

Pilar · 09-08-2003, 07:27 AM

I just checked with two other bubbleheads here at work. Not a boomer, it's a Los Angeles class fast attack boat. Well .. the three of us think so anyway.

Marty · 09-08-2003, 07:54 AM

The sub may have had a problem, as when they surfaced there was black smoke (similar to heavy diesel exhaust) coming from the coning area. Thats why we thought it was an older diesel model.

The more you think about it, they could be good tuna boats, as you could go under all the lousy weather to get to the grounds, you have great electronic equipment to find the fish. When you find the fish put the gear out, tell all the other boats to clear away. Bloody the decks as much as you want and when finished crushin the tuna, go back down and never have to worry about clean-up. Then head outside, trolling your fresh caught tuna for the swordfish or monster bluefin. Where do I sign-up.

Marty

GutshotApe · 09-08-2003, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bull285:
Gutshotape,
I hate to disagree with you(actually I don't, I love to debate). However I didn't think I was an expert until I read your post.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">You're the expert...I was being facetious...anyything I know about the subject is over 30 yrs old. But I did spend the last part of 1965 & most of '66 on the USS Sperry AS-12 and we had two kinds of submarines...old WWII diesel fleet subs (some converted to carry Regulus missiles) and brand new Snook/Skipjack-type nuke attack boats. The only other nuke subs I knew of back then were Polaris boats and they did come alongside tenders (at Holy Loch, at least)....I've never seen a boomer. I did see (on radar and later in a b&w photo shot by a P-3 we vectored in) a Soviet nuke attack sub that my 2nd ship (a nuke DLG) forced to surface one night off Hawaii...but that's another story.

bull285 · 09-08-2003, 08:30 PM

GutshotApe,
My time in was in the 80's and early 90's. My first ship was a Knox class Fast Frigate (FF1053 USS Roark). Primarily an ASW platform. Your story reminds me of a time we were in the Indian Ocean playing hide and seek with one of our fast attack boats (mostly they hid and we couldn't find them). The sub was limited to a 60 X 120 mile sector and we were susposed to find it and launch an ASROC (Rocket Thrown Torpedo with a dummy warhead) at it. The area was susposed to have been swept so that there were no other boats in the area. We were in a screen around the USS Constellation when a sub popped up through a thermocline. The sonar techs couldn't get a good sound signature on her but the skipper figured that it had to be our boy and he was inside the screen so he ordered a snap shot. Well once the fish hit the water and spooled up the sub went to flank and started to put a knuckle in the water. When they are spooled up subs make quite a bit of noise so the sonar techs were able to get a good signature on her. It was a soviet alpha class fast attack boat. Poor guys in the sub had no way of knowing that it wasn't a live warshot and once you launch an ASROC you can't stop it or call it back. Wouldn't you know it the mk46 tracked true, right through the knuckle and actually bounced off the subs hull. The skipper anounced it over the 1MC and judging from our pucker factors I can't imagine what that russian sub must have smelt like. :shocked: Our CO figured that when he sent the message to CINCPAC that his career was over but we never heard another word about it. Guess the Russians didn't want to admit that we could get them so there was no diplomatic incident to end the skippers career. Bet he thinks twice or maybe three times before he orders a snapshot on an unconfirmed target again.

By the way DepoeBayDan, nice picture.

Miss B Haven · 09-08-2003, 09:52 PM

I think I've hooked that thing a couple times on hand lines. :shocked: Explains how you see nothing and later pull the gear only to find no lure and half a leader. Or maybe it was that thresher my crew saw and another boat with us had come up and check their tuna jigs. :whazzup:

Jeffhead · 09-09-2003, 07:33 AM

That is a 688 class and the smoke is from a diesel via the snorkel. They all have one as emergency backup power. The profile is unmistakable. If you notice the profile of the Ohio class in the pic the nose sloops down and does not "puff up" like the Los Angeles class. Worked on my share of them, spent over 20 years in the nuclear submarine repair business. Just to add to what Pilar said the later versions did have the retractable bow planes. As well as the under ice ops it made them just that much faster, they really do not need the fairwater planes when underwater and under power to manuver.
Good luck and tight lines, Jeff

:grin: