After arriving in San Francisco on September 9, 1945,
Batfish then went into the Mare Island Shipyard for
"inactive overhaul", to prepare her for peacetime service. Then
on April 6, 1946, she was decommissioned from the Regular Navy
and assigned to the Pacific Reserve Fleet as a training
vessel.
Batfish arriving in San Francisco, May
1945
After six years of reserve duty, Batfish returned to
active duty as the Korean War gained intensity. She received her
reactivation overhaul in January 1952, and was recommissioned in
March, with Lieutenant Commander Robert J. Jackson
commanding.
After six weeks of readiness training, she set course via the
Panama Canal for Key West, arriving there May 9, 1952. As a unit
of Submarine Division 122, U.S. Atlantic Fleet, she served the
remainder of her commissioned career in training operations in
the Caribbean and along the eastern seaboard. Inactivated for
good on May 5, 1957 in the Charleston Naval Shipyard, she was
decommissioned on August 4, 1958 and assigned to the Charleston
Group, U.S. Atlantic Reserve Fleet
In the summer of 1959, Batfish was assigned as a naval
reserve training ship at New Orleans, there redesignated in 1962
as an auxiliary submarine (AGSS 310). Batfish
continued to serve at New Orleans until her name was struck from
the Naval Vessel Registry on November 1, 1969. She was 26 years
old. Obsolete, remembered by few, unknown to most,
Batfish's hatches were sealed. Empty of submariners for
the first time, her fate was uncertain, limited to three
possibilities: she could be given or sold to a foreign country;
she could be scuttled or cut up for scrap; or she could become a
permanent war memorial as a few of her sisters had - if someone
would only ask for her.
USS Batfish (SS 310)
War Patrol #8
Location of War Patrol: Muskogee,
Oklahoma
Date of War Patrol: 1969 - 1973
This "War Patrol" deals with the story of
how Batfish made it to Muskogee, Oklahoma. Read about the Batfish's
final journey....War Patrol #8.
In 1956 the United States Submarine Veterans of
World War II incorporated itself as a national fraternal organization with
chapters is each state. As the Navy began to retire the obsolete fleet
submarines in which these men served, SubVet chapters in coastal states began
acquiring them as war memorials for their communities. The Navy was willing to
give these men their old boats, so long as they could be afforded respectful
upkeep to promote interest in the history, traditions, and contributions of the
U.S. Navy.
By 1969, the Oklahoma SubVets were impressed with
the U.S.S. Drum in Mobile, Alabama, which drew over 300,000 paying
visitors its first year. A delegation from the Oklahoma City and Tulsa chapters
asked the Navy if they could adopt a retired submarine. On hand at the New
Orleans Naval Yard was the U.S.S. Piranha, which the Navy agreed to turn
over to them if they could fulfill the donation requirements. Wanting the Piranha
for his hometown, Republican State Senator James Inhofe agreed to sponsor a bill
accepting the submarine for Oklahoma.
The initial reports claimed it was impossible to
get a submarine as far upriver as Tulsa because the Arkansas River Channel above
Muskogee was not deep enough. It was later determined that a direct tow upriver
to Muskogee was not possible, therefore another method of transport other than
direct towing would have to be devised. In the meantime, on October 2, 1970, the
Muskogee City-County Trust Port Authority agreed to donate five acres of prime
waterfront real estate - worth about $90,000 an acre - for the submarine berth
and memorial park.
The submarine procurement committee met with the
Navy for preliminary arrangements for the transfer of the Piranha.
However, the Navy would not hold the Piranha unless the committee made a
formal application for her and possession would be immediate once the donation
contract was approved. Since the Arkansas River Navigable Waterway system would
not be open for at least a year, interim docking charges would be prohibitive.
The committee decided to wait and take their chances.
In September, 1970, the committee inspected Batfish,
an alternative to the Piranha. Although both submarines had suffered
considerable neglect, Piranha had been almost completely cannibalized
whereas Batfish was much cleaner and better outfitted. Nearly a year had
passed before the committee made a formal application for the Batfish,
now mothballed beside Piranha at the Naval Inactive Ship Facility at
Orange, Texas. Batfish had a far better war record. Piranha was
commissioned in February 1943 and had made five war patrols, claiming seven
sinkings for 19,300 tons. JANAC, however, credited her with only one sinking -
on her first patrol. The committee was very pleased with Batfish and the
Navy made no objection to the last-minute swap.
The donation contract was drawn up on June 24,
1971. The Secretary of the Navy approved the transaction and congressional
approval was obtained on November 8, 1971. On December 9, 1971, the Batfish
belonged to Oklahoma - at least on paper. The towing of the Batfish was
divided into two phases: a direct offshore tow from the Orange Naval Inactive
Maintenance Facility to the Avondale Shipyard at New Orleans. Then, after
Avondale raised and cradled Batfish between two pairs of baredecked
barges on steel lifting straps, the 1,350-mile upriver tow would proceeded.
Batfish was towed to the Bethlehem Steel
drydock in Beaumont, Texas, after the Orange drydock went on strike. At
Bethlehem Steel, after a general inspection of her hull and compartments, all
air salvage valves were made operable, fuel, oil, and most of her ballast were
removed, and all her tanks were flushed clean. Then the hull openings were
sealed. Batfish was ready on March 1, 1972 to be towed to the Avondale
Shipyard in New Orleans.
At Avondale, it became obvious that the specified
four barges would not provide enough buoyancy to reduce Batfish's draft.
The revised flotilla design, incorporating six 120-by-32- foot bare-deck barges,
would be ballasted to the outside, bound together by steel stabilizing and
breasting cables. On March 13, the barges were partially secured to Batfish
by lifting straps, but no cables had yet been placed to bind them together. That
afternoon, the English tanker Silvermain sped by at 11 knots in a 5-knot
zone and her wake hit the flotilla broadside at Avondale's Wet Dock #2. Two
barges were seriously damaged and a third went to the bottom. The deck of the
only barge not torn away from Batfish by the breakup was buckled by the
strain, though Batfish herself escaped serious damage.
Batfish moving up-river attached to barges (Courtesy of James
Plumlee) After the flotilla was re-assembled, Batfish
was slowly moved up-river by two tugs at four knots. On May 3 she passed with
ease through Lock-and-Dam Number 6, but her superstructure would not clear a
bridge on the way into Little Rock. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lowered the
river level by three feet allowing Batfish to "squeak" under
the bridge. The tugs refueled at Little Rock and one tug returned downriver.
Under single tow, Batfish proceeded cautiously and even more slowly
toward Fort Smith. Batfish crept alongside her temporary berth at the
Will Brothers Port of Muskogee Terminal on Sunday, May 7, 1972. The next order
of business was the trenching of a 120-foot wide, 1/4-mile long trench from the
main channel to the foot of Batfish's park site. On July 4, 1972, the Batfish,
still in her temporary mooring, was unofficially opened to the public.
David D. Terry Lock and Dam - Muskogee, Oklahoma May 3, 1972
Nearly a year passed as the financial situation between the Batfish and
subcontractors and banks making the initial loans were settled. On Monday, March
12, 1973, heavy spring rains flooded the Arkansas River. Batfish gave the
appearance of tugging so violently at her mooring cables that the Army Corps of
Engineers feared she would rip loose and crush the Muskogee port docks or the
new U.S. Route 62 bridge downriver, blocking the channel. Batfish listed
precariously to port and shifting sand and mud increased her tilt even more to
nearly forty degrees. Batfish held fast, but the Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation
Commission wanted the Navy to take back the submarine, whereas the Navy expected
Oklahoma to honor its contract. Batfish was clearly an Oklahoma problem.
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Moving
the BATFISH into place |
On April 4, a hole in the riverbank was started
to allow the Batfish access to its donated land. On April 21, dredging
between the slip and the river was begun. Batfish was aligned with the
slip, secured broadside to the strong current by cables. Then four bulldozers
began to tug at her with 300-foot cables as a Port of Muskogee tug pushed from
behind. By 4 pm on April 4th, Batfish was in her slip. Over the next
week, the hole in the riverbank was replaced and the slip was flooded to float
the Batfish to her final elevation. My May 1st, Batfish had been
realigned to overlook the Arkansas River, thirty-six feet below her deck.
Batfish in Position (Courtesy of James Plumlee) Approximately 50 people turned out in the crisp,
windy weather for the Memorial Day re-opening. By the end of August, Batfish
was steadily attracting a thousand visitors a week. Over the seven-week period,
income from paid attendance had doubled. Except for the conning tower, she has
been restored very well. More or less intact, she draws the awe and respect of
her thousand or so visitors a week from late March to November.
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