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At random: Records for enemy shipping sunk by U.S. submarines during World War II are held by two boats built by Electric Boat. The USS FLASHER sank 100,231 tons of Japanese shipping, while the USS TAUTOG holds the record for the most ships - 26.

Last 688 class to go down the weighs Moderators: Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page]
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Runner485

Posted 2008-12-06 5:32 AM (#22230)

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Posts: 2672

Location: New Jersey

Subject: Last 688 class to go down the weighs

A friend whose entire family worked for EB loaned me a VHS tape of the launching ceremony of the USS Columbia...SSN771 (I think) it was of the entire proceedings. The sponsor was the then First Lady Hillary Clinton. It was interesting in the fact that Columbia was the last of the 688 class being built at EB and to slide down the weighs. Many of the speakers, talked about the new Seawolf class that was going to be started the following year and was going to be floated off the caissons, rather than slide out to the river. One of the guest speakers was the then CNO Adm. Borders, who introduced the SecNav, can't remember his name.

When she was christened she slid down the weighs at about 15-mph and had her crew standing aft of the sail on a specially built platform. When it hit the Thames the stern of the boat looked like it was going deeper and deeper into the water and not gonna pop up. The film showed how the weighs were built and actually greased, much of it by hand.

Pretty interesting film

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