Dive, Dive!

Just wandering around Wisconsin and happened upon the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. The centerpiece of this pretty nice museum is the USS Cobia - a submarine on Lake Michigan? The story: During WWII a small shipyard in Manitowoc was selected to build submarines for the Navy - they built 28 “boats” at the yard on the Manitowoc River and employed over 7,000 workers (a really big deal for this small town). Upon completion the boats sailed under their own power to Chicago, then were placed in a special barge for the trip to New Orleans where the periscopes and radar masts were reinstalled (they where too tall for the bridges enroute). Back under their own power they left New Orleans, sailed through the Panama Canal and joined the Pacific Fleet. The USS Rasher (built in Manitowoc) was credited with the 2nd highest tonnage sunk by a US submarine during the war. Four Manitowoc submarines were lost at sea, USS Robalo, USS Golet, USS Kete, and USS Lagarto. Now you know some of the story behind the submarines of Manitowoc.

Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, June 1943. - photo from Wisconsin Maritime Museum