Clamagore: PUFFed up GUPPY

[FER]

I'm attaching a photo of Clamagore I took back in August.

This submarine has some serious rust on its outer hull (barely visible on the bow in the attached photo) and given the track record of Patriot's Point, clearly it may be in trouble. But I like Clamagore as a relatively unique example of a 1960s diesel sub --the last GUPPY III. It has that nice, vaguely draconian profile with its still straight-edged superstructure and those PUFFS sonar fins on its back, like Tang and the other post-war, pre-Albacore subs.

For those who haven't been there, below decks Clamagore is in good shape but nothing extraordinary. I feel it would be much better if it was interpreted and presented as it was c.1965-1970. Instead it's a mixed message displaying no real historical time-frame, and unfortunately one section of the boat has been given over to a memorial to the lost subs of World War II which makes little sense in a compartment of a museum sub.

-FER

[Mark Sarsfield]

So, she's the only GUPPY III left in existence? 

[FER]

Clamagore is the only GUPPY III known to exist. There were only nine of these conversions. Here's a summary culled from wikipedia, navsource, etc:

9 boats converted 1961-1963

Clamagore, museum ship in Charleston: 1981
Cobbler, to Turkey as Canakkale: 1973, decomm: 1998, another sub now has this name. fate?
Corporal, to Turkey as 2 Inonu: 1972, decomm: 1996, scrapped at a later date.
Greenfish, to Brazil as Amazonas: 1973, decomm: 1992, scrapped: 2001.
Tiru, sale to Turkey cancelled: c.1975, sunk as target: 1979.
Trumpetfish, to Brazil as Goias: 1973, decomm: 1990. fate?
Remora, to Greece as Katsonis: 1973, decomm: 1993, scrapped at a later date near Izmir, Turkey.
Pickerel, to Italy as Primo Longobardo: 1972/77, decomm: 1980, sold: 1981, another sub now has this name. fate?
Volador, to Italy as Gianfranco Gazzana Priaroggia: 1972/77, decomm: 1980, sold: 1981, another sub now has this name. fate?

As you can see, the fate of four of the others is apparently unknown.  Given that almost thirty years have passed since Pickerel and Volador were decommissioned, and given that there is no sign of them anywhere, I think we can assume that they were scrapped. Trumpetfish might still be down in South America somewhere. The best chance for another survivor is Cobbler since it was decommissioned only eleven years ago (it was in the Turkish Navy so the folks in Little Rock might know something... having acquired Razorback or "Muratreis" from them just a few years ago). There's also a chance that one of the boats listed as scrapped is rusting away somewhere.

-FER