US subs preserved overseas

[FER]

Besides the following, does anyone know of any former US submarines preserved outside the USA?

In Turkey:
FORMER USS Thornback (Tench - Guppy IIA)
Renamed TCG Uluc Ali Reis
Museum sub at Rahmi Koc Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Lat 41 02 29 N
Lon 28 56 52 E

FORMER USS Gudgeon (Tang-class)
Renamed TCG Hizir Reis
Museum sub alongside TCG Gayret (former USS Eversole, Gearing-class destroyer), Izmit, Turkey
Lat 40 45 36 N
Lon 29 55 00 E

FORMER USS Tang (Tang-class)
Renamed TCG Piri Reis
Museum sub at Inciralti Museum, alongside TCG Ege (former USS Ainsworth, Knox-class frigate), Izmir, Turkey
Lat 38 24 45 N
Lon 27 02 05 E

If you visit the coordinates above in Google Earth, you can see these boats clearly (took me quite a while to find them!!). And if you click around on the "photo squares" nearby, you can find many photos of the subs. I've attached three reduced copies below. They all appear to be in good condition. Not too surprising since they were only recently de-commissioned.

-FER

[Darrin]

The USS Corporal went to Turkey in the early 70's and was scrapped in '96 with the exception of her stern tubes which are on display in Turkey

[JTheotonio]

Thanks FER - but you didn't dig far enough.  There is a lot more on these three old boats:

http://www.rmk-museum.org.tr/english/exhibit/marine.html
USS Thornback museum

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahmi_M._Ko%C3%A7_Museum
about the museum

http://www.turkishnavy.net/submarine/resim1.htm
picture gallery of Turkish subs

http://www.maritime.org/turkey/gudgeon/index.htm
picture gallery of TCG Hizirreis/Gudgeon

http://www.kocaeli.bel.tr/images/Content/3dSanaltur/kocaeli360SanalTur/hizirreis/index.html
360 deg view of the TCG Hizirreis/Gudgeon – great!

http://forum.kusadasi.biz/thread22164.html
Inciralti warship museum – take note of the mannequins

http://www.maritime.org/turkey/tang/index.htm
photo gallery of TCG Pirireis/Tang

[JTheotonio]

I forgot to say - Paul checkout the use of the mannequins in some of the photos.  Also these boats look to be in good shape below decks also. In fact they look pretty complete.  I'd imagine that these boats were just decommissioned and not stripped down.  All the brass looks to be good, paint fresh, and pretty clean.  I bet you'd like to go over there with a set of tools to do some shopping!   

[Darrin]

John,

you sir are correct, it looks like they decommed the boat and then made her a museum the next day   If you remember the group that was able to bring the Razorback home, she was decommed and they blew her screw's off and towed her home within months of being decommed. Must be freakin nice to have a boat that just left active duty and turn her into a museum with ALL of her parts onboard, compared to boats that have been decommed for decades and parts have been taken for both the active navy and the museum navy

Thank GOD that they preserved our boats and they didn't scrap all of them, for the crews whom sailed them both in our navy and there's they can make a trip to see their boat (or at least online) because those of us whom rode the "Nukulear" boats have only the Nautilus to honor our time    granted a few sails and fairwater planes have been saved it just isn't the same

For those whom rode the 688's and below classes to include the "boomers" there are no memorial boats to go and relive our youths     of the 4 boats that I rode in 4 years only the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) and the USS Olympia (SSN 717) survive.. Granted the bow of the USS Honolulu (SSN 718) has been transplanted onto the San Fran it isn't the same to know that your qual boat and then boats that you rode are gone

I am one of the truly lucky ones because up until recently I could go to Norfolk and tour a first flight 688 and relive my youth and know that it may be the last time that I can walk the decks of one once more, sadly I know that there will not be a 688 saved for future generations (like previous classes of boats) to show our youth what we did to keep the world safe and free during the cold war..

Thank God that we have some of the WWII boats saved to represent what our community did to save the world

[FER]

JTheotonio, you wrote:
"Thanks FER - but you didn't dig far enough.  There is a lot more on these three old boats"

Thanks. I had not seen the kocaeli site's 360 panorama. Very nice! The rest, of course, you find rather quickly once you start digging (and I had seen them, yes). Have any of you (you who are reading this) visited the former Tang or the former Gudgeon since they went on display as museum vessels? Considering that people are talking about more than ten million dollars to restore Clamagore, I wonder whether the Turkish Navy and the museums managing them would consider returning Tang or Gudgeon to the USA for some substantial amount of money (something much less than what it would cost to restore Clamagore, e.g. one million dollars).

Back to my original question, does anyone know of any US submarines which have been preserved outside of the USA, besides these three?

-FER

[Paul Farace]

Yes indeed, these boats look great!  Now unless I win the lottery, I probably will not be grabbing my "tools" for a shopping spree... but good fo them to have a good display. Sadly, most US boats were in limbo before becomming displays and were subjected to stripping. But worse yet, the folks who opened them as displays believed that to open the boat to the public required stripping most of the stuff that makes the boat a sub, out of the hull!!!!               

[Lance Dean]

Just to give this thread a bump...I do not know of others outside the US.  But that's not saying much.

[ChrisV71]

There are no other former US subs preserved overseas. (Peru has a boat built in Groton open as a museum though) Brazil for a time was working on preserving the former Greenfish (SS-351), but in the end, she deteriorated and was replaced by an Oberon before being scrapped.

The only intact ex-US subs you will find overseas outside of Turkey are the 2 active Taiwanese subs. There are parts though that are preserved (sails, props, ect) around the world though.