Missing U.S. WW II sub found by film crew

UPI ^ | 3/30/2010 | UPI

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

Toronto television production company says it has located the wreckage of a missing U.S. submarine that was sunk in 1944 in the South China Sea.

In a news release, yap films said the U.S. Navy had confirmed the wreck they found was the World War II submarine USS Flier (SS 25) that sank and was lost since Aug. 13, 1944.

The Flier was a 1,525-ton Gato class submarine built at Groton, Conn., and went into service in October 1943. Of the 86 men aboard when the vessel hit a mine, 14 escaped, but only eight survived the swim to Palawan in the Philippines.

The sub was found at a depth of 330 feet by the father and son dive team of Mike and Warren Fletcher, who star in the "Dive Detectives" series that airs on The History Channel in Canada and the National Geographic channel elsewhere.

[Eye of Unk]

I built a Revell Gato class sub model 2 years ago, this is a slightly more weathered version of what mine looks like, and it about 50" long in its own lighted display case. Compared to the German subs the American subs were considerably larger due to the extensive patrol times especially in the Pacific.

[exit82]

SC—for your info and file.

[ColdWater]

How does anyone escape from a submerged sub that’s hit a mine?

It was on the surface.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

The recovery of bodies, ships and planes is very sad for me. I was in elementary school during WWII and the men of those days are very real.

[Osage Orange]

I’m taking a wild guess...and saying that woman in the pic isn’t part of the crew.

[jwparkerjr]

Yes, the one Ingalls built was the second Sculpin.

[Mr. Lucky]

She was probably the ships’ torpedo polisher.

[mad_as_he$$]

On eternal patrol. RIP sailors.

[Osage Orange]

Ha!

[Rebelbase]

Wiki data on the USS Flier:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Flier_%28SS-250%29

[jwparkerjr]

My job was in the pretest lab. Every piece of pipe, every valve, every elbow, sleeve, etc. that goes on the sub is set up in a test rig and put under about twice the pressure it will ever be expected to experience in service. It's amazing how many of them are bad. Most just leak like a sieve, a few actually explode. Every bit of the record keeping in those days was done by hand, in books! Somewhere there are thousands of pages of my handwriting listing all those parts and when they came into the lab, who tested them when, test results and where they went after us.

It was fascinating to wander up the mold loft. The entire ship is built in plywood with the pieces used to cut the steel for the actual fabrication of the ship. No computers in those days. It was all done by hand. My father was a Navy hull inspector so I got some insight into what was going on as they were being built.

The fun time was once they were in wet dock and being outfitted, especially as they neared sea trials. Hard to believe how big and complicated they were, even in those days, to an 18-year-old kid!

I would love to have that job today! The place was crawling with the engineers that were responsible for all the work being done, an a lot of the crew would be on hand as the work went along. They were a wealth of interesting information on things like metallurgy and what made stainless steel stainless.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks exit82. The Flier was a 1,525-ton Gato class submarine built at Groton, Conn., and went into service in October 1943. Of the 86 men aboard when the vessel hit a mine, 14 escaped, but only eight survived the swim to Palawan in the Philippines. Wow, those were eight men who die hard. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[Diver Dave]

WWII Submarine semi-related comment...

My father-in-law, a Submariner aboard USS TINOSA (SS-238) passed away monday evening at the age of 90.

Salute! ...two