The submarine USS
Clamagore (SS-343) was commissioned 28 June 1945 and was stricken
from the roles of the US Navy on 27 June 1975.
She served the US Navy
for 30 years.
She arrived at Patriots Point Naval Maritime Museum in
1979 and departed October 2022.
USS Clamagore was the last surviving
Guppy III Balao class submarine and was the only one of its class
certified to handle nuclear weapons.
She is now in Norfolk becoming
the first museum ship to be scrapped.
USS Clamagore was designated as
a National Historic Site 29 June 1989.
After forty one years of no or
minimal maintenance, in violation of the contract signed by
Patriots
Point with the US Navy to get the ship, she is now too expensive
to
repair per Patriots Point.
Local submarine veterans did maintenance
on the submarine until told by authorities at Patriots Point that
they could no longer do this.
Patriots Point removed a lot of the
superstructure and exterior piping causing a lot of visible
surface
rust and issues with maintaining sufficient air in the ballast
tanks.
Patriots Point used this visual to persuade others that the
ship could sink at any time, polluting Charleston harbor and
becoming
a hazard to navigation.
Patriots Point requested 2.1 Million dollars
to make the submarine a reef.
The SC Governor vetoed the request and
the legislative body overrode the veto taking the money from the
education budget to reef the Clamagore.
The Clamagore Restoration and
Maintenance Association (CRAMA) brought a law suit against
Patriots
Point in April, 2019 in an effort to preserve the ship.
This delayed
the reefing timeline enough that the allocated funds reverted back
to
the original budget.
After a year a judge ruled that CRAMA did not
have standing and Patriots Point proceeded with the plans to scrap
this historic ship.
Other ships that
Patriots Point neglected include:
NS
Savannah arrived at Patriots Point,
on loan from the US Maritime Association, in 1981 and departed
in 1993, transferred back to her owner for shipyard repairs.
Patriots Point’s
rational was she did not bring in enough money.
NS Savannah
is now in Baltimore, MD and is closed for general touring.
USCGC Camachi
(WHEC-202) arrived in 1984 and departed in 1992 after being
damaged
by hurricane Hugo due to the way she was moored.
She was transferred
to the South Carolina Department of Wildlife and is now a reef.
USCGC Ingram
(WHEC-35) arrived in 1989 and departed in 2009 after being
transferred back to Coast Guard because of the need for drydocking
and the expense involved to repair the ship.
The Ingram is now in Key
West, FL.
Patriots Point has
demonstrated a lack of ability to maintain their assets.
Patriots Point has
no oversight and this may be the reason that they do not take care
of
the artifacts entrusted to them.
Vessels currently at
Patriots Point are the USS Yorktown (CV-10), arriving in 1975 is
the
only museum ship that cannot be moved and the USS Laffey (DD-724)
arriving in 1981.
After almost sinking at the pier in 2008, due to
lack of maintenance, the USS Laffey was taken to a shipyard for a
multi-million dollar repair over the objections of Patriots Point
management. Patriots Point is still paying off the loan to drydock
and repair the USS Laffey.
Patriots Point has
the dubious honor of being the first to scrap a museum ship.
Hopefully this will
not continue.
CRAMA webpage with
the donation contract: http://ussclamagore.org/
I know this was long, but, I think it is important for this to be
known.
The above timelines were obtained from internet searches and
personal knowledge.
73
Glenn
WB4UIV
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Glenn Little ARRL Technical Specialist QCWA LM 28417
Amateur Callsign: WB4UIV [email protected] AMSAT LM 2178
QTH: Goose Creek, SC USA (EM92xx) USSVI, FRA, NRA-LM ARRL TAPR
"It is not the class of license that the Amateur holds but the class
of the Amateur that holds the license"