Historic WWII Submarine Museum Refloated Decades Later by Midwest Flooding

[Sherman A1]

Waters continue to rise across the midwest this week as heavy rains and saturated soil bring multiple rivers to flood stage. Homes have been destroyed, entire communities are inundated—and in Oklahoma, the historic World War II submarine USS Batfish has re-floated once again nearly fifty years after it was dry docked on display in a park along the Arkansas River.

Aerial video from KOTV News on 6 shows the USS Batfish floating comfortably in at least 15 feet of water on Wednesday as the Arkansas spills over its banks and swamps the city of Muskogee. Normally, the 77-year-old Balao-class submarine serves as the centerpiece for Muskogee's War Memorial Park, standing bare on a bowl-shaped lawn as both an interactive museum and a point of pride for the region. But these floodwaters have it sailing again like it's 1943.

The boat began to lift up as water filled the surrounding basin, prompting an evacuation of the museum while caretakers removed WWII-era artifacts for safekeeping. That decision seemed even wiser as the USS Batfish began to list as it floated ever-higher; local firefighters later filled its ballast tanks to level it out. It remains to be seen whether the old sub will stay watertight.

Perhaps it's no surprise that the USS Batfish seems eager to get back in the game. Built as part of America's World War II arsenal, the sub launched from Kittery, Maine on May 5, 1943 and steamed off to join the Pacific Fleet and run patrols in the Philippine and South China Seas. She and her crew sunk nine Japanese ships and three submarines over their 21-month tour (the latter trio going down in one wild 76-hour stretch in 1945) and received a Presidential Unit Citation and six battle stars for their efforts.

https://www.thedrive.com/news/28167/midwest-flooding-re-floats-historic-wwii-submarine-for-the-first-time-in-decades?

[TomSlick]

1. Those old boats were well built.

The USS Razorback is open as a museum floating in the Arkansas River at North Little Rock.

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