MARITIME MANITOWOC

August 28, 2011  Dateline: Manitowoc, WI USA

I had a day off today; Rich and Carol went to the Wisconsin Maritime Museum in Manitowoc. 

The museum is located on the Manitowoc River and its collection includes the WW II submarine Cobia.  The Cobia is the best restored submarine in the States and is on the Registry of Historic Places.  Under treaty with Canada the propellers and batteries have been removed, so it can’t be used in an attack. We thought that the War of 1812 was over.  You enter the boat in the forward torpedo room and the tour guide takes you through the boat exiting through the rear torpedo room.  Only one sailor was ever lost on this boat. 

High on the coning tower of the Cobia stood an upside corn broom.  Rich asked what the significance of the broom was.  The tour guide explained that the United States Submarine Service during World War II generally considered a patrol a "clean sweep" if the sub sank every target she engaged  Individual torpedoes might miss, and convoys usually had far too many ships for all to be sunk by a single boat, but these unavoidable inefficiencies did not mar a "clean sweep."

Each submarine had a battle insignia; Rich thought that this insignia was particularly interesting.  The insignias were designed and drawn by Walt Disney Studios.

The forward steam engine of the Chief Wawatam, a railroad car ferry, is part of the museum.  The engine, weighing 65 tons and standing 20-25 feet high, is so big that the engine was first mounted to the building foundation and then the building built around it.  The ship had three triple expansion steam engines producing a combined 4,500 horse power.  They each had only three cylinders.  The stroke of the pistons was 40 inches but the diameter of the three cylinders varied.  Steam was used over and over, the first cylinder was 21” in diameter the secondary was 33” and the final cylinder was 52”.  The steam was pumped into the top of the cylinder to move the piston down, then into the lower part to move the piston up.  After cylinder one was done the steam then went on to cylinder 2 and then on to cylinder 3.

The Museum also has a large display on the Great Loop.  Submarines produced in Manitowoc were sailed down Lake Michigan by their crew then loaded on to barges in Chicago to float down the Illinois then the Mississippi to New Orleans where they were refloated and then off to battle.  That route has many portions that are common to the Great Loop.

Like most maritime museums this one has its share of models. One of the impressive models was the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald as it rests on the bottom of Lake Superior.