Boo,
The USS Cod, is no "sub-cut-off", it is the full 312-foot beast that patrolled the waters of the Pacific near the end of WWII to protect our country! Not selling the actions of aircraft short, just saying give the old girl credit, where credit is due.
And believe me, old diesel boats do not smell fishy! They smell like a sewer pipe full of diesel oil that 90 guys have lived in since it was put into service. The very first thing that veteran diesel boat sailors do when they step aboard one of those old museum boats, is take a deep breath and savor the memories! I've known many to keep an old chambray Navy shirt in an air-tight plastic bag or other container, just so they could open it up once and a while to take a whiff. It was an odor that defined submarine sailors everywhere. We were rarely ever able to make enough water to take a real shower in, so we took "Bird Baths" in a tiny sink that held maybe a half gallon, max.
If we had not had a submarine fleet in the Pacific after the attack on Pearl Harbor, we might all be writing with little stick drawings and speaking Japanese today! They took up the slack until we could reinforce the surface fleet (that had been sunk) and build a few thousand of those airplanes you are so proud of.
Let T-3 explore the old girl and see how those men lived, so that we can live as we do today! And T-3, if you want to learn about what those old boats turned into as they evolved and entered the "Cold War", read "Blind Man's Bluff"! That is a real eye opener! (It is not a novel!!)
Roger
