This floating museum on the Arkansas River in North Little Rock consists of a small exhibit room on a barge and two vessels — USS Razorback submarine and USS Hoga, a tugboat.
The Razorback was commissioned in 1944 and saw action on five patrols. It sank several Japanese ships, including a couple of destroyers. It was at the formal surrender of Japan in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. The submarine was modified during the Cold War and saw active duty in Vietnam. In 1970, it was turned over to Turkey (as part of NATO) and remained on active duty for that country until 2001 when it was sold to North Little Rock. It currently flies the United States and Turkey flags.
It is one of (if not the) longest serving submarines in the world, serving the two navies for a total of 56 years. Naturally, during that time, it underwent several modifications. I’m guessing very little of it looks the way it did during WWII. Here’s a model of how it originally looked.
A guide took us through the boat. We had climb down (and up) ladders through narrow hatches.
Read torpedo room with bunks. That canvas back hanging from the bunk on the left was how much personal belongings each sailor could bring onboard.
The Turkish sailors had to know English to serve on the submarine, but some of the more important information is also in Turkish. We were told that Turkey sold the submarine to North Little Rock for far below its salvage value because they liked the idea of their history being preserved in a museum.
There were well over 100 crewmen, and only 75 bunks. Officers got their own beds, but enlisted men had to share. When one was on duty, another used the bed. Salt water was distilled into fresh water for cooling the engines, cooking, etc. Each crewman got one 30-second shower every two weeks. Add to that that the temperature was usually around 100 degrees inside. The sub was known as a “pig boat” for obvious reasons.
The crew mess. Twenty-four men ate at a time in 15-minute rotations. There were four meals a day (including one at midnight).
The captain’s quarters.
One of the seven water-tight bulkhead doors we had to climb through.
There was more on the Razorback in the museum.
The USS Hoga (the Sioux language word for “fish”) tugboat was at Pearl Harbor and is one of two surviving ships that were involved in that battle. It helped beach the battleship Nevada when it was damaged and in danger of sinking in the main harbor channel. It helped fight fires on several ships after the attack and helped clear the harbor afterwards.
In 1948, the Hoga was loaned to Oakland as a fireboat.
President Carter took a tour of the harbor on the tugboat in 1980. In 1994, it was returned to the Navy, and in 2012, it was given to North Little Rock.
I neglected to get a good photo of the tug at the museum, but here’s a model of what it looks like.
I wandered around on board (there wasn’t much to see). Here’s the view from the pilothouse.
Things got a big dramatic while I was touring the tug. About 100-yards away, across the parking lot, a policeman and an idiot got into a shouting match. The policeman had his hand near his weapon as the guy shouted “You’re going to shoot me.” I stopped to watch and soon saw the guy point toward me and say, “See the guy on the boat. He’s going to see you shoot me.” At that point, I decided I’d seen enough and went inside the museum.
There were displays on the Razorback and the Hoga, on Pearl Harbor, and on various ships named “Arkansas” over the years.
A memorial to those who served on submarines was in the parking lot.
