The Present Submerges Into the Past on the USS Requin

Story by Matt Nemeth

The USS Requin is an electric diesel submarine that patrolled the Atlantic Ocean for over 20 years during the Cold War. Now, the submarine lets the general public below deck to tour its narrow passageways as it rests along the Ohio River at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh. Shown here is the USS Requin out at sea in the late 1960s. Photo: Carnegie Science Center

The USS Requin is now a successful submarine museum sitting calmly along the shore of the Ohio River, but in 1989 she was headed for rough waters.

After over two decades of U.S. Navy service and nearly two more as a veteran-run museum in Florida, the submarine was left abandoned in Tampa’s Hillsborough River, later planned to be used as target practice and reduced to a coral reef by the Navy itself.

“This is actually one of the very rare instances that the Navy was going to step in and take it back. That doesn't happen ever with museum ships,” said Maria Renzelli, submarine coordinator of the USS Requin.

According to Renzelli, the submarine was then discovered by a member of the Carnegie Museum’s Board of Directors and the newly announced Carnegie Science Center stepped in, offering to transform the submarine into an exhibit for their planned riverfront location on Pittsburgh’s Northside.

Aided by the influence of Senator John Heinz, a bill was sent through Congress allowing the Science Center to take ownership. 

However, the submarine’s propellors and batteries had been removed and its engines were disabled. In order to transport the submarine to her new home in Pittsburgh, Renzelli says barges were employed. “They made a cradle with nylon straps and they just kind of lifted her up out of the water and pushed her up the Mississippi.” 

The USS Requin has now been sitting along the Ohio River for 25 years and has grown to become one of the most popular of the Science Center’s exhibits. Around 180,000 visitors tour its narrow passageways every year. 

John Baranowski, a USS Requin presenter, leads two visitors across the submarine on a rainy day. Visitors begin their tour at the forward torpedo room then make their way through the interior of the vessel. Presenters are often stationed at the beginning of the tour and in the control and radar rooms answering questions and discussing the submarine's history. Photo: Matt Nemeth

Many of the USS Requin's rooms are decorated to appear as they did when the submarine was still operating under the Navy. Seen here is a cap and uniform spread out on a bed in the captain's quarters. Photo: Matt Nemeth

Renzelli oversees the exhibit’s staff, individuals who differ from those who operate some of the Science Center’s other areas because they either have history backgrounds or firsthand experience. On most days three presenters will be manning some of the more crucial locations in the submarine, answering visitors’ questions or explaining the purpose of different mechanisms.

John Baranowski is one of the newer presenters on the USS Requin. He has a history degree from Mercyhurst University and was ecstatic to work for the Carnegie Science Center. “Everyone I work with has advanced degrees or has served in the Navy,” said Baranowski. 

One of those Navy veterans is George Staas, who volunteers a couple times a week to answer visitors’ questions, explain the operation of different mechanisms and teach about the submarine’s history. In the late 1950s, Staas was an electric technician on the USS Archerfish, a Balao-class submarine that Staas explained was similar to the USS Requin.

Staas announced that being confined in a submarine for periods of time normally didn't bother him, and that individuals underwent psychological tests before they could become crew members. However, there was one occasion that tested his comfort level. “Once, we were under thick polar ice and couldn't surface for a time,” said Staas. When asked where he was at that time, Staas replied jokingly, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”

Volunteer presenter George Staas describes the operation of the USS Requin's diesel engines. Staas himself served on a similar diesel-electric submarine in the late 1950s that was known as the USS Archerfish. Many of the exhibit's staff are either Navy veterans or hold history-related degrees. Photo: Matt Nemeth

Prior to her educational roles in Tampa and Pittsburgh, the USS Requin was an active part of world history. The submarine was built by the end of 1944, but wasn’t launched until shortly before Japan surrendered. “She was headed out to Guam when they rescinded all of the orders and they said, ‘We’re done. Go back home.’ So she was technically in World War II for three days,” Renzelli said, smiling. 

After the war, many submarines were in bad shape, and thus decommissioned. But, the USS Requin was virtually new so the Navy decided to refit her radar equipment. According to Renzelli, she became the first radar picket submarine, a vessel responsible for scouting out in front of a fleet to alert it of potential threats. However, by the late 1950s advances in technology allowed for radar equipment to be stored on aircraft and the USS Requin was reverted back.

Since then, the electric diesel submarine has graced the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea, taken part in training programs in South America and patrolled the East Coast during the height of the Cold War from Connecticut to Cuba. “They called her the galloping ghost of the East Coast,” said Renzelli.

In this postcard from Cuba, the USS Requin is seen crossing into Havana's harbor in 1950. In addition to patrolling the Atlantic Ocean during the height of the Cold War, the submarine was used for experimental purposes by the Navy. "She was kind of the guinea pig submarine for awhile," said Renzelli, explaining that some of the successful technologies used on her were later implemented on nuclear submarines. Photo: Carnegie Science Center

It was during this time that John Stewart served as a machinist’s mate, maintaining the submarine’s engines and auxiliary systems. According to Stewart, the submarine’s home port was in Norfolk, Virginia, but she frequently travelled up the North Atlantic keeping a vigilant eye out for the enemy. “As you would say in the Cold War system, we were there, but we weren’t there. We were watching for them and they were watching for us,” Stewart said. 

Renzelli admitted some people are disappointed when they hear virtually all of the USS Requin’s operations took place outside of World War II, but adds excitedly that the “Heyday of submarines” actually occurred after the war when Russia started rapidly expanding their submarine program. “There were so many of them that we were in a cold war. So it was just basically submarines off the coast looking for each other,” said Renzelli. 

On one occasion, the USS Requin plunged well below its test depth of 400 feet. According to Stewart, crews were normally very careful not to descend too deep.“If you did, then the commanding officer and all involved in the dive had to just about write a novel about what happened that caused them to go below the test depth period,” said Stewart. 

Yet despite the dangers, Stewart looks back fondly at his time on the USS Requin, explaining that he made many friends and praising his commanding officers. “They let us get away with a few things and they clamped down on us whenever they were supposed to,” said Stewart. “They could light a fire under you if they had to.”

Now over 50 years later, Stewart still returns to the USS Requin. He leads several special tours with another Navy veteran in the summer months and has been attending the crew’s reunions since the early 1990s. “Everybody that comes to see it, they’re really astounded at how good a shape it’s still in for as old as it is,” said Stewart. 

In this 1955 photograph, crew member All Bremmer poses next to a shark he caught out at sea, perhaps a fitting gesture as the submarine itself was named after the French word for shark, requin. Photo: Carnegie Science Center

Officers pose for a photograph aboard the USS Requin's deck in 1946, just one year after the submarine was first deployed. Photo: Carnegie Science Center

As visitors make their way through the submarine’s tight spaces (the widest point in the interior is 16ft) they will pass a door labelled “Radio Shack.” Although it is not one of the three main areas presenters are usually stationed, it’s an important stop on the tour for Art Muller. “This is where RadioShack the store got its name,” Muller announced to several visitors, explaining that it was the term given to rooms on all U.S. submarines where the radio communications were centralized.

Muller has worked on the USS Requin for 15 years, but during his time in the Navy, he was involved with communications on the USS Douglas Fox, a destroyer that participated in the Battle of Okinawa during World War II. 

The ship was patrolling the Indian Ocean for a time when he was onboard. “I spent my 19th birthday in Bombay, India,” Muller said, adding that he couldn’t celebrate with a beer because the drinking regulations there weren’t worth the trouble. 

Muller is an experienced ham radio operator and fluent in morse code, a form of communication that was commonly used by the Navy during the 1960s and 1970s. He communicated with Russians during the Cold War on many occasions. “They were very friendly,” said Muller, to the surprise of several visitors. 

He still contacts people from all over the world and enjoys looking up where they live. “It’s a good geography lesson,” Muller said. 

"Pounding brass" is what Art Muller explains it is called when operating the key device to communicate through morse code. Muller runs the submarine's radio communications room that local ham radio operators are free to use. Muller himself learned morse code while serving in the Navy and still regularly uses the radio equipment to converse with other ham radio operators all over the world. Photo: Matt Nemeth

Top: Crewmen load extra piston engines on the submarine's deck while at port. Bottom: Playing cards and checkers helped pass time when seamen were off shift. Both photographs were taken in 1966. Photos: Carnegie Science Center

Andy Winter and his son John are returning visitors to the USS Requin. After taking the self-guided tour, they were surprised to witness the complexity of the submarine’s operations. “There’s a lot more to it than I thought,” said Andy, recounting all the dials and knobs he saw on various machines. 

John enjoyed viewing the bunk areas and was thrilled to see that there was a checkers board in the mess deck, where crew members actually used to play during their down time. 

Earlier this year, Stewart’s great-grandson visited the Carnegie Science Center with his class for a school trip. Stewart decided to meet up with them and guided them through the USS Requin “He was in 5th grade and I made him kind’ve a hero that I was on that submarine,” said Stewart. --