USS Cod Submarine Memorial

10/26/2026

Submarine museum ship Italian style!

The Italians had a large and varied submarine force in WWII, however it was their two-man "wet" Maiale frogman subs that had the greatest impact on the Allies. After the war the Italian submarine force was reconstituted with Gato class fleet subs like USS Barb that were given Guppy modifications. But with a new mission of hunting and ambushing Soviet and Warsaw Pact subs in the Mediterranean Sea, the big American fleet sub were overkill. When the Italians built their first post-war subs they looked to NATO neighbors like Germany and France for inspiration. Their Toti class boats of the mid-1960s (retired in the 1990s) were much smaller than anything we used with the exception of the experimental Marlin and Mackerel or T-class subs. Two of the four Toti class boats were turned into museum ships. I was able to convince my wife a few days ago that our trip to Venice wouldn't be complete without touring the Submarine Dondolo. Its part of the Italian maritime museum but the sub itself is located on the adjacent Navy base. The Toti boats have pressure hulls about as thick as Gatos but their smaller hull diameter and close frame spacing allows a diving depth of about 900 feet per the gage, although the female tour chaperone said she was told they rarely exceeded 200 feet.

The ship is very nicely appointed to look functional although it's on a slight (7 deg) rise of its ancient marine railway. See picture captions for explanations.

10/16/2026

Big Henry, our unique WWII US Navy torpedo carrier, returned home this morning after a two-yesr restoration by our shipmates at Great Lakes Construction Co. The vehicle is the last known functional example of 267 vehicles built in Tiffin, Ohio by the Hanson Crane Co. I can't thank the folks at Great Lakes enough for their support. Henry's got some long overdue improvements and repairs, just in time for his appearance in the Veterans Day Parade on Nov. 11.

Our crew took the opportunity to get reacquainted with driving the vehicle powered by a Ford flathead V-8 engine. Big Henry carries a post-war Mark 14 Mod 5 exercise torpedo on one of his two cradles.

10/14/2026

Normally playing with display items is not encouraged by Cod crew, so when this trio of Cincinnati sisters began playing junior navigators at the control room plot table Skipper Paul was about to say something ... until the older sister picked up an instrument and said to her twin siblings "this is a compass, it's used to make circles..."

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather at that moment. We went on to discusse the challenges of navigating WWII subs without the joy of GPS and other modern concepts. The parallels were also intriguing to the ladies. The sisters went on to tour other parts of the boat with their proud parents in tow and I was happy to realize that in some corners of our world kids are getting an education.

10/09/2026

We've just been informed that our unique "last of its kind" WWII US Navy Hansen torpedo carrier is being prepped for return to USS Cod Submarine Memorial after a two-year rebuild courtesy of Great Lakes Construction Co.

It's called "Big Henry" in honor of Ohioan Henry Vanetta, who saved it from the scrapper and it has been in numerous parades and festivals. It's a great addition to USS Cod as a dockyard workhorse and shoreside exhibit. It's also a great way to display our Mk. 14 torpedo.

Our sincerest thanks to the crew at Great Lakes Construction Co. for their help in preserving the last known fully-intact example of the 267 vehicles built for the Navy in WWII by Hansen Co. in Tiffin, Ohio.

Photos courtesy of Rich Obratil.

10/06/2026

It's no secret we outfitted Cod with vintage period items obtained from local thriftstores. You just need to know what is correct for the boat. One item that's been aboard our submarine for decades is this leather folio that is similar to those used by officers to organize paperwork in the 1940s. But what's special about this folio? It was once the property of George V. Voinovich, a statesman who rose from county clerk to mayor of Cleveland, to governor of Ohio, and Ohio senator. Voinovich was a great leader for our city and frequently visited USS Cod. The inside cover has an ink inscription -- "George V. Voinovich." It's faded a bit over the years but it's still there. It was a great thriftstore find back in the day.

09/29/2026

Ever play "spot the differences" picture puzzles in youth magazines as a kid? They were fun for many of us and good training for future ship restoration folks. I was sorting through old pictures of Cod's conning tower from 1979, before we got serious about restoration of the space as you can see by the image below. But since the image was nearly 50 years old I began scanning for changes from what is there today. Obviously the scopes were held up by supports before we devised the hanging steel straps we use today. But up on the wall, moubted to a power connection box, I spotted a longitudinal bubble level that I'd not seen before! It made sense that a skipper at the periscope might want to monitor the diving angle of Cod independently of the diving station below in the control room. When I was at the sub a few days later I called the image up on my phone and held it roughly at the angle the shooter used way back in 1979 as I stood in the lower CT hatch. Indeed the box was there but no trace of a bubble level. I also remembered seeing parts of a level somewhere in a conning tower locker or drawer. But was it still there or was it lost to time?

I shared ny findings with Dave Krejci our maintenence manager and asked him to keep an eye out for anything resembling the spirit level or its bracket. A day later I was happy to hear he found the bracket stashed in the dark recess of a cabinet in the tiny attack center, but it was just a mount and no sign of the fluid-filled glass tube or the graduated metal backing plate that allowed viewers to know the dive or rise angle. But at least it was a start and we have several copies of the same level installed in the control room. Add to that we know that there are companies still in business who built these devices for US subs back in the day. A quick search brought me to Imetra company. They can furnish parts like the fluid tubes or entire assemblies. We're now assembling a package of specifications and high resolution images to send them. Thanks to a few generous people who made donations recently, the cost of fabricating a replacement for the conning tower leve should be largely covered. I'll keep you in the loop as we move forward. Wish us luck!

09/26/2026

SPECIAL WEAPONS -- the elements of our national arsenal that make a really, really big boom and that thankfully haven't been used in combat since August 9, 1945. They come in all sizes; some were so small you could put them under your airline seat. I wonder what TSA would do if they encountered one of these tiny ones... ""does this contain more than 4 ounces of liquid or lithium batteries?" The early ones were huge, especially the first fusion bombs, or H-Bombs, to the public. They were so big only monstrous bombers could carry them. But our scientists quickly shrank them, so much so that it actually hurt our early space program because we only had to build small rockets to send them to the USSR. Those same small rockets couldn't do much to help us put astronauts into orbit. But the big Soviet bombs required huge rockets that allowed the USSR to throw anything into orbit. The US Navy even placed nuclear torpedoes on early cold war submarines, including many of Cod's fleet sub sisters, to keep the crews busy checking them hourly, like sick children. The long anticipated "wooden bombs" eventually arrived. These were weapons that could be stored for very long periods (years) without too much maintenance. The epitome of these weapons are the SLBMs carried in our boomer Trident subs that prowel the oceans inseen for months.

The interesting aspect of the history of these weapons is that most are now museum relics. They remain as inert "training shapes" that populate military museums and send a chill down the spines of us Boomers who were trained to "duck and cover" as school children 60 years ago.

09/21/2026

As the warm weather slips away our crew continues to work on the after group of vent risers and related deck plates. Air supply piping to the engine rooms and diesel exhaust mufflers under the deck plates are a hindrance but talent and dedication overcomes these limitations. The vent riser repair program is a major factor for long-term preservation and stability of this floating Memorial. Bravo Zulu to our hard working shipmates.

09/17/2026

We're attending the Historic Naval Ships Association symposium in Evansville, Indiana, home of the LST 325. The ship is a WWII veteran that was returned to the US after her final career with the Greek Navy. The operational LST sails to and from ports on the Ohio River during the season. Networking and catching up with shipmates from our sister ships, big and small, is a great benefit to USS Cod Submarine Memorial.

09/11/2026