One of the many bizarre events I've witnessed during my 10 years of sub duty occurred in the Spring of 1971. I had been on the USS Hardhead SS365 since the previous October right after Sub School in Groton, CT. Every Boat back then had their fair share of "mishaps" such as firing water slugs with a fish in the tube and subsequently destroying a little white building on the opposite bank of the Thames river. We won't get into that one right now. One such mishap that I witnessed involved the USS Halfbeak, SS352.

As every "Pig Boat" sailor knows, the use of a tug to get moored is not a necessity unless you are riding a Nuke. With the twin screws and even a mediocre OD, you can make them boats do most anything, even walk them sideways and fight the outgoing tidal current of the Thames River. During these years, the Groton Sub Base was undergoing some changes down on the river one of which was replacing the old wooden piers with the new concrete ones to support the increasing shore service demands of the increasing number of Nukes. On this particular day, I was standing topside watch on the USS Hardhead, SS365. We were tied up to the north side of pier 11, a newly built concrete pier. When the current was running fast, typical mooring practice when tying up to the south side of the piers was to be out in the river, (where else would you be, did I really say that) go a bit past your assigned pier, turn in parallel to your pier, then come in at it while trying to accurately judge your drift and forward motion and if successful, you would miss the end of the pier and slide the boat right up along side the south side of the pier and get the lines across. Then if necessary walk the stern in by counter rotating the screws but mostly using the winches. Absolutely! Positively!! No way in hell !!!! Was any Pig Boat sailor worth his salt going to use a tug.

Fighting the current, the Halfbeak was coming in hot... a little to hot, she misjudged her speed and drift and she clobbered the end of the pier. Unlike hitting the old wooden piers that would give a bit when abused, the new concrete piers had no forgiveness for roughness by boat Junior OD's screwing up the docking of a submarine and this one bent and crinkled her bow over about 10 or 15 degrees to port. 

Now "Pig Boats" (I wonder where the affectionate name "Pig Boat" ever came from?) had a variety of bow styles of which I used to know but can't remember the names of, but the Halfbeak had the long pointed one with the bull nose formed right into it that now looked like Barbara Streisand with a broken nose. This definitely needed corrective action. What played out next has got to be a matter of pride of not wanting to have a damaged boat sitting at the dock and having to explain how it happened. Instead of coming in and tying up, she backed back out into and drifted down the Thames River a ways and got her bow pointed somewhat up river again. Then we saw the water kick out behind her, her down stream motion stopped and she started back up the river for a second try. After the first encounter with the pier, a fairly large audience had started to gather. As she came up river again, she started her turn into the pier, way, way too early for as fast as the current was running. One big question was on everyone's mind. . What the hell is she doing now? She was coming in at about a 45 degree angle to the pier, a rather strange angle and definitely too much speed. 

Now topside watches can expertly tell you this wrong. After standing Topside Watches day and night, bored to death, praying for some excitement such as this, either burning up from the heat or freezing to death in the Dog Houses during damp windy winters and most importantly, watching closely, every thing that happens on a pier, very very closely. This is how one becomes an expert on the numerous activities that take place on a pier not to mention watching many, too many boat approaches and dockings. A Qualified Topside Watch with over a year in the Navy, is definitely an expert on how to dock a submarine. Yea....right. Well, at least he's an expert at what it looks like when it's done correctly and what it looks like when it's not. One thing for sure, it sure as hell don't look like what we all was looking at. 

As the Halfbeak approached this second time, the damage already done became very visible to the spectators that didn't see the first hit, and what she was going to attempt to do became all to apparent. She was going to try to straighten her bow out by hitting the pier again. Yea....right!!! Of course this was not without the voicing of expert opinions, disbelief and speculation by all the onlookers as to the outcome. The moment of truth was close at hand as she got closer and closer and.....smash!!!! Now, there were some that had been around longer that me and were actually experts in the field of Concrete and Steel pier construction and Submarine building. Yea...right!! They were most definitely experts in Submarine vs Pier battle tactics. Yea... right again!!! As it turned out, Pier 11 won this battle. 

After the strange mixture of sounds made by the crunching and tearing of steel against concrete, the friendly cheering, back slapping, whistling and whoops of encouragement by the spectators had subsided, we could see the bow was laid over to starboard at about 90 degrees. The USS Halfbeak was now the USS Halfbent.

I believe she actually opened up the pressure hull because just before she was covered up with a tarp, I swear, NO S*#t, we could see the tubes and bunks in the Forward Torpedo room. Well, shortly after that, we had to go to sea. A trip all the way to Bermuda. Is it possible to puke all the way from Groton to Bermuda? What do you think the chances are of a FN wearing a KAPOC Life Jacket with adrenaline pumping and scared shitless while line handling number 1 line during a maneuvering watch are to be able to jump clean over a moving submarine and saved by only his shipmates? Well, that's another story. 

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