A Hawaiian Kaleidoscope - USS Bowfin and Missouri (Mighty Mo) - February 2012

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In-Depth: USS Bowfin and USS Missouri

A report with more pictures from the USS Bowfin and Missouri, Pearl Harbour

Note: This page provides a slightly deeper look into the USS Bowfin submarine and USS Missouri battleship, both at Pearl Harbour, Hawai'i. There are extra pictures of these two vessels on these pages that are not in the main trip report (these extra images are denoted by a special color surrounding the thumbnails). If you came to this page looking for the general narrative for our visit to Pearl Harbour, then you have come to the wrong place. You should go here instead.

The USS Bowfin is an attack submarine that was active during the second world war against targets in the pacific ocean. The submarine was built in 1942 and was launched on December 7, 1942 - exactly one year after the infamous Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. Serving for some decades after the second world war in various functions, it was ultimately decommissioned in 1971 and sent to Pearl Harbour, where it was eventually restored and put on display as a floating museum at the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument near Honolulu, Hawai'i.

Submarine Memorial and Bowfin

To visit the Bowfin, you must purchase a ticket ($10 as of 2012) from the park visitor center. Then, since the Bowfin is positioned just a few feet offshore right at the visitor center, it is a simple matter to walk over and cross the strudy steel gangplank onto the deck of the submarine.

There is a wireless audio guide provided with the admission tickets, and it is fairly intuitive to use and is quite useful - you punch in the audioguide numbers into a handheld unit at various indicated points along the way, which yeilds useful clips of information and history about the submarine.

The USS Bowfin

Rear deck, USS Bowfin

Forward torpedo room

Typically, the exploration of the ship starts at the bow, where you descend to the main internal deck and get to visit all of the major sections of the ship, from torpedo room through to galleys, living quarters, engine room, etc.