Quote:
1) Probably it was torpedo loading gear crane but I see it used as an antenna support (Y) shape... Either way, was it taken down when diving?
2) There were few antennas on them - and I mean early Gato with full conning tower, ca 1941. Do we know location of these on some plan?
3) Prop guards - you said they were removable- This is only partially true. Some had them welded on, like half of them, and there were 2 styles - with two or three supporting bars. I think the early ones had two bars and were thicker on the outframe- right?
4) Railings on the early Gato... Now this is puzzling - did it have the usual railing all around the deck? Or just around conning tower, and then some mid-deck along axis placed railings fore and aft? I know that arrangement is seen on late war Gato, but what did the early war Gato have?
5) See below pic - is this accurate? Any big errors you see?
1. So when you call out something in a set of photos, I am trying to guess which photo and what it is in the photo you are talking about. You need to be specific.
As to 1.) those are antenna supports. Only. And they were permanently rigged.
2. The early Gato antennas were mostly wires strung on insulator supports. The wires from the bridge to the forward antenna post (the Y shaped post) are an example. Wire antennas continued pretty much throughout the war, although the later Balao had the wires strung aft only to two posts. Some of the Gatos were modified to this configuration later as well.
3. It would depend on the yard where they were built. The plans for Electric Boat were also employed by Manitowoc; Portsmouth plans were also used by Mare Island and Cramp. Items such as prop guards, anchor positions and other details were different depending on where the submarine was built. Later in the war, modifications were made by the yards to different plan sets and skippers were given some latitude in items such as gun placement, lookout areas, etc. The best advice for accuracy is choose one boat in one time period. If you look at Gato in 1941 and Gato in 1945, you would think they were two different submarines with the many modifications that were made. Radio antenna, radar antenna sets, fairwater cutdown, other items were all modified several times during the war.
4. There were some permanent railings, usually around the deck gun vicinity for the crew and a single one down the centerline of the submarine. These initially were metal piping but were usually replaced with wire railings. Some of the wire railings were removable for submerging, some were left in place, usually the wire railings near the fairwater and gun.
Now, when the subs were first built, the manufacturer had railings all around for sea trials;
http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/0821904.jpg and
http://navsource.org/archives/08/218/0821703.jpgNote also the wire antennas fore and aft with the prominent antenna supports on deck.
If you zoom in on these photos, you can see the single wire down the centerline to the bow:
http://navsource.org/archives/08/216/0821322.jpghttp://navsource.org/archives/08/218/0822034.jpg5. That would be a Gato right after launch, with railings all around. I would have used dark material for the wire railings and antennas. I have some very fine dark wire used for fly timing.
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