Written by Ron Stachevich
On the shore of the Ohio River in Pittsburgh, right outside the Carnegie Science Center, there sits a World War II vintage USS Requin (SS-481), a TENCH class submarine commissioned in 1945. On its first patrol, the war ended.
Converted to a radar picket from 1948 to 1959, the Requin served along the Atlantic coast and the Mediterranean, conducting air control missions. Retooled again, the boat continued service in the Atlantic Fleet until 1968, which it was finally decommissioned.
In 1990, the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh arranged for Requin’s donation and relocation for exhibition. After repairs in Tampa, the boat was towed to Pittsburgh, where it opened for tours. The Requin remains a popular attraction.
The Veterans Breakfast Club did a tour of the Requin on National Submarine Day, April 12, and held a program with submarine veterans. Air Force veteran Ron Stachevich sent a note in response, with his memory of the Requin’s 1990 arrival in Pittsburgh for its final docking on the Ohio River. Navy veteran Chris Pirollo also remembered the delivery of the Requin and shared the photos below of the event.
In 1990, I went over to the North Side to see the submarine, the USS Requin (SS-481) come in from Tampa.
It was slung between two barges and traveled from Tampa to New Orleans, then up the Mississippi River to the Ohio River, then on to Pittsburgh.
A crane took it off the barges and lowered it into the underwater dugout platform to support the sub. But then, the sub began to tilt.
The Science Center people forgot to calculate the density between salt water and the Ohio River’s fresh water. The duugout platform was too high, and the sub started to lean and came close to capsizing.
The operators had to get chains around the sub and reposition it back between the two barges. They then called in a digger machine to take several feet off the dirt platform so the sub could be upright.
Ron Stachevich’s sketch of the repositioning of the USS Requin on the Ohio River in Pittsburgh in 1990.
To this day, most don’t know about how this science error almost doomed the Requin‘s arrival in Pittsburgh.
Below is a slideshow of the Requin’s arrival to Pittsburgh in 1990, courtesy of Navy veteran Chris Pirollo.
