The Navy launched the USS Requin in 1945 but it didn't arrive at Pearl Harbor until days before the end of World War II.
Since that maiden voyage, the 312-foot-long submarine traveled the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the Mediterranean Sea and the Arctic Circle.
It dived several thousand times into the harsh saltwater, helped to track down other missing subs and even survived the waters off New Jersey.
Yet it is in the freshwater of the Ohio River here in Pittsburgh -- at its berth just a Heinz football field or so from The Point -- that rust holes have been discovered below the Requin's waterline.
What the hull?
Yes, there are some small holes in the outer hull of the sub, a popular visitor attraction docked just outside the Carnegie Science Center on the North Shore.
But Center director Ann Metzger wants potential visitors to know the Requin is not going to sink. Although the outer hull is damaged, the inner hull behind it is still in good condition.
"This does not affect the visitor experience," she said.
The preliminary estimate of $2 million for repairs, however, will definitely have an impact. The actual cost won't be firmed up until after an assessment of the damage, and a course of action is determined.
Metzger said the repairs would not simply be a patch job -- "the way you took care of your first car" -- but is expected to be a comprehensive fix.
Metzger said most of the cost was based on the idea that the vessel would be dry docked as work is under way, though it might be less expensive to repair the Requin where it sits.
But the biggest concern, I think, is what impact did the river water have on the submarine⢠Could the river water be the culprit in turning the once-proud Requin's outer hull into Swiss cheese?
I visited the website for the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, and clicked on the question: "Is it Safe to Swim in the Ohio River?" On a question like that, you want a straight answer.
Yet the response began with "Yes and no," which immediately gave me a sinking feeling.
The full answer was that there's lots of bacteria in the Ohio River that might turn an innocent romp in the river into a trip to the welder. For people, exposure to certain bacteria in the water could cause such illnesses as Typhoid fever and gastroenteritis and lead to vomiting, liver abscesses and dysentery.
Because of pollution, recommendations against eating certain kinds of fish caught from the river, especially bottom feeders, have been in place for years.
Dana Rizzo, extension educator for water quality at Penn State Cooperative Extension in Westmoreland County, floated another theory for the holes in the sub: acid rain.
"We live in an area where rain is more acidic" because of the presence of extra pollutants in the air, she said. Some pollutants get washed into the river from rainfall or from melting snow -- when we get it this winter.
So is the Ohio River slowly eating through a once-mighty vessel of the U.S. Navy?
Rizzo didn't seem all that convinced.
"It's probably from 67 years of steel sitting in the water," she said.
