Dang Weesel got in the way! Well, Mrs. W has a hard time getting pictures of me, so when I was stuck against the partition... Pop! This is the attack center. Again it is very WW2-ish except for the location of the periscopes (they are just to my right) and the planesman and helmsman stations (just behind me). In a WW2 boat, the helmsman would often be up in the conning tower along with the periscope watch. On RONQUIL that station was just to my left and the wheel was about 2' diameter. The planemens' stations would be to my right against the left bulkhead and those wheels were about 3' diameter. The docent asked me if I had any idea what the gizmos on the backs of the seats were... HUH? all around. He'd heard that they were so someone could take over the wheels without having to remove unconscious crewmen manning the station (Sheesh! leave the gilly alone when on duty, guys!). That sort of made sense but it looked very clumsy. What I could see is a possible situation when you needed more muscle and had to put more men on the job. On the old boats, no problem getting two gorillas on each wheel to add more muscle and the spokes of the wheels had fold-down handles so it may be possible to add more anchor clankers to the effort. With the seats, it is possible that the gizmos on the back provided an extension with fold-out handles for more muscles on the job. Never saw the like on BONEFISH or BLUEBACK and that class (BARBEL) was right behind this one. Maybe the idea did not work out? The only thing that spooked me was the color: Sweeney Green if I'm correct. (Yow! I'd have to leave my Akadama on the deck if I had to look at that all watch!) The color of innumerable Army barracks. From what I can recall, RONQUIL was a sandy-yellow color scheme on the bulkheads and the B girls were mostly Haze Gray with some patches of off-white or similar yellow. Sonar was right across the passageway from radio; on RONQUIL it was right below where I'm standing. Radio here was big. Lots of room. On RONQUIL it was right under the snorkel mast and lots of room was taken up by snorkel motors, etc. They leaked oil and water would condense on the pipes. The poor slob just below them was a target. The galley and mess deck were right out of "Destination Tokyo" and scads of other movies. (This is a good place to introduce how The Weese found himself in this situation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1nESHgqAnY You can find almost the entire series on line and watch for some famous people as they started their careers.) Points to anyone who can name two Star Trekkers and a future Navy captain. The main armament of GROWLER is the Regulus missiles, so there is some confusion over the torpedo armament. The docent said 4 tubes forward and 2 tubes aft. I believe Wikepedia has it 6 and 4, but I'm more inclined to believe the docent. GROWLER was not intended to sink the Benjo Maru so a defensive armament makes more sense. Also that huge hangar structure spells: slow and clumsy underwater. That plus the freeboard seemed rather high compared to other boats I've seen -- slow diving. That freeboard could be due to being lightly loaded or maybe it was necessary to get the birds off. Well, folks. Thanks for your patience, that's enough yak-yak with only a single picture to look at. Time to head over to the Met and see what kind of trouble we can find there. Enjoy; and watch your bubble.