CLEVELAND – For the first time in 58 years, the submarine USS Cod will leave Cleveland while being towed across Lake Erie for scheduled maintenance.
Tug Manitou will arrive at the USS Cod on Sunday at 11:00 a.m., hook up to the 312-foot submarine, and haul it on an 18-hour tow to Erie, Pennsylvania for a dry-dock maintenance period.
You can watch the USS Cod depart from Cleveland live in the player below at around 11am:
News 5 livestream event
While in service, the USS Cod sank more than twelve enemy ships and received seven battle stars before officially arriving in Cleveland in July 1959.
The USS Cod last left Cleveland for dry dock at Lorain in 1963.
Once the USS Cod is in the open channel when it departs on Sunday, the submarine will follow Navy traditions, including a signal from the recently restored horn to announce departure and fire a deck gun salute on the city of Cleveland.
“When we pick up the lines that attach Cod to the pier, the flag at our stern is removed and hoisted from the battle gaff or flagpole of the submarine that is on the mast,” said Cods President Paul Farace. “All Navy ships do this when they leave … hopefully we won’t be held onto our pier by nearly 60 years of mud build-up.”
The USS Cod normally runs summer tours, but these are suspended for the next six to eight weeks during maintenance.
“We hate to leave our fans and supporters for even a day, let alone six weeks in our busy season, but the 78-year-old submarine needs new steel on its waterline and a new high-tech hull coating system, in partnership with another Cleveland institution, the Sherwin-Williams Paint Company, “Farace said.
The hull maintenance and restoration work is being carried out in Erie, Pennsylvania at the Donjon Shipbuilding Company and costing approximately $ 1 million. A significant portion of the funding will come from the National Park Service’s Save America’s Treasures Program, but most of the funding will come from the USS Cod Foundation, saved over the decades from tour fees and donations from citizens, veterans, and corporations.
With the USS Cod leaving its Cleveland home, a welcome party is already planned for its return in August.
“We hope that all of Cleveland will welcome their favorite veteran back home,” said Farce. “Nothing is too good for our cod.”
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