NOV19-07: NR-1 Departs PNS in Well Deck of USS Carter Hall (LSD 50)
KITTERY, Maine - Landing Ship Dock USS Carter Hall (LSD 50) departed Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (PNS) Nov. 4, transporting the recently inactivated submarine NR-1 to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility for disposition. The unique, compact undersea research and ocean engineering submarine has been at PNS since Dec. 4, 2008, undergoing the inactivation process.
Using a combination of tugs and the ship's capstan system, PNS personnel assisted Carter Hall's crew in loading the 150-foot-long, 450-ton submarine into the amphibious warship's well deck. The evolution completed smoothly and ahead of schedule.
"I was very excited to be part of this unique effort," said PNS Docking Officer, Lt. Cmdr. John Mentzer. "The evolution provided the team an interesting and challenging opportunity to think and perform outside the boundaries of what we normally do."
Launched in 1969, and the research vessel's career highlights included multiple missions to search for artifacts, wrecks and mapping of the ocean floor. NR-1 recovered weapons from the ocean floor in 1976, discovered three wrecks along the Mediterranean trade route at the Skerki Bank in 1995, surveyed the remains of the USS Monitor and USS Akron in 2002, and explored the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico in 2007. Her final mission in 2008 was a hunt for the wreck of the Bonhomme Richard, the flagship of naval hero John Paul Jones. NR-1 had retractable wheels, three viewing windows, low-light cameras and recovery systems with a manipulator arm.
PNS, a field activity of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA), provides the U.S. Navy's nuclear powered submarine fleet with quality overhaul work in a safe, timely and affordable manner. This includes a full spectrum of in-house support--from engineering services and production shops, to unique capabilities and facilities, to off-site support - all of which serves the multifaceted assortment of Fleet requirements.
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