{"id":7936,"date":"2026-07-18T16:25:59","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/uk-uachomu-pidvodnij-choven-uss-silversajds-perevezli-do-viskonsina\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T16:25:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:25:59","slug":"uk-uachomu-pidvodnij-choven-uss-silversajds-perevezli-do-viskonsina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/uk-uachomu-pidvodnij-choven-uss-silversajds-perevezli-do-viskonsina\/","title":{"rendered":"Why the USS Silversides submarine moved to Wisconsin for emergency repairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

The USS Silversides<\/em> just showed up in Wisconsin. Not for a tour. For a fix.<\/p>\n

This specific World War II submarine restoration project<\/strong> isn\u2019t your standard museum polish. The vessel has traveled to Fincantieri Bay Shipwriting in Sturgeon Bay for the first dry-dock preservation work in more than fifty years. It\u2019s been sitting exposed to the elements since moving to Michigan back in the day. Now? The metal is tired. The paint is tired. They\u2019re taking it apart.<\/p>\n

The scope of this 1944-era sub maintenance<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s look at what they are actually doing. Workers have three months. That\u2019s it. They need to inspect the structural integrity. They need to strip and clean the hull. Then comes the coating\u2014multiple layers meant to shield the vessel from another few decades of wind, rain, and lake salt.<\/p>\n

Why send it to Sturgeon Bay instead of staying local?<\/p>\n

Capacity. And expertise. Jeffrey Frank, vice president of Fincantieri, told WBAY this requires careful planning and skilled trade work. It\u2019s heavy engineering, not just scrubbing deck plates. You can\u2019t DIY this.<\/p>\n

A decorated vessel with a lot of miles<\/h3>\n

Before we talk about the paint job, we need to talk about the sub. Launched on August 21, 1941<\/strong>, the Silversides<\/em> is a Gato-class boat. Built in under a year. It\u2019s nearly 312 feet of steel.<\/p>\n

Armed to the teeth, too.
\n– 10 torpedo tubes
\n– .50 caliber deck gun
\n– 40 mm cannons
\n– 20 mm cannons<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t a white elephant. During the Pacific theater patrols, this boat sank 23 enemy vessels<\/strong>. That\u2019s more shipping tonnage than almost anyone else in its class. The U.S. Navy decommissioned it in 1946<\/strong>. Then they used it as a training ship for Reservists in Chicago. A weird transition. Fighting war yesterday. Teaching theory the next day.<\/p>\n

By 1987 it ended up in Michigan, eventually getting its own museum in Muskegon.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThis effort is a testament to what can happen when communities get behind their own history.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u2014 Veronica Campbell, Executive Director, USS Silversides Museum<\/p>\n

She\u2019s not wrong. It cost $3.5 million. That\u2019s for the dry dock phase only.<\/p>\n

Watching the restoration live<\/h3>\n

Want to see it happen? Stream it. The museum is live-streaming the inlet process. You\u2019ll watch it float in. Then you\u2019ll watch an empty basin for a bit while the real work starts. Boring parts included. That\u2019s the deal.<\/p>\n

The plan? Finish by October<\/strong>. Then send it back across Lake Michigan to its permanent home in Muskegon.<\/p>\n

Is three months enough to fix a ship that survived hell? Hopefully. Time will tell if the new coating holds. If it cracks, they\u2019re back on the list.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The USS Silversides just showed up in Wisconsin. Not for a tour. For a fix. This specific World War II submarine restoration project isn\u2019t your standard museum polish. The vessel has traveled to Fincantieri Bay Shipwriting in Sturgeon Bay for the first dry-dock preservation work in more than fifty years. It\u2019s been sitting exposed to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wpm_language_slugs":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7936"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.schooler.org.ua\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}