The United States Navy Smithsonian opens new exhibit for U.S. Navy Submarine Centennial Full-screen images are linked from the images captioned in story below. The forward control station aboard a typical U.S. Navy nuclear-powered submarine of the Cold War era, showing the ballast control panel, the helm and bow plane controls, is displayed as part of the exhibition opening April 12 to the public at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History. U.S. Navy photo by Alan P. Goldstein, Navy Office of Information. Apr. 10, 2000.
Admission is free.
The exhibition, which features some recently declassified information and equipment from actual decommissioned U.S. nuclear-powered submarines including Trepang , Sand Lance , James K. Polk , Hawkbill and Pogy is located on the third floor of the east wing of the museum. The display takes visitors inside the actual compartments from a nuclear-powered submarine to show what life aboard a submarine is like. The exhibition includes videos and interactive displays to allow visitors to experience the Navy submariner's life and witness actual submarine operations and hear families discuss the demands placed on both the crew and their families. The submarine was commissioned USS Holland on Oct. 12, 1900. The purchase of this ship is considered the birth date of the Navy's Submarine Force.