Boats, Bicycles, and Cars

WWII Submarine Pampanito (Liberty Ship in background)

Submarine Pampanito

Forward Torpedo Room

During our stay in San Francisco, we took a self-guided tour of the Balao Class submarine Pampanito moored at Fisherman’s Wharf. The Pampanito made six patrols in the Pacific during World War II, at which time she sank six Japanese ships and damaged four others. She served as a Naval Reserve Training ship from 1960 to 1971 and is now a National Historic landmark, preserved as a memorial and museum ship. Movie buffs may be interested to know that Pampanito was used in the 1995 film “Down Periscope.” Submarines traditionally had two periscopes, a navigation or observation periscope, and a targeting or commander’s periscope. Navies originally mounted these periscopes in the conning tower, one forward of the other in the narrow hulls of diesel-electric submarines. Three main components make up the structure of a WWII submarine: the inner hull, the outer hull, and the superstructure. The inner hull or pressure hull is a long cylinder with torpedo tubes at each end and houses the crew and machinery. The outer hull forms the skin upon which the submarine floats when on the surface. The superstructure sits on top of the hulls above the waterline and is cut with holes called limber holes, which allow free-flooding when the submarine dives. After touring the submarine, we ate lunch and then headed to another popular tourist stop. Since we were on our bicycles for the day, we decided to ride our bikes down Lombard Street located southwest of Fisherman’s Wharf. Lombard Street has eight sharp hair-pin turns along a single block between Hyde and Jones Streets. Although the steepest street in town is Filbert, and Vermont Street is slightly curvier than Lombard, the latter is best known for its beauty and has been featured in numerous movies. In the 1920’s a property owner in the area suggested the creation of switchbacks to better negotiate the hill’s natural grade of 27 percent which was too steep for most vehicles. The red-brick paved switchbacks are lined with beautiful flowers, lovely homes, and artistic landscaping making Lombard one of the most photographed streets in San Francisco. We pushed our bikes for two blocks up the steep hill from the west side of Lombard and waited our turn to ride down the crooked section of road. A long line of cars were also waiting at the top of the hill. We could hear tires screeching and smell brake pads burning as more cars drove up the hill to get in line. The intersection is so congested with tourists that a traffic cop is on site directing pedestrians, cars, and bicyclists all day long. We walked our bikes to the “start line” and slowly headed down the switchbacks with our brakes pressed on the entire way – I’d rather burn up bicycle brakes than skin up knees, arms, or legs! After we finished the switchbacks, the street continued its steep pitch for another two blocks. Whew! We safely made it down one of the steepest streets in San Francisco!