Thursday, April 01, 2010

New Photograph Added to Collection


Also from the collection of local submarine veteran Gene Hooks is this photograph of USS Permit (SS-178). It shows Permit early in her career, probably shortly after she was commissioned, as her fairwater is still quite large (it would be cut down dramatically during the war), and she carries a single gun aft (she would eventually carry her gun forward).

Other existing photographs from the late 1930s show her in a similar configuration.

According to the U.S. Naval History and Heritage Command, the photographer, O.W. Waterman was apparently a member of a family of photographers who actively recorded Navy subjects beginning in the early 1900s, first in the Norfolk area, then later in San Diego (after the bulk of the fleet was moved there). Many of his photographs, including many submarine photographs were used as official U.S. Navy photographs and are held in the Navy's archives in Washington, DC