The WWII aircraft carrier Intrepid, a Sea-AirSpace Museum with submarine exhibits is located
at Pier 86 on the Hudson River at West ~6th and 12th Avenue, New York City. Parking for visitors
is at the end of the passenger ship terminal at West 55th Street. Hours of the museum are from
10:00 a.m. to 8:00p.m., seven days a week except Christmas.
Since its opening in August 1982, almost three quarters of a million people have visited this
museum. Although there are presently some submarine displays in the Technologies Hall on
the hangar deck, a gallery devoted entirely to submarines will be opened in late 1983. Then, in
a second phase of expansion of the Intrepid Museum, a submarine multilevel complex will be
developed below the hangar deck.
Vice Admiral Phil Beshany, USN (Ret), a member of the Museum’s Exhibitry Commission is providing
the guidance for the future development of the submarine part of the Intrepid Museum. The
availability of submarine artifacts and financing, he notes, will pace the submarine
gallery’s expansion. What is envisioned will encompass every element of the submarine story -the
evolution of the submarine, the Fleet Ballistic Missile Submarine’s role and its technologies, the roles of attack boats past and present, the nature of the submarine’s environment, etc.
The conversion of spaces below the hangar deck into a submarine complex is the top priority in
the Intrepid Museum’s growth plans.
(Ed. note …This article is done as a Staff paper written in 1961 from Admiral Kasatonov to Admiral
Gorshkov, Head of the Soviet Navy. Admiral Gorshkov had stated his belief in the primacy of’
submarines in modern naval warfare, and Admiral Kasatonov — an experienced fleet commander and
submarine design expert responded, so the author believes, in much this f’ashion. At that
time, twenty years ago, the Soviet Navy was greatly concerned with their lack of initial
success with nuclear submarines, while facing a period of U.S. submarine production which featured
the high speed Skipjack, the covert Tullibee, and four other new types of’ nuclear submarines. The
assumed recommendations of Admiral Kasatonov as to Soviet submarine design problems and directions to be taken to achieve a basically submarine oriented navy, stem from the author’s good memory of that period along with his hindsight provided by a close observation of Soviet submarine developments down to the present. The title of the article is merely an editor’s whim, suggested by the catch-up nature of this Staff paper.)
