Today I had the opportunity to hop on a Watermark boat and tour the USS North Dakota, a Submarine currently anchored in the Annapolis anchorage. This attack submarine is up the bay for midshipmen to see what sub life is like. Because it is an active Submarine I was not able to take pictures inside it and the response to many of my questions was “that’s classified”. It was incredible to see how cool this thing is.
Commissioned in 2014, this sub is starting to show its age. Soon it will be taken to a ship yard where they will do work on the sub and update some systems.
Because of the obvious lack of windows, the sub relies on sonar to navigate. By hearing what is around, it is able to launch attacks on enemies and navigate without crashing into any unsuspecting fishermen. While I was on board, the crew picked up a pod of dolphins traveling down the bay off the starboard side of the boat. They played the recording so we could hear and it was remarkable how clear the dolphins were. They also played a recording of a whale from last week.
While the sub is close to the surface or above water it can use it’s scope to look around. The scope is ridiculously cool and it also happens to be controlled by an Xbox controller.
The sub lives in New London, Connecticut and made the journey down to the Chesapeake last week. It took roughly 3 days and they weren’t allowed to share any details about the speed, route, or cruising depth.
A typical civilian vessel can’t get within 500 yards of the sub and if it does, it don’t stand much of a chance! The missiles this thing packs are 19 ft long, weigh 3,000lbs and have radar to help them track down any targets. They also happen to cost around 2 million dollars so I don’t think they would waste one on a boat like PorkChop