The history of the USS Irex SS-482:
Acquiring a snorkel, Jan 1946–Aug 1947
Under Captain Ward

The commanding officer who replaced Captain Crowley on 2 January 1946 was Norvell G. “Bud” Ward, who would remain at his post until 29 August 1947. Lcdr William R. Easton, who had been the CO of the O6 (SS-67), was XO in about 1946 and 1947, and the COB's name was Frye.

The first of the exercises in Key West entailed a trip to the US Naval Operating Base, Guantanamo, Cuba (“Gitmo”) on 8 January in company with the Cochino. During this trip there was a flood in the Pump Room (located beneath the Control Room), causing the electric motors to shut down, with loss of hydraulic pressure.

In 1946 the Irex softball team won the championship in the Key West Naval Base League.

In the Fall of 1946, the Irex went to the Gulf of Mexico to evade an approaching hurricane, but was hit by it there nevertheless, as reported by Jim Reynolds, who also tells us of the arrival of a new furry shipmate.

Early in 1945, the plans and a mast from a German snorkel submarine had been captured in Toulouse, and the Portsmouth Navy yard set out to adopt the device for U.S. submarines. A snorkel is a large-diameter telescoping tube that enabled diesel-powered submarines to run largely submerged for long periods of time by extending the tube just above the water's surface to draw in air for the engines through a fast-acting valve. The German design was tried on on the R-5 for three months. Then the Sirago was equipped with a snorkel for one engine and tested it in September 1945. In December 1946 [after a year without working on the project?] the Navy was ready to try out the the snorkel on an operational boat.

In December 1946 the Irex was ordered back to the Portsmouth Navy Shipyard for an installation of the first completely functional version of a snorkel, making the Irex the first operational U.S. submarine so equipped. At the same time the Navy also began the construction of modernized Guppy snorkel submarines, but these were so expensive that it was decided to fit older fleet submarines, such as the Tench class, with snorkels and a sail in the manner of the Irex. These eighteen boats, the “fleet snorkel” boats, were not a full Guppy conversion and could be implemented by means of less expensive shipyard overhauls. The fleet-snorkel submarines were all phased out of service by 1970.

The Portsmouth yard work extended from December 1946 to February 1947, To ease passage of the snorkel through the water, the superstructure was enclosed in a metal sail that left in place the forward chin mounted gun and the deck that extended back to where the after bridge gun had been located. In or after February 1947, various tests of the snorkel were carried out in Portsmouth.

During the snorkel conversion, the 15" the orignal Irex insignia painted by plank-owner Ernest Venema was liberated from the wardroom by Venema, and it was eventually sent to Wally Krupenevich [?] upon Ernest's death on 4 December 1999.

Apparently the public announcement of the snorkel was delayed until July 1947 when the Irex was assigned to Submarine Squadron Eight in New London (each squadron had two divisions of eight boats each). She then undertook sea trials of the snorkel.

Here is a newspaper clipping at the New London Sub Museum that is dated 29 July 1947 and which is a public announcement of the new technology being tried out by the Irex. The clipping noted that the Irex had been operating out of the sub base in New London and she was due to go to Key West on 30 July.

In this photo can be seen the new sail. The superstructure was distinguished by a semi-enclosed “crow's nest” bridge. In this photo the 5" after deck gun and the 40 mm. chin mount gun below the bridge are still in place, but the bridge that extends all the way aft to the “cigarette deck” no longer has a gun. The photo was taken between 1947 and 1949 and is from the Howard Finch collection.

The Irex spent July 1947 to February 1948 evaluating the snorkel during sea trials that include the trip to Key West mentioned above.

Captain N.G. Ward was relieved on 23 August 1947.