Is the Clamagore history?

The lack of funding for the last surviving GUPPY type III submarine means the Clamagore is unlikely to remain at Patriots Point as a tourist attraction. Brad Nettles/StaffThe lack of funding for the last surviving GUPPY type III submarine means the Clamagore is unlikely to remain at Patriots Point as a tourist attraction.

The naval museum's second-most popular ship is in bad shape, and they don't have the money to repair it.

So the Cold-War-era submarine Clamagore could end up on eternal patrol sometime in the next year.

That means gone forever. And that's a shame.

This is one of those times when the politics of extreme fiscal conservatism, which sometimes ignores common sense, is put to the test. Because the fact is, there are only two options here: Either some corporate sponsor steps up with more than $3 million to save the last surviving GUPPY type III sub, or Patriots Point gets an earmark.

Neither is likely to happen.

“As much as I'd like to believe there's going to be a happy ending, in this day and time we have to face reality,” says Mac Burdette, executive director of Patriots Point.

In a city where history is so revered, there ought to be another option.

A price on history

Navy guys love their ships.

They live aboard them for months, even years, at a time. They become their home. That's evident every time you see the tears in the eyes of Yorktown sailors who come in to visit the aircraft carrier.

It's the same way for the Clamagore. Sid Busch, a volunteer at Patriots Point, spent two years serving aboard that sub. When he heard that the Clamagore may end up as an artificial reef, it was like a kick to the stomach.

“I wish there was some way to find an alternative to save her,” Busch says. “She represents a big part of Charleston history.”

Time was, Charleston was the second-largest submarine base on the East Coast, and the Clamagore called this harbor its home port. Sadly, a lot of people don't realize that, or how important the Navy was during the Cold War.

And generations won't know that if the Clamagore ends up as an artificial reef.

Nowadays, Busch notes, kids line up to climb inside the close confines of the sub. They need to — this isn't just nostalgia, this is our history.

It's hard to put a price on that.

All about priorities

Right now, Patriots Point is in debt to the state more than $8 million for repairs to the USS Laffey.

That's what happens when you want to preserve ships that this country built to last for maybe 25 years.

The museum took a lot of heat for borrowing money for the Laffey, and that pretty much put the nail in the Clamagore's coffin. No way can they ask for more money now.

Although Patriots Point is a state agency, it is expected to run like a business. People expect all government to run like a business.

Well, sometimes businesses have to make cold, unemotional decisions. Burdette says the board realizes that, as tough as the decision is.

It's too bad they have been put in this position. But today's priority is saving people a fraction of a penny on a tax bill — no matter the real cost.

Ten years ago, no one would have thought twice about saving an educational piece of this nation's military history.

Now it seems like an impossibility.

Fate of submarine Clamagore to be decided

Patriots Point is considering its options for the fate of the submarine Clamagore, which has been a part of the maritime tourist attraction since 1981. brad nettles/staffPatriots Point is considering its options for the fate of the submarine Clamagore, which has been a part of the maritime tourist attraction since 1981.

 MOUNT Pleasant — For more than 30 years, the submarine Clamagore has served as a tourist attraction at Patriots Point Naval and Maritime Museum.

But the last surviving vessel of its type may soon go underwater one last time.

“She needs a lot of work,” said Mac Burdette, executive director of Patriots Point. “The ballasts are paper thin and the hull is in better shape, but we don’t have the money to fix it.”

He estimates the cost to repair the 1945- commissioned submarine at $5 million to $6 million, money the state agency doesn’t have and most likely won’t come from the state since Patriots Point still owes more than $8 million on the last ship the state saved from sinking into Charleston Harbor.

That leaves two options, Burdette said Friday.

One is to see what has to be done for it to become an artificial reef off Florida, he said. The other is to see if anyone else wants it.

Asked if there was any consideration for a third option about repairing it, Burdette said, “I can’t see us going to the General Assembly and asking for money. There are other more important areas to spend that money.”

The state loaned Patriots Point $9.2 million in 2009 to repair the destroyer Laffey, which sprouted so many leaks it was close to sinking in the harbor before it was hauled up the Cooper River for refurbishment that same year.

Shiny as new, it returned to Patriots Point in January and took over the Clamagore’s berth parallel to the World War II-era aircraft carrier Yorktown.

The 322-foot-long submarine was moved to the south end of the carrier in January and has been off limits to visitors since then. Once a new gangway is installed, it should reopen by Fourth of July festivities, Burdette said.

Unlike the Laffey and Yorktown, the Clamagore never saw combat. But Burdette said visitors enjoy going inside the submarine to imagine what the living conditions were like in the cramped quarters.

The Clamagore, named for a fish, called Charleston its home base until 1959 and came to Patriots Point in 1981 as a museum piece. It was decommissioned in 1975 and is the nation’s last remaining GUPPY type III diesel-powered submarine. GUPPY stands for Greater Underwater Propulsion Program.

Word of its possible demise brought sadness to former sailors of the ship.

“It pains us to think it is going to be towed away and maybe made into a reef,” said George Bass, treasurer and past president of the USS Clamagore SS343 Veterans Association. “We would hate to see it go.”

The group, which once boasted several hundred members, meets every other year in Mount Pleasant for its reunions. Last year 102 attended.

Bass, 85, of Salisbury, N.C., served on the submarine from 1948 to 1957 and is keenly aware of the Clamagore’s state of disrepair.

“It’s in terrible condition,” he said.

He also knows that Patriots Point doesn’t have the money to repair it. He has asked congressmen and senators, even media mogul Ted Turner and other well-heeled businessmen for the money, to no avail.

“They all say Patriots Point took it and they should take care of it, but they will never get the funds,” he said. “They will have a hard time paying off the loan on the Laffey.”

Bass believes they are now fighting a losing battle.

“I guess they will tow it out and make a reef out of it,” he said with resignation.

“That would be sad,” fellow Clamagore veteran Michael Burk, 62, of Ohio said. “As everybody gets old, though, I don’t know who is going to take it.”

Burdette said the board will decide on the Clamagore’s fate in about three months, but it could take up to a year for it to move, especially if it becomes a reef.

The sub still has batteries and possibly some fuel that would have to be removed, Bass said.

“It would have to be cleaned up,” the former submarine electrician said.

The Patriots Point board also approved the agency’s $9.6 million spending plan for the new fiscal year starting July 1, including $425,000 for advertising, an increase of $250,000 over the curr