Dear Rem,

I just got your latest letter with the copy of the report you wrote to Bill Bunker about the launching of HELENA. It brought back a lot of good memories. While you enjoyed the show from the audience, I got to ride her down the ways which was a major moment for me. Both my sons were on the bridge with me for the launch. At that time, Tom was 16 and Rob 12. It got a little crowded on our small bridge, but the view was unforgettable. I particularly remember that Rob was to sound the horn as we slid down the ways. Just before the ceremony started, a shipyard worker showed him how to operate the whistle lever and warned him not to touch it until the right moment. Of course, Rob decided that he wanted to climb up to the top of the sail to see better and stepped on the whistle lever making HELENA the first submarine to sound off before her Launch Ceremony even started. We were a little concerned that the sound inside the graving dock building might startle people, but apparently went mostly unnoticed. Another unique aspect of the program was the shipyard foreman who was stationed topside as far forward as he could get. His job was to christen he ship if Mrs. Busy missed with the champagne bottle. Of course, he was going to use a pint bottle of whiskey from his back pocket. Fortunately, Mrs. Busey did not miss and the pint bottle of whiskey disappeared among the shipyard workers who rode the ship down. I had an opportunity during the previous launch to witness the event from below the ship. There was quite a bit of tradition involved in the launch of a submarine at EB. The people who manned the crew below the ship represented the oldest and most experienced people in the yard from all the different shops. These ships were launched in a similar manner to the way ships had been launched for thousands of years and regretfully is going away. Early in the morning of launch day, about 200 workers in teams line up along the keel blocks of the ship. The sleds that will slide down the ways had already been positioned along the hull. The teams insert wedges between the hull and the sleds and responding to a central cadence, drove the wedges in to jack the hull up until it was supported only by the sleds and held from sliding by a cable at the fore end. It was really something to see these 200 guys driving big wooden wedges with mauls in cadence and realize that they were lifting 6,000 tons of ship. Of course, there was one heck of a party underneath the ship and out of sight of the guests as well. Then, when the sponsor did her part by breaking the bottle on the bow, a shipyard worker who was retiring that day would throw a lever releasing the cable allowing the ship to slide into the water. The fellow who actually launched HELENA was a worker who I believe had worked at the yard for more than 40 years and was the third generation of his family to work there.

Tom Moore