The Gato-class submarine USS Cobia has returned to her permanent home at the Wisconsin Maritime Museum (WMM) in Manitowoc following a drydocking period at Fincantieri Bay Shipbuilding in Sturgeon Bay.
Cobia arrived in Manitowoc on Wednesday, October 15, following completion of her first scheduled drydocking in nearly 30 years.
The submarine spent five and a half weeks in Sturgeon Bay, where she underwent proper cleaning and inspection of the underwater portion of the hull.
WMM had raised US$1.5 million for the drydocking. The amount also covered metal repairs and the application of an epoxy coating on the submarine's hull to protect it for at least another 25 years.
Built as one of 77 Gato-class diesel-electric submarines for the US Navy, Cobia was in service from 1944 to 1946 and again from 1951 to 1954. During six patrols in the Pacific in the last 13 months of World War II, she sank over 16,000 tonnes of Japanese shipping and earned four battle stars.
The submarine became a floating exhibit at WMM in 1986 and was eventually declared a National Historic Landmark.
