Forward Torpedo Room

In the early stages it is clear the torpedo was seen as an integral part of the submarine so much so that one of the Becuna’s patches depicts a becuna wearing boxing gloves throwing a torpedo at an unseen enemy with its tail.

The USS Bonita (SS-552), commissioned in 1952, depicts its submarine smiling as it beats an enemy submarine to pieces with its torpedo.

Many patches, such as the USS Sargo (SSN 583) commissioned in 1958, have the atomic symbol engulf their submarine, revealing that the crew now sees technology and science as the defining part of their submarine’s identity as opposed to the weapons and violence of the previous years.

The Forward Torpedo Room highlights the submarine's use as a weapon of war, something that the sailors’ drawings often expressed. Sailors' attempted to come to terms with the violence and death that surrounded their service. Understanding how submariners dealt with violence can be understood through examining the submarine’s patches, which were usually made by a member of the crew to represent the submarine to the rest of the Navy and to the rest of the world. Here there is a divide between the patches’ themes, with the first half from submarines which served in and around World War II and second from those built after the launch of the USS Nautilus.

Depicting the violence of the war through the inclusion of the torpedo in the patch was a way for the crew to display their wartime experience and power. Thus through World War II into the early 1950s, the culture within the Navy celebrated the torpedo and raised it up to the pinnacle of what a submarine was. By doing so, the Navy encouraged a culture that embraced violent conflict as the main reason for existence.

However, when one moves into the later stages of the 1950s, a complete change occurs. No longer is the torpedo the center of the submarines’ patches rather it has been replaced by the symbol of the atom, representing the Navy’s move towards nuclear technology. Indeed, this change in theme in the patches underscores the radical changes occurring in the submarine fleet at this time since the Navy was moving away from diesel submarines to the more advanced nuclear one.