USS Blower (SS-325)
History of the USS Blower Submarine
The USS Blower (SS-325) was ordered for the U.S. Navy during World War II. Her keel was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Connecticut on July 15, 1943. She was launched on April 23, 1944 and commissioned on August 10, 1944 under the command of Lieutenant Commander J.H. Campbell.
The USS Blower arrived at Pearl Harbor on December 16, 1944. She left for her first war patrol of the South China Sea via Saipan on January 17, 1945. This uneventful patrol ended on March 20 at Fremantle. Her second war patrol of the Java Sea began on April 14, but she was ordered to the South China Sea on May 8. The submarine ended her second patrol on May 24 at Subic Bay without making any contact with the enemy.
Her third and final patrol began on June 23, and the USS Blower sailed the Gulf of Siam. When this last patrol ended at Fremantle on July 28, she had made it through all of her World War II patrols without making any contact with enemy shipping.
After the war, the USS Blower spent several months conducting training exercises in the Southwest Pacific near the Mariana Islands and the Carolines. She returned to San Diego, California via Pearl Harbor on January 29, 1946. For the next three years, she participated in torpedo exercises, training, and fleet operations. The submarine also made a cruise to Japan in late 1946.
In mid-1948, the USS Blower patrolled the waters of Alaska with the USS Carp. They conducted radar tracking and sonar exercises in the Chukchi Sea. She returned to San Diego, where she operated until being transferred to the Atlantic Fleet on March 3, 1950. The submarine underwent repairs at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard in Pennsylvania before sailing to New London, Connecticut to train Turkish naval personnel.
The USS Blower was decommissioned on November 16, 1950 and transferred to the Turkish Navy under the Mutual Defense Assistance Program. She was struck from the Naval Vessel Register on December 20, 1950. While in service for Turkey, she was recommissioned as the TCG Dumlupinar. The submarine collided with the Swedish freighter Naboland on April 4, 1953 while returning from the NATO Exercise Blue-Sea. She sank, killing 81 crew members on board.
The use of asbestos was common in shipbuilding components for much of the 20th Century because of its resistance to heat, fire, water and corrosion. Because of their asbestos exposure onboard ship and in the shipyards, seaman, shipyard workers and longshoreman are at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma.
Sources include:
Asbestos and Ship-Building: Fatal Consequences, by John Hedley-Whyte and Debra R Milamed
