Memories of Gene Beaumont '47 - '71
My career on the Bergal began in February 47 in Pearl Harbor as an S1FC and ended in Turkey in Aug. of ‘71 where I drew my sub pay as attached to the Turgut Reis. I was the submarine advisor to the Turkish Navy and rode the Turgut Reis in the Black Sea Inter Alia. There was a gap in service on the Bergal while I went to college.

I rejoined the navy and served on the Diodon, the Tilefish, Div52 engineer, XO on the Cusk , CO on the Scabbardfish (turned her over to Greece) and the CO on the Threadfin.

My remembrance of the early days was Chief Vodopich and Pete Senuik trying to make a sailor/submariner out of me while we went under the ice in the Bering Sea (to pave the way for the Nautilus) and on to Lake Washington via the locks to host the Regatta officials. Lt Bowcock miscalculated the density difference and so we couldn’t submerge without flooding the bilges.

I remembered his predicament a few years later as Chief Engineer of the Tilefish with the Mayor of Seattle on board in Elliot Bay. We submerged without flooding the bilges. Seems that the Bergal always seemed to leave something open, we flooded the main induction and I almost got clobbered when we took a severe up angle. Again, the Bergal pulled out of it.

CDR Gene Beaumont, USN, RET

To return to memories of the SS 320, click here.
To return to the main page of the SS 320, click here.

E-Mail:

saintjim@earthlink.net