Main Page
New Book Release
A Good and Favorable Wind Co-written by David L. Johnston & Ric Hedman
PigBoats.COM is pleased to announce the publication of our first book: "A Good and Favorable Wind", written by co-webmasters Ric Hedman and David Johnston.
This is the true story of the USS R-14 (SS-91) and a voyage that she took in May of 1921. Assigned to a search and rescue mission in an area east of the Big Island of Hawaii, the R-14 was subjected to a set of circumstances unique in the annals of the U.S. Submarine Service. If the crew is to return safely to port they must display superb leadership, inspired out-of-the-box problem solving, innovation, and perseverance. The aftermath of the incident examines the hows, the whys, and the lessons learned, and provides a primer to today's Navy in how to dispense fair and even-handed discipline.
This is a project over 10 years in the making, and has been a labor of love for Ric and Dave. We are justifiably proud of our work and we hope you will give it a read. It is available now online at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and should be on the shelves in bookstores before Christmas 2022.
Enjoy! Thank you.
Ric and Dave
About Pig Boats
This page began as a photo essay about United States Submarines beginning with the year 1900 and working up to and through the year 1940. I had to draw the line some place so, the sub had to be in the water by December 31, 1940 for inclusion on these pages. The page has also turned out to be about the men who sailed these submarines. We do not know or remember most of these men's names you will see on these pages but I have tried to pull their faces out of the crowd. Where the mans' name is known I use it.
...young submariners captured in a photograph; looking into a lens extending into an unknown future --- captured in that forgotten moment.
I was struck by this statement pulled from another submarine related page called; Sweet Bird Of Youth
These sailors were the boys down the street, around the corner, out on the farms, the high school football heroes and, yes, even the geeks of their time, but they became one of the elite, one of that 1% that made the cut and became a United States Submariner. The best of the best of the United States Navy.
It is important to remember that the submarines were just steel and machinery. It was the men who brought them to life and made them live. It is the men that gave them the romance, the mystery and the mystique.
I have included a number of first person accounts on a some of the pages for a number of the boats of what life was like aboard an "S" or "R" or even a "K" boat. Also what it was like being bombed on Sealion at Cavite harbor in December 1941. All this is most valuable since the men who sailed these boats are rapidly making their own "eternal patrols". Preservation of these verbal images is important.
Sailors, rest your oar! Stand relieved, we have the watch. ...and Thank you!
ICCI PigBoats Demo Pages
The Submarine Tradition
"There is something about the submarine service. It tends to create a bond between those who have served that is born of trust. Every submariner who ever put to sea and submerged has placed in the hands of another, their very lives. The bond is not one of close friendship, even though those do grow out of the time spent aboard a boat. It is one of mutual respect - blind to color, ethnicity, religion, nationality and gender. The bond is one of personal responsibility. Not everyone has it. Some don't even know what personal responsibility is. Submariners know what it is. It is their way of life. The trust and respect and sense of personal responsibility is.... "The Submarine Tradition..."
Jim Christley
Acknowledges
This work has become a collaborative effort by virtue of its viewers offering me help, suggestions and images for publication on it. Correcting errors I may have not known about and offering explanations for things I didn't know. Thank you all.
I would like to especially thank Mr Roland Goodbody, Manuscripts Curator, Milne Special Collections & Archives at the University of New Hampshire Library and his staff and the University of New Hampshire for all their cooperation and kindness in helping me in this endeavor.
All photos that are from the Milne Special Collections, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, N.H. are their property and may not be reproduced without their permission.
I would also like to thank Wendy Gulley, Curator of The US Navy Submarine Force Museum Library in Groton, Ct. for her kind indulgences in letting me use their archive.
Photos credited to the people who submitted them are their property and may not be copied or reproduced without their permission unless the original photos come from the public domain such as The National Archives or the United States Navy.
