One of the nice things about living on the Great Lakes is the chance to see a wide variety of ships that have visited the area. In Muskegon, MI, there is a museum dedicated to some of these ships: The USS Silversides and Maritime Museum.

The museum, currently located on the south side of the Muskegon Lake channel, is dedicated to the preservation of some of the great naval vessels that made important contributions to our history. The museum is currently working on the restoration, repair and maintenance of three vessels: World War II-era USS Silversides (SS-236); LST 393, known by its post-war name and duties as the Car Ferry Highway 16; and a 1920s-era Coast Guard Cutter, the McLane.

As you enter the museum parking lot, you will see both the Silversides and McLane docked by the channel wall. Going aboard the Silversides is indeed a treat. The ship has been restored to its wartime condition, with the addition of a few amenities such as heating and air conditioning and plumbing facilities for the ship's head (that's bathroom to you land lubbers). The Silversides is a Gato Class sub built and commissioned at the Mare Island Navy Yard on Dec. 15, 1941, a little over a week after the Pearl Harbor attack. She would go on 14 war patrols, sink 23 ships, for a total tonnage of 90,080 tons. The sub was decommissioned in 1946 and transferred to the naval training unit in Chicago and used as a training vessel until 1969. At that time, the Great Lakes Navy Association acquired her as a floating museum, of sorts, in Chicago until 1985. Then, a rent dispute required her to move from the Navy Pier. Finally, a group of private and corporate donors helped bring her to Muskegon. She is now the centerpiece of a new naval and maritime museum.

I toured her last May, on Memorial Day. I must confess that it was an odd feeling to walk on board history. Her engine spaces still smelled of the diesel fuel from the day before when the museum fired up the four locomotive diesel engines for the assembled veterans at the annual Lost Boat Service. This service commemorates the crews that did not return, or as the submariners would say, on "Eternal Patrol." A plaque at the front of the museum lists these ships and is a memorial to those who lost their lives fighting aboard the pigboats, as they were derisively known.

In all her wartime experience, she only lost one crewman, which was on her first patrol . This was TM3c Mike Harbin. He was the second loader on the aft 4 gun and was killed in a firefight with a Japanese Trawler on May 10, 1942. A small plaque by the gun commemorates his loss. Also, if you've seen the movie "Destination Tokyo," you may recall a scene where the ship's pharmacist mate has to perform an appendectomy on a crew mate. In case you ever wondered, that was a real story. It happened aboard the Silversides shortly after the start of her fourth war patrol in December of 1942. The ships Pharmacists Mate, Thomas Moore, had to perform the surgery on F2c George Platter. The patient came through with flying colors

This boat may not have participated in the Normandy Invasion, or the Battle of Midway, but she had an important function nonetheless. The single fact that 2% of our navy (the submarine service) sank more than 50% of the total number of Japanese ships, and the vast majority of Japanese merchantmen, is astonishing.

This year, the day before Memorial Day, I toured the Old Highway 16, which was formally renamed the LST 393. This boat served in the Sicilian Occupation, Salerno Landings and at Normandy. After the war, the LST 393 was acquired by the Wisconsin and Michigan Steamship Company for the purpose of transporting automobiles across Lake Michigan to Milwaukee. The only modifications made were the addition of a mezzanine deck and welding her bowdoors shut. She peacefully shuttled her cargoes across the big lake for 26 years until her retirement in 1972. From that point on, she was tied up at the West Michigan Dock and Market docks in a well-tended retirement. This year was a recommissioning of sorts for the old girl. From her black, red, and white, she will go back to her wartime gray and get cleaned up and readied for visits by the general public as a floating museum and convention center.

I must admit it felt strange to walk the darkened space where Shermans, Duece-and-a-Halfs, Halftracks, Jeeps and various and sundry other craft and equipment were parked. It felt odd to stand in the pilot house and try to imagine myself there while this ship made a hot run onto an enemy occupied beach. I looked out to the sponson positions that once held 20mm and 40mm AA batteries that warded off enemy aircraft. I saw the winch for the stern anchor that would be dropped before a run into the beach to help pull the ship back off the sand when she unloaded her cargo of troops and equipment. In a few years, she should be ready for public display. They have already started with the painting of her superstructure.

The last ship of the museum collection is moored right behind the USS Silversides, and that is the prohibition-era Coast Guard Cutter McLane. This boat was commissioned in 1927 as part of the Coolidge Administrations attempt to enforce the Volsted Act (Prohibition). One of 33 ships in the so-called Buck and a Quarter class (due to the 125 foot length), she served various duties from chasing rum runners in the Roaring 20s to patrolling the Alaskan and the Gulf coasts. The ship also took part in the Campechie Patrol in the 1960s in the Gulf of Mexico where a dispute over fishing rights between U.S. and Mexican fisherman had turned hot with some gunfire exchanged. The McLane was part of the effort to diffuse the situation. In 1967, the McLane was retired. She was then acquired by a group of Sea Cadets and she traveled under her own power to Chicago where she served as a training ship until the early 1980s, when she was abandoned by the group in Chicago. She was acquired by the Muskegon group, brought north, and is in the process of being repaired for tours. Currently, in addition to tours, both the McLane and USS Silversides are available for overnight stays by small groups.

The schedule is listed below:
April and October: Saturday and Sunday, 10 am - 5:30 pm
May and September: Weekdays, 1-5:30 pm; Weekends 10 am - 5:30 pm
June through August: Daily, 10 am - 5:30 pm

Other sites at the museum include a torpedo tube, various torpedoes, a McCann Rescue chamber and a mock up of the deck of the USS Drum. Inside the museum are various artifacts including the Dive Station from the USS Silversides (SSN-679), an old hard hat diving suit and several artifacts from the World War II.

For more information, phone (231) 755-1320 or (231) 755-5883. You can also visit their website: http://www.silversides.org