Part 1 [STB 167]

Torpedo research, development, and manufacturing continued throughout the 1930s. Torpedoes for use by cruisers, destroyers, and submarines received principal emphasis. Torpedo development consisted of continuous refinements. However, USS FARRAGUT (DD-348), launched in 1934, was an entirely new ship and required major improvements in its torpedo armament. The Torpedo Station developed the Mark 15 torpedo in response to this requirement; for submarines, the Mark 14 torpedo was manufactured. These two torpedoes, together with the Mark 13 (aircraft), constituted the Navy's modern torpedo inventory in December 1941.

The United States rearmament program, beginning in the late 1930s, expanded activities at the Torpedo Station. An enlarged manufacturing capability & work force followed. Renewed research & development, coupled with increased torpedo output, accelerated the systematic study of all phases of underwater acoustics.

One resulting product was the American version of the homing torpedo. By the end of 1940 employment at the station had increased markedly, reaching 4,800--up almost 1,000 over the preceding twelve months.

When a national emergency was declared in May 1941, every aspect of the station's activities was undergoing rapid expansion. Additional buildings were constructed and functions were being relocated from the main production facility at Goat Island to various points within the Narragansett Bay area.

By 1944 the Torpedo Station had become the largest single industrial-type employer in Rhode Island, with more than 12,600 employees, including many women. The facility operated twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. World War II demand for more torpedoes and the increasing scarcity of vital materials led to the development and manufacture of the Mark 23 torpedo (short range, high speed).

Although identical to the Mark 14, it was not favored by the operating forces since the Mark 14's multi-speed option permitted greater tactical flexibility. The latter feature became increasingly important during the final stages of the Second World War when the presence of more sophisticated escort vessels and advanced tactics dictated firing from longer ranges.

As the American World War II effort wound down in 1945, station activities slackened similarly: programs terminated, physical facilities closed, and personnel departed. By December 1945 Goat Island had become a shadow of its wartime greatness. Yet the station's war production record had proved of vital importance in the Navy's offensive record. It had produced nearly one-third of the approximately 62,000 torpedoes manufactured for the Navy during the period 1 January 1939-1 June 1946. During its entire operational history it had participated significantly in developing the torpedo from the immobile explosive mine of the Civil War period to the modern, highly mobile, deadly effective weapon.

The end of the Second World War on 2 September 1945 foretold major changes at the Torpedo Station. Wartime experiences would determine postwar naval directions. Underseas warfare had become increasingly complex; its essentiality even more obvious. To establish and implement Navy postwar policies and programs would require a complete reorganization. The birth of atomic power would be an all-pervasive determinant.

In 1946 production at the Torpedo Station virtually ceased. The large inventory of torpedoes left over from World War II negated any significant production program. The Navy had developed several other manufacturing sites during World War II that became available under postwar surplus property disposal. Considerable political wrangling followed as various management studies cited the advantages of the several sites.

With the end of World War II, the station ended its manufacturing program. At that time BuOrd envisioned a role for the Torpedo Station very similar to its earlier functions: design, research and experimentation, ranging and proofing, and storage and issue. Technological advances in underseas warfare, spawned by World War II and accelerated by continued research and development in related sciences, widened the station's postwar mission. The shift to research and development programs rendered production facilities at Goat Island excess to the station's postwar mission. The condition was intensified by the Navy Department's decision to maintain production facilities at several newer plants constructed during World War II.

While the Torpedo Station staff continued its custodial responsibilities at the Goat Island installation, an increasing amount of research and development work (concentrating on underwater missiles and related equipment) was being relocated at Coddington Cove on the grounds of the Naval Training Station.

At the same time, another Torpedo Station component - the Central Torpedo Office (CTO) - was undergoing change. The CTO had been established in 1941 to coordinate and expedite contractor production, but the cessation of World War II hostilities brought substantial changes in mission and staff; however, in 1947 its technical responsibilities were widened and it became an independent Navy activity.

Throughout the period 1946-1951, activity at Goat Island continued to be minimal, and in December 1951 the Torpedo Station was formally disestablished. In its place, the Naval Underwater Ordnance Station (NUOS) emerged. Navy interest in undersea warfare had greatly expanded, being reflected in the new station's post-World War II work in propulsion, range instrumentation, fire control systems, launchers, explosive echo ranging, and oceanography.

While the Central Torpedo Office had been redesignated the Naval Underwater Weapons Systems Engineering Center (NAVUWSEC) in 1963, along with NUOS it continued its specialized, individual operation. However, in 1966 the Navy Department moved to coordinate the dual functions (NUOS and its extensive underseas research and development capabilities and NAVUWSEC's auditory expertise in undersea production and service engineering, quality assurance, and evaluation and maintenance) into a single activity: Naval Underwater Weapons Research and Engineering Station (NUWS). In 1970 this designation was changed to Naval Underwater Systems Center (NUSC), Newport, when the Newport operation was merged with the Naval Underwater Laboratory, New London, Connecticut.

In 1969 the centennial anniversary of the Torpedo Station's establishment in Newport, the NUOS organization celebrated a century of Navy underseas technology. While two major wars and a century of experimentation had revolutionized underseas warfare, the station continued to be the principal research and development and testing and evaluation center for the Navy's underwater weapons systems. Its mission had now expanded to include research, development, test, evaluation, engineering, and technical assistance to responsible bureaus in the areas of procurement, production, maintenance, quality assurance, logistics, and design cognizance as well as in-service and technical assistance to the fleet.

Throughout the post-World War II years, the Center has undergone major organizational and programmatic changes. Headquarters staff at Newport continues to direct widely dispersed systems of research and development laboratories, test stations, acoustic field stations, and test and evaluation facilities. In recent years physical facilities at Newport have been expanded to include a multimillion dollar Project Support Facility, plus a $2.1 million Services Shop and a $3.5 million Weapons Development Building.

In 1982 the Newport NUSC staff approximated 1,500 members, primarily engineers and scientists, plus technicians and administrative personnel. The NUSC military component averaged between twenty-five and thirty members. As "the most heavily tasked of all Navy labs" (the 1972 budget of approximately $100 million was projected to be $578 million in 1985), the Center continues to demonstrate its creative research stature that had its genesis over a century ago in the Torpedo Station's original research with guncotton for use in guns and torpedo charges. Today, NUSC is tasked with a range of complex technological research and development programs in furtherance of its mission as the principal Navy research, development, test, and evaluation center for submarine weapon systems.

Thanks JIM – these scuttlebutt pieces are great pieces of information. To you other Members, we will welcome your input as well. Send it in, and let’s ink it. Photos make it even better.