Sublunar Photography

"The USS Inaugural (AM-242) was an Admirable-class fleet minesweeper. The Admirable class was the largest and one of the most successful classes of U.S. minesweepers ordered during World War II. Inaugural was launched on 1 October 1944, and was commissioned on 30 December, with Lieutenant John H. Pace USNR in command.

The ship was decommissioned in 1946 and set up as a museum ship in St. Louis, Missouri in 1968.

Inaugural had performed its duties with distinction. By the end of its career, the vessel had cleared eighty-two mines and was awarded two battle stars for service during World War II.

Inaugural was ripped from its mooring and grounded a mile downstream in the flood of 1993.*"

Normally the water level is sufficient to keep anyone from making it out to her, other times she's fully submerged beneath the river. Not only did we find ourselves fortunate enough to finally be standing on the USS Inaugural, but we also found a way inside for a rare look at the interior of this legendary WWII warship which has been submerged and rusting on this muddy Mississippi river bank in Saint Louis for the past 20 years. Getting inside was a challenge itself but it was also rather difficult to navigate the cramped dark interior spaces, especially due to the fact that the ship is resting at about a 45 degree angle and mostly full of mud and water. Fortunately, we were able to explore a decent portion of the interior wherein we found rusty levers, gauges and other unidentified machinery which likely hadn't been touched since the fateful day in which she came loose and sank all those years ago.

Source:Wikipedia. All vintage historic photos are courtesy of Jared Johnson: https://ussinaugural.org/index.html

Update: 10/2012: The guns have been removed from the Inaugural sometime since this visit took place.

Update: 1/2013: The Inaugural is currently being cut up into scrap..

Begin Historic Photos

End Historic Photos