Soviet Foxtrot Submarine "Scorpion"
At The Queen Mary
Long Beach, California
visited May, 2001
Project 641, Soviet class (b-427)
The Foxtrot (NATO designation - Soviet designation was Project 641) class of submarine was built between 1958 and 1984. The submarine on display here (builder's hull number 427) was built in 1972 and decommissioned in 1994. Walking through this boat, which was built during the Cold War to attack U.S. and NATO interests, is a unique opportunity to relive those dangerous days when magazines regularly printed maps and charts of relative NATO and Warsaw Pact force strengths. If you didn't know the history of the boat, you could almost believe you were in a modernized American World War II fleet submarine. However, those boats never carried nuclear-tipped torpedoes - this one did.
You can tour the submarine as part of a package deal at the Queen Mary in Long Beach. The Queen Mary is also a functioning hotel with first-class staterooms available. While the liner is an interesting visit in its own right, it doesn't have the same thrill you get when you step on board a foreign (enemy!) warship.
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