San Francisco - Musee Mecanique & USS Pampanito

We'd planned on a day at the Exploratorium on the Embarcadero, but we were unprepared for

the crowd and line out the door.  It was a holiday week, so not entirely unexpected.  We opted for another kid-friendly option with hardly any crowd at all:  The Musee Mecanique.

A friend of mine turned me on to this place.  It is right smack dab in the center of things -- in a prime location on Fisherman's Wharf, in front of the USS Pampanito -- and super easy to miss.

The Musee Mecanique means the Mechanical Museum.  It showcases an array of old carnival mechanical games and instruments dating back to the early 1900's.  It's is a delightful and playful mosey through the arcade and cultural history.  

Entirely hands-on, you and your kids will need only a handful of quarters to have a good time.   The kids had a pocketful of 20-30 quarters, less than the cost of a movie, and time.

They drifted around the machines, watching, studying, looking with curiosity, and playing.   

They took on this masked man together.  They won the first round and lost the second with virtually no contest.  They made 'em tough in those days!

There were also a number of these displays.  The structure is made entirely of toothpicks!  In fact, there are number of displays made entirely of toothpicks by inmates at the San Quentin prison in the early part of the 20th century.

A ferris wheel made by inmates with time
and toothpicks on their hands.

After a couple hours, we exited toward the water and decided to go for an audio tour of the USS Pampanito, a WWII sub.

USS Pampanito returning with an extended broom meant
that they were returning safely, with a 'clean sweep.'

The Pampanito serves as a tribute to the 'silent service,' the submarine force, whose losses were a full 24% of their force during WWII, the highest of any service. 

The Control Room.  The red light was used when the sub was coming
to periscope depth and it was dark topside to adjust people's eyes
to darkness and to prevent any bright light shining through.

The audio tour was memorable.  It added meaning to the tour for us.  It was filled with interviews and memories of people who served on board.  We heard chilling tales of their own near misses an about everyday life on the sub.

We also heard of dramatic rescue when the USS Pampanito surfaced after striking a ship to discover it had been carrying British and Australian POW's who were now floating in rafts after the wreckage.  The sub took on retellings of their own near misses as well as a dramatic rescue.

The USS Pampanito worked in tandem with the Sealion and the Growler, attaching Japanese ships as a 'wolfpack.'  Unfortunately, the Japanese didn't request safe passage for its ships carrying POW's.  As a result, when allied forces torpedoed the Rakuyo Maru, it also torpedoed 1,300 of its own POW's.  The survivor's clung to the ship's wreckage for 4 days.  When they were finally discovered, after three years in captivity and 4 days in the water, they were in bad shape.

At their own peril, the crew came to the surface of the sub  came to the surface, forming teams to get the rafts closer to the sub, and diving in the water to get the most helpless of men on board.  Had there been an order to DIVE, the men would have been left on the surface.  The crew understood they had only 10 seconds to be safely inside after the order to dive had been given; it was a risk they took.

Eventually, they had taken on 73 POW's on board the Pampanito.  These 73 men, in  addition, to the 89 member crew and officers, almost doubled the human capacity of the sub.  It made for cramped, but memorable living. 

I couldn't help but reflect on our mandate for a 2 bathroom home when these 89 men -- and then 163 -- made do (no pun intended) with four.

Though cameras were not allowed on board the sub, there are some photos and, remarkable, a video from this rescue.  USS Pampanito Rescue of Australian POW's