strong>story and photos by Kayte Deioma

The Scorpion submarine, decommissioned by the Russian Navy in 1994, was added to the Queen Mary attraction in 1998 after a brief tour in Australia. This Soviet foxtrot sub was built in 1972 in Leningrad and used to search for and track enemy forces during the Cold War, especially in the Pacific Ocean.

Climbing down into the cramped quarters of the sub, you might get the impression of crawling through a children’s maze at Discovery Zone except for the posted warnings: “Submarine is still in operational condition. Please do not operate any equipment.” Since there’s no room for a tour guide, a voice recording tells you the function of each compartment. Seventy-eight crew members were packed together like sardines for up to three months at a time in this 300-foot nickel steel tube. They shared two showers and three toilets and slept in shifts.

Six giant torpedo tubes greet you as you climb down the ladder. Doubling over to climb through a hatch into the next compartment, you just about bump into the periscope. You have to bend over or crouch down to look through, but the awesome optics give you a great up-close view of the Shoreline Marina across the bay.

Proceeding down the starboard side of the submarine, I marvel at the dozens of dials and wheels available to my curious hands and wonder at what they might do. While the controls are exposed, the radio equipment and bunks in the next compartment are protected by glass partitions. We get a glimpse in the kitchen and a look at some submarine guts through glass panels before we pass some more exposed bunks and an escape suit. We make our own escape up the aft ladder and back out to daylight.

Because it is challenging to maneuver up and down ladders and through hatches, people with even minor mobility issues may have difficulty on the Scorpion. Children must be at least 48 inches tall to enter.