A 55-ton shipment carrying the sail, dive planes and rudder of the decommissioned USS Jacksonville submarine is set to arrive in Jacksonville by late August or early September, marking a major step in a four-year push to give the city’s namesake fast-attack submarine a permanent home on the downtown riverfront. The pieces are headed for storage at a shipyard east of EverBank Stadium before eventual display at Shipyards West Park, near the floating USS Orleck naval museum.
The effort is being led by Bring the Sail 2 Jax, a Jacksonville-based nonprofit that has spent roughly four years pursuing the project, according to the Jacksonville Daily Record. Stephen Jorgensen, a civilian engineer who helped design Seawolf-class submarines and once served as an electrician’s mate first class aboard the USS Jacksonville, approached the Navy about creating an educational memorial roughly a year ago and now spearheads the relocation through the nonprofit. Jorgensen served in the Navy for six years, and he told the Daily Record the reassembled components are expected to be moved to Shipyards West within about a year.
The USS Jacksonville, a Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, was commissioned in 1981 and inactivated in 2017 before being formally decommissioned in 2021 at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. It holds the distinction of being the only U.S. Navy vessel ever named after Jacksonville, and with no future ship currently slated to carry the name, City Council member Will Lahnen, a former submarine officer who helped the nonprofit secure Navy and city permission for the relocation, called it meaningful local history. Lahnen said the submarine played a key role in Navy operations, especially during the Cold War.
Cross-Country Trip for a 55-Ton Load
Landstar System Inc. will pick up the shipment at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and transport it cross-country to Jacksonville, per Jorgensen. The load includes the USS Jacksonville’s sail, its dive planes — which span about 26 feet from tip to tip — and a rudder pulled from another submarine of the same class, since the original vessel’s rudder was not part of what the Navy released. The sail itself measures roughly 15 feet high and 8 feet long…