# Submarine as an Admiral's Flagship? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 5, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270 "2004-12-05T22:24:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/1 "2004-12-05T22:24:14Z")
Normally, and Admiral uses a larger ship as a flagship-in the USN, a cruiser or carrier is probaly the standard flagship. Has a sub ever been used in such a role? I imagine quarters would be a bit tight-as an admiral normally has a large staff. Back in the 1950’s , the USN had a giant submarine (the TRITON)-was it intended to be used as a flagship? How does a sub fly an admiral’s flag? ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/2 "2004-12-06T00:16:28Z")
Since nuclear powered subs with missles routinely perform manuvers it is only logial to assume that one of them serves as a flagship. Perhaps a doper spook will come along and enlighten us with some first hand stories . . . ---
**Author:** ![Brutus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Brutus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brutus)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/3 "2004-12-06T00:29:56Z")
1. SSN-586 (Triton) wasn’t intended for use as a flagship. It was simply one of our early nuclear-powered boats. 2. Since nuke boats rarely surface, and since communications underwater is rather problematic, I rather doubt that any US submarine ever had a flag bridge, or was even designated ‘flag ship’ for a gaggle of subs. Wolf-pack sorta went out with WW2, and our subs tend to work alone. (SSBNs would work with a escort, but I believe even that practice was dropped.) ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/4 "2004-12-06T00:50:22Z")
I’ve read of wolf-pack operations by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific during World War II. Typically three fleet submarines with one designated as the command boat. I don’t think they ever had an admiral commanding the group. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/5 "2004-12-06T01:50:49Z")
Flagship? Nope. _Modern_ submarines are cramped. Older boats _far_ more so. There’s no space whatsoever for an Admirals staff, and communicatis, as mentioned above, are crap. Even with a floating wire and ELF, submarine comms when out to sea are very limited - There simply isn’t enough bandwidth or equipment. If you surface to improve comms, you spoil the entire purpuse of being on a submarine in the first place. ‘Command’ subs are only a boat whose skipper has been assigned additional duties. Tranq qualified in submarines ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/6 "2004-12-06T02:27:23Z")
The Sea-Wolf in _Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea_. ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/7 "2004-12-06T02:30:31Z")
According to [this site](http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs/becuna/becuna.html) on the USS Becuna ([wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Becuna_%28SS-319%29)): > [@](#): > > In WWII it served as submarine flagship of the Southwest Pacific Fleet and it sunk enemy vessels in the Philippines and South China seas. A flagship need only be commanded by a flag officer, which is not necessarily an admiral. I was unable to verify it’s status in .mil histories, which do tend to be rather bland. A bit more searching might net someone a score on this. If this is the case, then one would think that each submarine AOR had a flagship, in which case their might have been quite a lot of them. Considering they _are_ submarines, their roles as flagship might be different than what we would expect of a ship. > [@Tranquilis](#): > > Flagship? Nope. /Enlisted **Surface** Warfare Specialist :wally ---
**Author:** ![alterego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/6bbea6/32.png) [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/8 "2004-12-06T02:39:28Z")
[Here](http://www.acbs.org/Public/Rudder/Summer2001/IndependenceSeaportMuseum.htm): > [@](#): > > Becuna was built at the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut and was commissioned to serve as submarine flagship of the Southwest Pacific fleet under General Douglas MacArthur. Whose to say if he ever boarded it. The OP still asked for an Admiral…do four stars count? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/9 "2004-12-06T21:46:54Z")
Huh. Very interesting - I guess the General only needed a broom closet to run his campaigns, then? That’s all the space he’d have had. Much more likely that he was getting a good, _hard_, poke in the eye from the Nav. Still, I guess it _was_ technically a four-star’s flagship, despite it’s gross unsuitability for the task. ---
**Author:** ![paperbackwriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@paperbackwriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/paperbackwriter)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2004, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/submarine-as-an-admirals-flagship/278270/10 "2004-12-06T23:40:29Z")
I think _Becuna_ can be called a “flagship” only in an honorary sense. The _Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships_’s [entry on the Becuna](http://www.hazegray.org/danfs/submar/ss319.htm) mentions no such service. It was actively deployed on war patrols while MacArthur was campaigning in New Guinea and the Philippines: > [@](#): > > Her war operations extended from 23 August 1944 to 27 July 1945. During this period she completed five war patrols in the Philippines, South China Sea, and Java Sea. Becuna is credited with having sunk two Japanese tankers totaling 3888 tons. From 7/27/45 'til September, she was in Subic Bay. The short period from then until the end of the war sort-of overlaps with MacArthur’s stay in the Philippines, but MacArthur commanded the SWPA from his [headquarters in Manila](http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-m/macart-g.htm).