[Tarantulas]

USS Snook (SSN592) was always completely black from top to bottom, bow to stern. In drydock they would sandblast off all the old paint and marine growth, and repaint it black. I heard that there was arsenic in the paint to keep the barnacles off, but if so they would have evacuated the shipyard during painting so I doubt that was true. Here are a couple more San Franciso pics:







The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine USS San Francisco (SSN 711) is in dry dock in Apra Harbor, Guam, January 27, 2005 to assess damage sustained after running aground approximately 350 miles south of Guam Jan. 8, 2005. The Navy former dry dock known as 'Big Blue' is capable of docking ships that weigh up to 40,000 Long Tons. The Navy certified Big Blue for the one-time docking of San Francisco. San Francisco is the second fast-attack submarine to be attached to the forward-deployed Submarine Squadron Fifteen, home ported on board Naval Base Guam.

[Robert A Cook PE]

Copper was in the old paints.

Then some more effective, less expensive, tin-based paints became very popular, but the enviro's complained. (Paint (in harbors) "might" fall off the boats and commercial ships, and "might" land on the bottom, and "might" get eaten by crustaceans -> fish -> people.

So they banned the more effective -> less bottom growth -> less water resistance -> less fuel-consuming -> less pollution paint to protect the environment. Much more expensive!