That’s what Julie Newmar’s Catwoman said to Burgess Meredith’s Penguin in the uber-kitschy film version of the caped crusader – 1966’s Batman. And, to paraphrase the sidekick of all sidekicks, “Holy Pen & Ink, Batman. It’s Comic-Con.”
In celebration of this week’s pop culture extravaganza and because I’ve always thought submarines were the craziest super-villain rides around, I’ve got the down-low on getting aboard two really hot Cold War-era subs at the Maritime Museum.
First off, the newest edition to their collection the USS Dolphin. Just debuted at the museum in May, this sub served from 1968 to 2006 as a US Navy research vessel testing deep sea communications and other things we still can’t talk about because they’re still classified. Sailors on this ship sent the first ever underwater email and she held the record for the deepest dive for decades.
The Dolphin’s counterpart at the museum – though not on the high seas (she’s too tough for the Dolphin) – is the B-39 Russian Attack Submarine. Launched in the early 1970’s, she patrolled the seas looking for…well, us. Throughout the cold war, this exact kind of sub is exactly what kept US sailors, many of them based out of San Diego, on high alert. The craziest thing about this sub is that she’s totally 70’s with a completely wood paneled interior. Wood panelling. Underwater. Yup.
More photos, including torpedos and the aforementioned wood panelling, after the jump…
