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The Hunt for Red October’s Morro Bay connection

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Larry Newland at Morro Bay Maritime Museum in front of US Navy (DSRV) Deep Submergence Rescue vessel
Tom Wilmer
Larry Newland at Morro Bay Maritime Museum in front of US Navy (DSRV) Deep Submergence Rescue vessel

A visit with Larry Newland at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum where he shares insights about the Navy rescue submarine and other nautical artifacts on display. We’ll also visit with four former Naval crew members who served aboard the rescue submarine DSRV Avalon.

There’s a Naval rescue submarine that resides out front, facing the Embarcadero at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum. It’s a U.S. Navy DSRV—deep submergence Rescue Vehicle, dubbed the Avalon.

US Navy DSRV Avalon on display at Morro Bay Maritime Museum
Tom Wilmer
US Navy DSRV Avalon on display at Morro Bay Maritime Museum

It was first launched in 1971, along with her sister vessel the Mystic. The DSRV’s are 50 feet-long with a capacity to carry 24 passengers in addition to the crew.

Utilizing US Air Force C5 and C141 aircraft, the DSRV and its associated equipment and support staff could be dispatched to a port anywhere in the world. The vessels utilized technology and materials derived from the Gemini and Apollo space program.

Hunt for Red October film promo
Hunt for Red October film promo

The DSRV was featured in the 1990 movie The Hunt for Red October starring Sean Connery.

Historic tub ALMA that rescued survivors of the oil transport vessel S.S. Montebello, sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Cambria days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 1941.
Tom Wilmer
Historic tug ALMA that rescued survivors of the oil transport vessel S.S. Montebello, sunk by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Cambria days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 1941.

Come along and join correspondent Tom Wilmer for a visit with Larry Newland at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum, to discover the rest of the story, as well as an overview of the Maritime Museum’s nautical artifacts.

US Coast Guard rescue vessel on display at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum
Tom Wilmer
US Coast Guard rescue vessel on display at the Morro Bay Maritime Museum

We’ll then meet with four of the former Navy crewmen who served aboard the DSRVs.

Double-ender fishing boat Spindrift on display at Morro Bay Maritime Museum
Tom Wilmer
Fishing boat on display at Morro Bay Maritime Museum
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer is featured on the NPR Podcast Directory
KCBX/NPR
Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer is featured on the NPR Podcast Directory

You are invited to subscribe to the Award-winning travel podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast DirectoryApple Podcastand more than twenty other podcast hosting sites including iHeartRadio and Spotify

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas Award-winning podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcast features the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts — everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.