Charles Frankhauser

USS Experiment Charles Frankhauser

A 1959 US Naval Academy graduate has 2 goals: 1) marry a beautiful young lady, 2) complete a career in the submarine service. He spends 3 years in the tropics aboard the First Last and Only ship in a discontinued experimental construction program. Key West during the early 1960s was a remote tourist destination populated mostly by personnel assigned to destroyers and submarines. The largest ship in the Destroyer Force tested a new weapon system near Cuba in waters so shallow that divers had to lie on their backs to inspect the bottom of the ship after 2 groundings. The young officer is assigned as Navigator performing duties far above his pay-grade. Interactions with senior officers could be grist for a Broadway play.