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HER LONE cruise missile points directly at Midtown, but the weapon has no fangs. The USS Growler growls no more. Only imagination can restore might to the submarine's missile launch, her decktop signature. Like an old sailor, this vessel will relate sea stories from a permanent port.
Thirty-one years after the Growler was commissioned for Cold War service in the Pacific, and 25 years after the diesel-driven vessel was retired in favor of nuclear-powered hardware, the submarine this week becomes the newest attraction at the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum, on the Hudson River at 46th Street. A christening was scheduled for this morning and the hatches leading to her low, cramped interior will be opened to visitors beginning Friday.
The submarine's arrival - she was towed 6,500 miles from a retirement berth in Puget Sound - represents a giant step in the rebound of the Sea-Air-Space Museum. Pier 86 opened in 1982 to show off the mammoth, 900-foot-long Intrepid aircraft carrier, a veteran of World War II, Korea and Vietnam. However, after 780,000 visitors flocked to the site during its first year of operation, a fall-off in paid attendance and formidable interest payments due on more than $15 million in bond issues caused the museum to operate at a loss of $4.3 million in the fiscal year that ended April 30, 1985. Three months later, the Intrepid Museum Foundation filed for reorganization under federal bankruptcy laws.
Under the reorganization plan, creditors were paid only a portion of their...