Duck your head and mind the hatches: the USS Requin (SS-481) waits at her North Shore mooring for the next crew of visitors. The Tench-class submarine, a veteran of Cold War patrols after her 1945 commissioning, has been a Kamin Science Center exhibit since 1990 — and touring her is like stepping into a working time capsule.
Sailors’ bunks stack three high, torpedoes crowd the forward room, and the control room’s wheels, gauges and periscope still gleam. Requin was the Navy’s first radar picket submarine, converted to guide fleets with her advanced electronics — a Pittsburgh-appropriate second career for a boat named for a shark.
The submarine is docked on the Ohio River beside the Kamin Science Center at One Allegheny Avenue. Tours are included with admission and run weather permitting; lines form on sunny weekends, so go early.
