111The fact is that the mystery structure discovered in a pile of paperwork by Jefferson County Commissioner John Austin isn’t so much mysterious as it is historic.
According to a Navy historian, the machines in the structure likely were first used by Axis forces during World War II. They were brought to the United States after the war, and were eventually procured by the Navy, which installed them at Dabob Bay in 1965.
Bill Galvani, museum director for Naval Undersea Museum at Keyport, said he has identified the contraption Austin found as an Askania camera once used to test missile systems for Germany.
Photograph weapons
“During World War II, the Germans used Askania cameras at rocket test sites to track and photograph weapons they were using,” Galvani said.
“After the war, they were brought back to use for tracking on torpedo ranges.
“I believe that is what is pictured in the newspaper.”
The Peninsula Daily News published a photograph of the structure on May 25 after Austin, who found a reference to it in a footnote of paperwork for a county project, trekked to the site near the shores of Pulali Point along with Bill Tennent, Jefferson County Historical Society executive director.
At that time, Spencer Horning, a public liaison for the Navy, said he didn’t know what it was, although he was sure it had been a Navy site.
Since then, Diane Jennings, spokeswoman for Naval Undersea Warfare Center, has said that it remains a Navy site, although the systems set up there aren’t used anymore.
Housed inside a big, white dome in the woods between Pulali and Whitney points, the Askania camera was more recently used for tracking weapon tests at the U.S. Navy’s underwater range complex in Dabob Bay in the 1960s.
Or at least, what is left of the camera.
“It’s missing the top part,” said Chimacum resident Fred Schubert after seeing the PDN’s photograph.
“It used to have a lens on top of it that could be used to look out over the bay.”
Schubert, a 68-year-old retired weapons test director for the Navy, spent close to a decade operating the camera pictured in the paper.
“I’ve actually had hands on that one,” Schubert said.
“We called that location Heart.”
The location is one of three spots in which the Navy installed Askania cameras during the 1960s, according to Schubert.
“There were two other locations other than Heart,” he said.
“One was at Whitney Point and one was at Zelatched Point.”
Schubert, who began working at the location in 1966, said the operation of each station involved a synchronized series of events to take place as the Navy tested different types of munitions in the waters of the bay.
Two men at each station would look into viewfinders on either end of the hulking metal device and spin wheels to line up the lens as it took pictures of a test torpedo as it was dropped into the water from the air.
All three stations working together would then triangulate images and provide a three dimensional view of how an object entered the water.
“They were really cutting-edge at the time,” Schubert said.
“But eventually, new technology did away with them.”
Closed at end of ’70s
Schubert said the structures were closed down by the end of the 1970s and had apparently been forgotten.
“Everyone who would have remembered that must have moved away or just forgot about it,” Schubert said.
“Everyone I worked with there has since retired.”
Representatives for the Navy say Schubert’s description of the device is fairly accurate except for one part.
“I would like to assure the public that this property is not forgotten and neither is the structure,” Jennings said.
“The property is maintained by the Navy for the purpose of range site observations.
“The dome building and other smaller structures are on a 0.7-acre piece of property that belongs to the U. S. Navy.
“It was acquired for use by Naval Torpedo Station, Keyport, in 1965.”
Jennings said she didn’t know when the location was last used, but did say the Navy intends to keep the property.
“We still want to maintain the property,” she said.
“But those systems that were set up in the ’60s are ones we don’t use anymore.”
Naval Undersea Warfare Center, Division Keyport, known decades earlier as Naval Torpedo Station Keyport, continues to maintain and operate an underwater range complex on Dabob Bay.
“We maintain the fleet’s torpedoes,” Jennings said of the operation.
“We’ve used the Dabob Bay range since the late ’40s and early ’50s.
“We’ve been there for quite a while.”
However, it is unknown how much longer the World War II-era camera will sit in its dome overlooking the Dabob Bay.
Austin said he still hopes someone will go get the military relic and preserve it.
“It’s an interesting piece of history,” Austin said.
“Hopefully something can still be done to preserve it.”
Galvani said he too would like to see the camera moved from the shores of the bay.
“I’d like to go get it,” Galvani said.
“If a group of people goes up there again, I would certainly like to take a look at it.
“It honestly is an interesting bit of history.”
Galvani said while no plans had been made to remove the camera, he hopes it will join his collection in the near future.
“We have one with us already,” he said.
“But it would be great to get one more.”
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
