Navy commanders decide which Pacific submarines to scrap or modernize
By Vera Kessler ·
Stealth and survival depended on engine repairs for the "Blue 11" submarine force, and disposition schedules determined whether strategic vessels were modernized or scrapped.
The US National Archives Catalog lists a series of records under the title "Administrative and Fleet Maintenance Files." It is important to be clear about what this document is: it is a scope-and-content description. It is the archival map, not the territory. It tells us what is in the boxes, but it does not provide the pages of the reports themselves.
According to the file's catalogue entry, this series consists of charts, correspondence, lists, manuals, memoranda, plans, and reports. The subject matter is the maintenance and movement of Naval vessels within the Commander Service Force Pacific Fleet. In the clinical language of archival descriptions, this covers the logistics of keeping a fleet operational in the largest ocean on earth.
"Blue 11"
The catalogue entry highlights a specific piece of internal Navy nomenclature. The title "Blue 11" was provided by the Navy to categorize records relating to the Submarine Force, Pacific Fleet, known by the acronym COMSUBPAC.
In the public record, COMSUBPAC serves as the principal advisor to the Commander, United States Pacific Fleet (COMPACFLT) for submarine matters. The scope of this command is vast. The Pacific Submarine Force includes not only attack and ballistic missile submarines but also auxiliary submarines, submarine tenders, floating submarine docks, deep submergence vehicles, and submarine rescue vehicles. When the archives refer to "Blue 11," they are referring to the paper trail left by the management of these assets across the Pacific theater.
Engine repair and disposition schedules
The records described in the "Administrative and Fleet Maintenance Files" focus on the pragmatic, unglamorous side of naval power. The catalogue entry specifically notes the inclusion of records related to engine repair and supplies. For a submarine force, engine repair is not merely a maintenance task; it is a matter of survival and stealth.
More telling is the mention of "disposition schedules." In naval terms, a disposition schedule outlines what happens to a vessel at the end of its utility. It tracks whether a ship is to be modernized, transferred to an ally, placed in reserve, or scrapped. These schedules represent the final chapter of a vessel's operational life.
Because we have the catalogue description and not the records themselves, we do not know which specific hulls were listed on these schedules or the dates they were slated for disposal. We only know that the Navy maintained a systematic record of these decisions under the "Blue 11" umbrella.
Attack, Ballistic, and Auxiliary Submarines
The records fall under the broader umbrella of the Commander Service Force Pacific Fleet. This is the logistics arm that ensures the combatant vessels—the attack and ballistic missile submarines—can operate. This involves a complex web of support, including the submarine tenders and floating docks mentioned in the public record. A ballistic missile submarine is a strategic asset, but it cannot maintain its readiness without the auxiliary support described in these maintenance files.
When searching the National Archives for these records, other series appear in the results, though they are separate from the "Blue 11" maintenance files. One entry refers to Project "BLUE BOOK," created in December 1947 following alleged sightings of flying saucers near Mt. Rainer, Washington. The description for that project ends abruptly in the catalogue text, cutting off at the word "until." Another entry describes Project and Geographic Files regarding military airways projects in Latin America from 1940 to 1942, but that description also contains a gap, ending with "transferred to War Departme."
These fragments are typical of OCR-rough archival catalogues, where the metadata is preserved even if the full descriptive sentence is lost. They serve as a reminder that the "Administrative and Fleet Maintenance Files" (NAID 6853877) exist within a much larger, often fragmented, sea of government documentation.
There is a distinction to be made between the records of fleet maintenance and the records of fleet command. While the "Administrative and Fleet Maintenance Files" deal with the physical state of the ships, another series listed in the same catalog—the "Confidential and Unclassified Administrative Files" (NAID 2987942)—suggests a different category of record-keeping entirely. The maintenance files tell us how the engines were fixed; the confidential files are where the other stories are kept.