I'm proud of this picture

Photographer

Berns, Harry

Date

• August 1945

Summary

• This photograph of a near collision between the submarine U.S.S. Mero and an accompanying submarine tender Tamarack was taken in August 1945 by Harry F. Berns, official photographer for the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, and published five years later in the April 15, 1950 issue of the Saturday Evening Post as the prize-winning image in a feature captioned “I’m Proud of This Picture.” It is one of a series of photographs in which Berns recorded the episode that occurred while the Mero, the last of 28 submarines built by the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company for the U.S. Navy during World War II, was undergoing steep-angle surfacing tests in Lake Michigan. The Mero is seen in port profile surfacing a mere seventy feet from the Tamarack and heading directly across the tender’s bow, which is visible in the lower left. Other pictures in the series show more of the action, but Berns selected this one to submit for the contest, and won $100 for it. In an accompanying article he described the incident and explained how he had captured the image: “Amid the confusion of clanging bells, orders for full speed astern, and seagoing profanity, I did an about-face with my camera, ran from behind the pilothouse and shot this picture from the bridge. …the best part of it was that I didn’t have to swim home with my camera.” Security concerns prohibited release of information about incidents like this until after the war was over. (Note: Some sources suggest that the submarine in this picture was the U.S.S. Menhaden, another Manitowoc-built submarine. Berns’s published account says that it was the Mero, and that the incident occurred in August 1945.)