Russian Submarine - Scorpion Tours (Closed)
Long Beach, California
Parking the Cold War era Soviet submarine Scorpion next to the 1930s British luxury liner Queen Mary was probably just a calculation of convenience and berth space, but it does provide a study in contrasts. Although the vessels sailed the seas at sightly different times, it's reasonable to assume that a skulking submarine of the same class as the Scorpion once or twice pinged sonar off of Queen Mary's royal bottom.
The equivalency ends there; the Queen Mary was stately and unflappable, the most luxurious liner on earth when she was launched in 1934 -- while the Scorpion was a cramped, gritty, 1970s diesel engine sub that was nearly sunk by a typhoon in 1989.
The Scorpion was decommissioned after the fall of the Soviet Union, then it became a tourist attraction in Australia, then it moved to its current spot in Long Beach in 1998.
For years the submarine operated as a kind of suckerfish parasite attraction to her queenly neighbor, but in 2011 the owners of the Queen Mary bought the Scorpion and now offer the option of combination tour tickets for both vessels.