With an assist from a tugboat, the historic Clamagore is set to sail from Patriots Point for its final ocean voyage by the end of the week.

The decommissioned Navy submarine willbe towed from its longtime home along the Mount Pleasant waterfront around noon on Oct. 14, weather permitting, after a public send-off to Norfolk, Va., where the rusting vessel will be recycled, spokesman Chris Hauff said.

The board that oversees stateowned Patriots Point Naval & Maritime Museum decided earlier this year to dismantle the Clamagore after years of grappling with what to do with the aging sub. The decision followed exploration of “numerous alternatives,” including making it an underwater reef, finding a new home for it and fixing it.

Patriots Point has said repairing the Clamagore would be cost-prohibitive. A 2019 estimate from a marine surveying and consulting company estimated the figure at more than $9 million. Moving it onto dry land also was deemed too expensive. Multiple reefing plans fellthrough.

“Unfortunately, we cannot financially sustain the maintenance of three historic vessels,” Patriots Point said in March after it voted to recycle the sub.

“The USS Yorktown and USS Laffey also need repair, and we are fighting a never-ending battle against the corrosion that comes from being submerged in saltwater.”

Some of the components and other artifacts from the Clamagore will be saved for an exhibit at Patriots Point.

The cost of recycling the sub will come to about $2 million. The process has included the removal of more than 500 batteries weighing more than 450,000 pounds in order to increase the buoyancy of the vessel for its journey up the coast to Virginia.

Workers this week will be removing a breakwater at a neighboring marina so a tugboat can safely pull the Clamagore from the shore, Hauff said. The structure will then need to be immediately reinstalled.

“That’s why the weather isso important,” he said Tuesday.

The move was scheduled to take place earlier this month. Hurricane Ian pushed back the timing to this week.

Public tours of the Clamagore were halted in mid-December, when a Patriots Point staffer found a leak in the main ballast tank.

Concerns about the display vessel go back years, mostly about the extensive corrosion. Another worry is the environmental risks from chemical leaks if the sub were to sustain serious structural damage from a major storm.

Built too late for action in World War II, the vessel is best known for its service during the Cold War-era while it was stationed in Key West, Fla., where it was nicknamed the “Grey Ghost of the Florida Coast.”

The sub was modified twice, the second time to become one of only nine submarines converted to the Guppy III configuration — the top-ofline upgrade for diesel-powered subs. It was decommissioned in 1975 and has been docked at Patriots Point for the past 41 years.

The USS Clamagore Restoration and Maintenance Association, which has been trying to save the vessel, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Reach John McDermott at 843-937-5572 or follow him on Twitter @byjohnmcdermott.