CLEVELAND (WJW) — There’s no telling where you’ll find Santa in Northeast Ohio during the holiday season, and Saturday, families visited with the jolly man in red and white on the USS Cod in downtown Cleveland.

The visit from Santa honors when the submarine’s crew, based in Connecticut in the early 1950s, used to host holiday dinner for orphans in the area.

“We were looking for a way for Cod’s crew to celebrate the holiday season and that wonderful act of Christmas cheer 72 years ago when Navy submariners who could not get leave to be with their families instead fed needy children on Christmas day,”  USS Cod’s President Paul Farace said in a statement.

  • WJW photo
  • Photo courtesy USS Cod

Santa showed up at 1 p.m. for greetings and photos.

“Torpedoes can be very festive,” Farace said.

Find out more about the USS Cod docked at North Coast Harbor right here. As ever, families are reminded the only way to enter the submarine is via a vertical ladder.