Submarines

Speaking of Submarines and their Sailors..

One of the best fights I was ever involved in was with a Submarine Sailor. I was at Barney's (an ole Sub bar in 1972) in San Diego, and I had been slamming down "depth charges" (beer with a shot glass full of tequila in the bottom of the glass) with this old Chief that was stationed on a sub. We started some sarcastic bantering back and forth about the traits of eachother's organization. Well I was winning the joking around but he was taking it personal and getting hot! Naturally I couldn't let it go so I called him a sub mariner (meaning less than and of course the adjectives are left out of this post, but most of them were four letter words), because his ship was always sinking. By this time he was fuming. Well I had to take a leak so I stumbled to the head and low and behold so did he. After I had finished I started to walk out to continue the steaming. Well all of the sudden the ole Chief yells out in his raspy voice (so every one could hear), "in the submarine fleet we wash our hands after taking a piss!" I quickly responded in the same volume, "Well we teach our people not to piss on our hands!"

Let the mayhem commence!

The Chief was a little smaller so he tore off a toilet seat as an equalizer, and started beating the tar out of my brain housing group. So I grabbed a pool cue and commenced to thumping on him. Due the booze and being hit with the butt gasket, I don't really know how it ever ended. But the next morning, oh we look like hell had released all it's fury on two poor souls. I don't think I have ever hurt that bad since. All I remember is that we woke up in Sickbay with the Corpsman stitching on us and we had some papers from the MPs to give to our Commands...

:)

ech0 I'm going to ask about pics but I doubt I'll be allowed to take much.. I'd like to take a pic of the outside at least but I'm not hopeful.

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who said they took "sane" people

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One of the stories my mate was told was that one guy had passed all the tests and was out on his first tour. After a few days he flipped out and tried to open the hatch at the top of the conn to get out. They just let him get on with it for a while till the doc can and tranqulised him. But being a sub they're not turning back for one guy (they don't take you back if your dead, you go in the freezer) so they kept this guy drugged up for 3 months until the boat got back to shore and he left the navy with a drug addiction. True, I don't know.

Relyt, the only health problems that he's had on the boat were that someone came on board with crabs and passed it to the whole crew. A worrying thought, guys with one hand on the button and the other scratching the hell out their balls. :eek:

I'll post back on Monday with how it went.

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Originally posted here by |3lack|ce
I never could see the sane-ness of someone willing to sail aboard a ship that was designed to sink.

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That's a great quote. I don't think I'd ever get on a military sub. Way too cramped for me. If I was ever going to get on a sub, it would have to be one with a little class. :bigsmile:

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Originally posted here by roswell1329
That's a great quote. I don't think I'd ever get on a military sub. Way too cramped for me. If I was ever going to get on a sub, it would have to be one with a little class. :bigsmile:

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ROFL

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This document includes confidential proprietary data belonging to U.S. Submarines, Inc.

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Then why the hell is it accessible from the internet?!

Phish, ever since I saw plans for a working hydrogen bomb on the internet, I believe everything's possible - we had a college prof in my first networking course that showed us. Understand that there are certain systems aboard military ships and subs which won't ever be included in plans anywhere outside the pentagon, but like that nuclear weapon plan I saw, I figure those who released the plan suppose that anyone who could get the materials necessary to build such a device would probably already have the device plans anyway.

Sorry kid,

These are what my people build:

http://www.mod.uk/dpa/projects/astute.htm
:D

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These are what my people build:

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The technology is getting better. The UK built these as well Diesel Boats and for my money were the best in the world bar none.

But, they also built these, and I hope their is a return policy on them. Lemons ;)

Now I have not sailed on these, so I am relying on my own experience with Subs in general, and as with most things, cars,ships, anything which requires routine maintenance on a scheduled basis, it would be hard on any piece of equipment which had been sitting in "Mothballs".They were placed on inactive service and allowed to sit by the wall, and like most things MOD or our own Defense club if it costs money to run then leave it alone.(budget shortfalls being the excuse by many).

We have had numerous "refits" on the O Boats and each time, it requires some tweaking to get the gremlins out of the pipes and tanks, as well as modifying the equipment.I think part of this problem though is the fact that because we play a lot with the USN (seeing as how they are closer), their equipment is very much different from the RN (everyone who has been to Europe knows that the AC adapter you brought with you is useless.)So we go about Canadianizing the Boat to our specs, or to specs which allow us to participate with the USN (Communications mostly).

So I think it may be a combination of both, as well as political interference, the guys doing the mods may have felt pressured to get this boat to Canada "Now" type thing, and when you rush things, some other things get overlooked. :2pick:

I've been on a diesel boat (pig boat) and a nuke fast attack and a nuke boomer (All US, I served my last year for the US Sub Force HQ, circa 1974). The Nukes are nice. Newer ones are even better, I hear.

I met some Canadian sailors in the Caribbean serving on a pig boat. It was a hand-me-down from the US fleet. Man that was hard livin'.

My last commander in the Navy had been a skipper of one of the last pig boats in the US fleet. His boat ended up sold to a British company that made razor blades.

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http://www.encyclopedia.com/html/C/Crusades.asp

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Was probably the HMCS Rainbow or the HMCS Grilse , definatley pig boats as they were built in 1943 and 1944.

The living conditions were comparable to Das Boot (with subtitles) only we didn't hang the meat,(best Sub movie ever).

The thing I liked about Diesel Boats was when we went up against the fast attacks and boomers, and went to Ultra Quiet, find a nice little thermal stream and the nukes couldn't hear us.
To us a nuke under the ocean travelling at 25 plus knots sounds like a locomotive, they vent their steam from the reactors aft of their prop which causes it to cavitate, and all of those lovely little bubbles give us a clear picture of where they are.So we can fire a wire guided torpedo and let it sit on an intercept and when the nuke got close, let the torp go active (starts to ping it's target) and once it gets hold, flying at 30 Plus knots, not too many can avoid it.(practise rounds of course)

The Los Angeles Fast Attack boats (mid 70's) were designed to take on the USSR Boomers (oscars and later the Typhoons) and their bodyguards the Alpha class which could reach speeds of 41 to 43 Knots submerged (outrun most torpedos back then) so they were designed for speed and manouverablilty.
But the soviets still employed a lot of Diesel Boats and so we were asked to play the role of the big bad ruskie, so the Los Angeles could hone their skills, wasn't easy for them, and we made it hard, with a Diesel Boat dead in the water or bottomed out (depending on the depth) you are basically looking for a hole in the water, just not there. We were stealth before there was stealth. :cool:

Any more info (it's all in Janes anyway) and I will have to kill you :rolleyes:

I got to tour an old WWII German 'U-boat' during a port-of-call in Kiel - very interesting - tiny deisel boat (crew hot-racked and torpedomen doubled up and slept on their ordinance - galley had *one* table at which one could eat). I (once again) doubt I could ever serve on such a ship, or even a much larger, more luxurious one although I'll grant they serve an important part of our Navy. We call 'em insane, they call us targets, and we both serve important functions...but still...when 100 men go down and 50 couples return... :D

I'm very surprised nobody's mentioned SeaWolf yet...