Dive! Dive!
[Intel Source: The Sub Report] Check out this fairly lengthy (5+ minute) video of USS Wyoming (SSBN 742) submerging, as seen from the periscope:
While it's clear that Ohio-class boats aren't the quickest-diving boats in the world, it always seemed to me like it took my attack boats a long time to dive -- maybe it's just because you're so focused on listening to everything that's going on around you while you're looking through the 'scope that it just seemed like it took forever. Non-submariners will be interested in the water shooting up from either end of the boat -- that's the air being expelled from the ballast tanks as the water pushes in from the bottom.
The OOD's main responsibility after he gives the order to the DOOW to "Submerge the ship" is to call "Decks awash". I always thought that this was more of an art than a science; you can't do it when the water is first washing across the deck, but if you wait too long it ends up taking forever to get down. I never had the CO yell at me for doing it wrong, though, so I guess I had a good feel for it (either that, or it doesn't matter as much with the boats being so big nowadays). I somehow ended up with more than my share of diving (and surfacing) evolutions as a JO; I probably did about 15 or 20 of each as OOD -- plus over 100 trips to PD. I kept trying to tell the pilots I worked with on the carrier that I should get as much respect for that as the guys who celebrated their 100th carrier trap, but none of them ever believed me.
posted by Bubblehead at 11:09 PM
9 Comments:
Mercy Maud! That's what it's like when Charles's sub goes underwater?
Unnerving to watch, at least for this mother. =8^o
Still, cool video! Thanks for posting it. ;^)
Anne in Fort Worth
10/27/2006 9:42 AM
It's been a while since I was on a T-hull, but I recall that we would have decks awash in under a minute and be totally submerged in under 90 seconds. Faster if we drove it down. Of course....my memory could be tricking me. This video must have been taken with a lot of positive buoyancy. Great video, thanks for posting.
10/27/2006 10:18 AM
Im guessing that OOD violated his safety sweep interval. Heh. boomer guys.
10/27/2006 11:50 AM
compensation must have been WAY off...plus it looks like another scope was up, so maybe THAT guy was keeping the safety sweep....
10/27/2006 2:21 PM
We never had two scopes up during our dives, and once the MBT vents go under there's nothing much to see anyway (also, it didn't look like the #1 scope operator ever looked to the starboard beam, so at the very least that quarter was unobserved).
Anyways, it would not have killed the OOD to stop watching the ass end for 30 secs to do a SS. Seems to me the he was just bored and wanted to see the pretty screw come out of the water (which the DOOW was happy to provide).
So, again-- heh. boomer guys.
10/27/2006 9:07 PM
I'm from SOBC Class 145. 146 was the last. Dang.
I'm a diesel boater.One of the last, but did a WEPS tour on Thomas Jefferson (Gold).
On my diesel boats we usually made "green board" dives (later know as "straight board." The Green Board dive would take a couple of minutes. 90 sec or so to get to PD.
We did a few, Red board dives, that is clearing the bridge and being submerged in less than 45 sec. 30 sec as a goal.
So what with regards to the video. When you submerge the ship you want to make sure that the number of dives . . . =
The movie shown shows a lot of surface effects. Hard to dive when the sea is orthagonial to the hull.
One time, in someplace in the Western Pacific, we broached. We were broached for over an hour. My main job was to keep from cutting the cable. We didn't, the Captain stayed in his stateroom.
On the DB we had to displace ~1800 tons of water. On 618 it was 8500 tons. On Wyoming 16000 tons.
As with or brothers and sisters in Iraq , Afiganstan, Dijoubi and so many other places. Don't get wrapped up in what you would have done. Respect them for what they are doing. That is - taking the battle to the enemy.
Tom the Submariner
10/28/2006 4:13 PM
Welcome, Tom, and thanks for the stories!
10/28/2006 7:17 PM
Glad to hear from a Donk too.
10/31/2006 2:05 AM
Never heard of 'orthoganial" but I guess you're talking about having the swell on the beam. In every submarine I served in, it was safer to dive with the swell on the beam as it meant you didn't run the risk of losing the water from the forward tank if you pitched.
Also picked up the lack of an all-round look.
11/04/2006 12:59 PM
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