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Old 10-24-17, 12:20 PM   #1
ET2SN
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cool The Head thread.

One of the more unique facets to submarine life revolved around a basic human need. Namely, what goes in MUST come out..somewhere.
It was where that something went after it left a body that started to get complicated.

The basic system on a fast attack or diesel boat was just that, basic. A bowl, a salt water spigot to fill it and a manual ball valve at the bottom that sure looked like it could withstand Test Depth. From there, things flowed thanks to gravity to a collecting tank known as The San Tank or The Brown Water Tank.
It was this tank that made things complicated and, depending mostly on the menu in crew's mess, the san tank required periodic emptying.

On newer boats, that task was performed by an electrically driven pump. On older boats, and as a back-up on the newer boats, low pressure air was used to pressurize the tank to force the contents over board. Normally, it was the intrepid A-Ganger's who owned this tank underway. In-port, that duty (heh heh..) belonged to the off-going Below Decks Watch.

As a freshly qualified Below Decks Watch on an older boat, guess what I had to do to celebrate completing my first Below Decks Watch? Yep, you guessed it.

My long-suffering in-port watch mentor was an FT named "Alf" (that nickname is WHOLE 'nother story unless you remember your 1980's TV shows) who just happened to be awake at 04:30. Not that Alf didn't trust me, but Alf didn't trust me. At least, not on *this* job.

So, I get everything lined up right. By The Book as it were. The head's sealed off and the entry way blocked? Check. Outer valves open and checked? Check. Topside watch notified and warned? Check. Air pressure slowly added to the tank to the recommended 25 PSI? Check. Indication of flow showing on the Tank Level gauge? Che-, uh, huh? No flow at 25 PSI. Great...
Alf just happens to wander by, not that he didn't trust me you understand, he just happened to be wandering at 04:35.

"Hey Alf, somethin ain't right.."
"No flow?"
"Yeah, I double checked the line up and its by-the-book."
"A good Below Decks knows the book is just a guide. Try more pressure."

Ohh kayyyyy..
I get it up 35 PSI, still no joy.
I squint real hard and get it up to 45 PSI and finally get an indication of flow.
Alf says, "Yeah, that happens sometimes.." and wanders off.
Topside calls down on the MC and says "Below decks, topside, HOO WHEE!!"

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Old 10-24-17, 12:46 PM   #2
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Old 10-24-17, 01:47 PM   #3
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Yeah, its not like we never had a case of someone flushing while the tank was pressurized.
The best story I heard was in a liberty port where a member of the crew came back after a long night on the town.
A couple of hours after he hit the rack nature called and he went off to the head.
Mind you, he was a bit foggy. It may have been confusing why there was a rope across the door to the head? So he does his thing and then does something he's done 1,000 times before. Only this time, things aren't happening the way he planned. In the story, he said the same thing that was now all over his shirt and... flushed the ball valve, again!
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Old 10-25-17, 01:23 PM   #4
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Chernobyl 2017 by Blair Shaw, on Flickr

This is a toilet not on a ship or submarine the idea is to balance on that board and go, this is a rather large one and designed for two people yes 2 people to go at the same time (apparently you can get three going at once).

most of the others similarly constructed are no bigger than a telephone box and you have to improvise wiping your backside or simply take your own.

Now i consider myself a brave Shi**er i will go anywhere anytime any how side of a road in a ditch or like in Tokyo squat down and in the basin on the floor..... however i must say i do draw the line here.

Not only because 1 the floor is rotten and unstable 2 i cant think of a smell worse than what greeted us at this s**t hole bear in mind this lav is 2 years old and is topped off with soil every six months or so (guess they forgot to do that part) and 3 where i would be sitting..... sorry balancing / squatting bear bummed trying not to fall into the hole is right in the middle of the 10km dead zone of Chernobyl.

I don't often hold but i did on this particular day
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Old 10-25-17, 02:05 PM   #5
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When they captured the large Japanese submarines with the sea plane launching silo ...
they said that when they went down below to inspect the sub that the head just had two holes in the floor like some bars in Japan use to have
(at least that's what I heard)

I-400 Submarine's compartment designed for storing Aichi M6A Seiran seaplanes



The I-400 subs were the largest ever built until the Ethan Allen-class of nuclear subs in 1961



Look at these two subs ... all they ate was rice anyway lol

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Old 10-25-17, 03:44 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Quatro View Post
When they captured the large Japanese submarines with the sea plane launching silo ...
they said that when they went down below to inspect the sub that the head just had two holes in the floor like some bars in Japan use to have
(at least that's what I heard)


I was homeported out of Sasebo, Japan for half of my sea tour.
It was good experience to know which restaurants used, uh, traditional facilities, modern facilities, and ultra modern facilities.
I think the first word I could recognize in Kanji was "bidet".
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