Height & Weight Limitations On US Submarines

[jtm55]

Hi All,

Forgive me if this is already has been asked & answered. I would like to know if there was a height & weight limitation on US Submarines during WWII. I visited the USS Becuna as well as the Cruiser Olympia at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philidelphia. I was struck by how small everything on board was as far as Human amenities went. As I'm 6' 4" tall & 210 lbs I wanted to know would I been able to serve on board a Submarine During WWII.

[Sailor Steve]

I don't have the answer, but the question puts me in mind of two things:

1) Don't forget that the US boats were big compared with the u-boats.

2) Actor David James Elliott is also 6'4", and on JAG they had him in a modern sub more than once, complaining that he was too tall for that sort of thing. Of course they ignored the fact that he is also far too tall to have been a fighter pilot, and scenes with him sitting in an F-14 show that he had to really scrunch when they wanted to close the canopy.

Me, I'm only 5'8", so I can fit pretty much anywhere.

[jtm55]

Hi All

Sailor Steve you are of course right about Uboats being smaller than US Submarines. I can only imagine what it must have been like to serve on board one of those boats.

Quick question, aren't modern day Submarines considerably larger than WWII Subs?

[Sailor Steve]

Yes they are. A ballistic missile sub displaces about the same as the 1906 battleship HMS Dreadnought (18,000 tons). I still don't know what the requirements are, though.

[Blood_splat]

Is it me or were people just smaller back then? When I look at pics from WWII of 18 and 19 year old kids, I would have dwarfed over a lot of them at that age.

[jhelix70]

Is it me or were people just smaller back then?

You are correct. Over the last hundred years or so people have been getting taller. Mainly due to better nutrition during childhood, so growth is allowed to continue to the max rather than being stunted. In fact I think the average height has been increasing since the middle ages.

[mookiemookie]

I was just talking to a guy at work earlier today about this, strangely enough, and he was saying that when he was in the service (late 50's or early 60's) there was a height/weight limit for those on submarines, as well as for pilots. I can't find the exact details on this though.

[sunvalleyslim]

If I remember correctly the height limit was 6' 4". I"m 6' 1" and believe me, after a couple of weeks you would know when to duck your head. There weren't really that many overhead obstructions that couldn't be avoided.
As far as weight......well we had a machinst mate who was too big to get into some of the inspection holes in the trim tanks....we would just find someone skinnier to go in for him.
One night we went on liberty, came back and found him drunk and out on the deck. Afraid he might roll off the deck and drown, we had to come up with something. As all hatches leading below had ladders no one could carry him below, so we rigged up a block and tackle and lower him down. Course no one wanted to carry him to his bunk so we just left him at the bottom of the ladder to sleep it off............:dead: :dead: :dead:

[RickC Sniper]

There is still a minimum and maximum size requirement for fighter pilots. Nothing like sheering off the kneecaps during an eject.


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[GraylingSTS(SS)]

I'm 6'6" and served on a US sub in the early 90s. At that time I weighed about 220. I was on a fast attack sub, smaller than modern boomers but still considerably larger than a u-boat. There weren't that many places that I could stand all the way upright, except for back aft in the engine room. You learn quickly where to duck to make your way around the boat. The worst part was trying to sleep...feet usually hanging out in the passageway. Actually, I cracked my head more on a submarine tender than on the sub itself. I guess because I could stand upright in most places on the tender and would forget to duck sometimes for those occasional low hanging pipes. Ouch! I don't know if there is a limit today, but I know that I never met anyone taller than me serving onboard a sub while I was in the Navy. I ended up with the nickname "Lurch".

[Snowman999]

Is it me or were people just smaller back then? When I look at pics from WWII of 18 and 19 year old kids, I would have dwarfed over a lot of them at that age.

It's not discussed much now, but there were severe problems in WWII with draftees who were malnourished, short, with horrible teeth, etc. due to the Great Depression. The medical reject rate was about 1/3 I've read. In the 1930s it was not uncommon to find beri-beri, rickets and similar diseases throughout Appalachia and the South, and those kids became WWII's draftees and volunteers. While not a WWII sailor, my father joined in 1949 at 17 and had full dentures by the time he was 19. He'd never seen a dentist before boot camp.

[Snowman999]

I don't know if there is a limit today, but I know that I never met anyone taller than me serving onboard a sub while I was in the Navy. I ended up with the nickname "Lurch".


We had a missile tech (MT2) who was 6'7". He was the tallest guy on the boat. He actually developed cervical vertibrae problems since he stood missile compartment roving watch and had to walk with his chin on his chest most of every watch. They gave him a chance to move to skimmers, but he stayed in the boats. Once he made MT1 he got to park his bohunkus in the soft chair at Launcher. Problem solved.

There were valves and assorted hardware all over the place that moderately tall (I'm 6'3") guys could brain themselves upon. You just learned to avoid them; after awhile it became unconcious. I do recall our DCA (about 6 feet) one time was talking to somebody and forgot to duck underneath a high-velocity A/C output vent. The cold air hit him square in the contact lens, froze/dried it to his eyeball. The corpsman had to use saline and a deft touch to get it unstuck.