When we toured 'Blueback' (a post-war 'Albacore'-hull type diesel), the showers were as follows:

- Cooks got one every day
- Rest of crew once a week
- Either way, it's a quickie 1-minute shower
- As with all diesel-electrics, batteries and cooking got priority, so if there was an issue with the distillers (common on pre-nukes, I understand), general crew showers were the first to go, then cooks last.
- Absolutely no water to wash clothes, anyway. So even with a shower, you are still putting on dirty clothes.

With the schnorkel-equipped boats, they would not surface at all when on patrol (just coming up to schnokel to recharge the batteries), so it was said it would get downright rank belowdecks after a very short time.

This is all, of course, very, very different on nuke boats.

Re Alcohol. I note that there is information about the USN being "dry". Recently I was in London with my wife and kids and we went to look around HMS Belfast. I wish I could quote you facts and figures but the amount of rum that was consumed on board that ship was mind blowing.

I think it was the early 70's that the rum ration was ceased but I get the feeling that for several hundred years the Royal Navy was lubricated with rum. Strange to think of these days.

Not just the US Navy!

I can't think of any other Western nation that takes as conservative an approach to alcohol as the US does at all. I mean, aside from being the only country to add a 'Prohibition' amendment to its Constitution, to this day it's still frowned on. Liquor laws are quite strict in the country, and we have a very large number of 'dry counties' (counties where the sale or consumption of alcohol is still illegal). Drinking alcohol during the day is seriously frowned on, and most companies will fire you over alcohol consumption during your lunch break. (Yes, unpaid lunch break where you are not on the clock, you can still be fired for consuming any alcohol at all in most areas.)

Yep...and I have two words to say about it: Re Tarded

Rum rations were a great centuries old tradition in the Royal Navy...

The modern U.S. navy isn't *totally* dry... I had a Navy roommate and was married to one of the first Navy gals to be stationed on an aircraft carrier. Long story short, beer is handed out, one per man/woman for any good celebration (like going around the southern tip of South America) ... but many don't drink and getting an extra beer isn't too hard. Woooo! a couple of beers! Wooooo! :doh:

And of course...off-ship the gloves are off!

There is some truth to that . . . if you ever tuned to the History Channel and the HMS Victory . . . you'd realize that the crew was not a 100% voluntary force. Rather, sailors would sign a contract with the RN for a designated period . . . if that did not fill manpower needs they would inpress individuals of the street into service. They also did this to sailors, not officers, of other ships that were captured as trophies on the high seas . . . these included both Naval and Merchant Marine ships. This was one of the reasons behind the war of 1812, not the sole reason, but one of the reasons.

Speaking of sub food... (1980's now)... I had the pleasure of a personal family relation tour of the USS Washington in the mid-eighties before it was de-commissioned. It was the first nuclear sub to be fitted with ballistic missile tubes (they cut her in half and stuck the tubes in the middle during the 60's.)

My stepdad's nephew gave us a tour all through the boat. One thing that really sticks out for me was the boxes and boxes and boxes of powdered eggs in the forward torpedo room and elsewhere on the ship. I asked him about that and he said that they did definitely eat a lot of powdered eggs, but not till the real eggs ran out (within the first few weeks of a cruise.) While we were there the galley was serving the skeleton crew lasagna and they offered us some. He also said they often got steak and lobster for dinner... the Navy isn't kidding when they say the submariners get the best chow.

It was an enormous treat to go on board a nuclear submarine in Bremerton, WA during the height of the tail end of the Cold War. I was a teenager and in awe.

Ah the Steel Beach Picnic still lives on! :rock:

I served aboard the USS Kittyhawk CVA 63,and while off Viet Nam we had to observe periods of no showers,because the cats used a lot,and it was harder to make fresh water in that climate.Least thats what I was told.
The food on subs was excellent until you had been on patrol for a long time,then you started getting more dehydrated grub...yuck!
P.D.

I have to ask . . . I understand that they had Pharmacist Mates (as Corpsman were called back then) . . . however, why didn't they carry a Physicians Assistant as well? I can understand them not needing a full Doctor most of the time . . . however, the medical needs of your troops/sailors/marines/airmen/"guardies" is third only behind their fighting abilities and logistical support.

I think the P.A. hasn't been around for very long.The Pharmicist Mate...Corpsman,were very able.I believe they were picked for their ability to handle most everything.The Navy simply didn't have the numbers to put a Dr. on every ship,matter of fact,and I'll need some help from U.S.Navy type fellows,I don't think Tin Cans even had a Dr. on board.The Navy also has to designate Dr.'s for the USMC,as they don't have any.I can tell you from experience that Corpsman are the real thing,from my experience with them while serving in the USMC.
Pocatellodave

Pusser's Rum, to be exact. I've had it before and it's a darn tasty drink. It's nothing like the sugary sweet Captain Morgan's stuff you can find everywhere. Specialty liquor stores may carry it...it's got a nice toasted caramel-y taste that's very nice to drink by itself over ice.

Here's the website with some history here: http://www.pussers.com/rum/

Although having a high speed medic is always good for an infantry unit . . . there are just somethings that a medic/corpsman just aren't trained to do . . . but then again as I remember it, the things that a medic/corpsman can do on the inside, due to not having to have certain licensing, were far greater then what their written training was suppose to allow them to do.
I am also told that the training corpsman go through is far greater then what field medics have to go through, almost double as much, if what I am told is correct. I guess that is based on the fact that in the Army the ability transport back to a Battalion Aid Station or a CSH is alot easier then having a ship steam back to port, or to get marines off of a beach head, even now adays.

My medic training for the Army back in 2003 was 16 weeks long and very thorough. I don't know about the other branches, but the training to me seemed very comprehensive, and from what I hear it's far more more so than the other branches.

In the 1980s my SSBN carried an independant-duty-rated Hospital Corpsman. An E-6 who had been a USMC medic as an E-5. He had about a year of extra training before sub duty. Was allowed to prescribe narcotics, do fairly major surgery (we had a chest pump that I know of), and was probably at least the training level of a US-market physician's assistant. Our blue crew had an E-8 doc. I think our E-6 was pretty rare.

I'm told that today the Ohio-class boats carry an MD once more. The SSBNs carried MDs for the first years of the program until baseline data was collected. At the time it was thought that the main challenge for boomer patrols would be psychological rather than physical ailments.

A WWII sub Phar. Mate was basically a USMC medic with a bit of extra training. (Certainly not a year's worth.) Trauma was his main concern, but there were also the normal shipboard calls for dermotological problems, heat exhaustion, etc.