Whoa!

Neal, what's with this avatar?

What's up. One post and the avatar changed again!

:hmmm:

I've heard this complaint often. Sad, really, but understandable, somewhat. Too many people would be prying everything loose on that boat, as rare as it is. Hell, we see people trying to pry stuff off of Torsk and the other museum boats, and, while not rare, these boats aren't exactly uncommon, either.

ID (inner diameter) or beam?

EDIT: Neptunus, the Avatars change at certain post counts, for a post or two... Neal's just having a bit of fun.

When I toured U-505 some years ago it was before my current u-boat obsession began. Of course I knew what a u-boat was and had an understanding of the historical significance within the context of the war in general, but what I knew about the specifics of the boats themselves was next to nothing.

I distinctly remember going through the boat from one end to the other and then thinking, okay, now we'll go up or down and see the rest of the boat. Except there was no "rest of the boat." :haha:

I am still amazed at how little living/working space there was inside that thing given the size of the crew it carried.

ID!

There are two avatars that come and go at a set post count. "Wild Night in Bangkok" comes at post #179 and "Rough Night at Langtree's Brothel" comes right about where you're at.

And let us not forget the effect of "Do not touch the objects" signs.

Poke, poke, poke...

Oh, brother, you said it. I've said to people, when they ask (about anything, sometimes) that, "That takes the boat down underwater," and then watched as they messed with it; if what I told them were true, they would have killed themselves, their family, and everyone else on the boat, and they chuckle it off like it's no big deal. Since, you know, I couldn't have been serious. If there's a particularly obnoxious visitor, I'll hit the klaxon when they can't see me.

There's a reason why the AC panel is screened off from visitors, but that still doesn't stop them from sticking their fingers into live circuit panels after prying the covers off.

Torsk's inside diameter (the people tank) is probably that, or less. To the Germans' credit, at least their compartment watertight doors are easier to get through, being round; American boats used smaller, oval-shaped doors that don't necessarily lend themselves to rapid transition for the tall and broad-shouldered among us.

Sounds...familiar. How come 6,800 kilometers and an ocean don't seem to make people any different in certain ways that you'd hope they would be different in?

I wish I had some sort of enlightening answer, but I have to admit, I think it's just that stupidity is the lowest common denominator.

US watertight doors are oval so they can be removed and repaired off ship if necessary.

Tough to do with round doors that are larger than the exterior hatches.

I'm 6'3" tall and had no problem negotiating those doors in my five years on boats.

Yeah, my first day on the job on Torsk some five years ago, I had to haul it through the boat from ATR to FTR because the docent, and older guy in his seventies, who was supposed to be topside wasn't answering radio calls, and we were afraid he was in trouble. We found him in FTR - giving a guided tour. My 6'4" fits through the doors well enough, but that's largely because I'm well-used to them by now. I can still get through the boat pretty quick, but then, I've always been fairly agile, once I quit growing, that is.

As to removing the doors for repair - that makes sense, though I wonder what it would take to damage a door that badly - they seem pretty solid, and not overly complicated. The circumstances under which you'd haul the whole thing off the boat must be exceptional, I would guess. (Don't mistake me for doubting you, because I don't - it makes perfect, clear sense to me that they'd be done that way, now that you mention it.)

The dogging mechanism has gears. They mount to machined bosses on the door. If those gear bosses become gauled or cracked, they have to be welded and machined.

Or they just bring another door down and the repair shop keeps the repaired one.