Rickover would be rolling over in his grave...:rotfl:

I actually think quite the opposite.

I think Rickover would applaused the thoughts and creativity we had. While he might have been a HUGE S.O.B., he liked people who THINK. He hated blind following of orders and above all the 'herd' mentality. He wanted hard thinkers would would not be afraid to question authority. He wanted people who could think outside of the box. That is why he was always at odds with the rest of the naval leadership. He did not want statified ranks and blind obedience to orders and rules due to rank or position. I knew quite a few enlisted 'old timers' who did not have a problem telling the Eng, CO, or anyone else to get over their case of rectumitis. ESPECIALLY when they knew they were right. It made for REAL interesting arguments at times.

I think in the end, this is what got us off the hook with our CO. He was a Rickover graduate. He saw that while what we were doing might have been illegal to the Naval Brass, it was thinking outside the box and being creative. In the end he KNEW we would not do it, but the fact that we came up with it and actually got as detailed as we did means we were being active thinkers and not passive followers.

My "step-father" was in the Dutch Navy in his youth and for a while he served in the "onderzeedienst" literally the undersea service, on the "Hr. Ms. Zeeleeuw" (sealion) a balboa class sub the Dutch had loaned from the US.
During the final tour of the Zeeleeuw they did the most ridicules thing I have ever heard of (also the most Dutch thing I have ever heard of), they sailed close to there sister-ship the Walrus and had a potato fight. Seriously the two crews started throwing potato's at each other.
It is or was apparently some Dutch Naval tradition for ships that are going out of service.

Having read the whole thread, I have to say that it gives great insight to submariner life to the many who would never set sail in a sub.

Even for a 'landlubber', I had a good laugh. :up:

keep it comin...

I used to love being a helmsman/planesman on the boats. Even though it is a junior watch station and has its "ups and downs", it was fun. Nothing like driving a billion dollar piece of machinery at the ripe old age of 18. On one of our exercises in the Bermuda triangle we were getting ready to raise some hell in Andros Island. Before a submarine surfaces a visual sweep is done to hopefully ensure that nothing is above you. I think our Engineer was OD at this time and he reported a surface contact to our starboard. The CO raised the #2 scope to confirm this and put it on video. The monitor showed a large raft with about 20 people on it just sitting still in the calm waters about 30nmi south of Andros Island. The skipper decided to surface the boat and ordered the mess cooks to get some food and water for these people. As we surfaced I could see some of the people on the raft begin to act frantically and began jumping in the water. I guess they did not know what a submarine looked like or thought that our intentions were going to be injurious to them, so they opted for the Ocean. The CO managed to calm them down using his bullhorn from the bridge. Turns out they were Cuban refugees hoping to landfall Florida and were entirely out of food and water and were drifting due east and not toward the north. We radioed the Bahamian authorities about it and it seems they gave them a free ride back to Cuba. They did not seem to be to thankful for their experience with the Archerfish, as they ended up back in Cuba to meet whatever fate awaited them.

lol. this thread brings back memories. My boat had the idea for the pirate submarine too but we never wrote it down......

The best story I have I wasn't actually there for. it was recorded in the engineering green book (a secret book in manuvering that only a mnanvering qual could read tht wasn't supposed to exist...it contained entries from watchstanders commemorating events and quotes......I have a few of those in there :-P)

the boat was in the gulf(before my time) and where transiting out. they had a skipper nicknamed "insane" dwayne (for bad reasons).....I was told later they never left port without a squadron chpperone for this guy.

well they where in about 200 ft of water on the surface transiting out.

they "rigged for dive"(more on that ;-)) and prepared to dive......well when they started to dive the bow went down but the stern stayed up.......it turns out some (moron) had failed to properly rig the dive so the stern planes weren't flooding.....but the captain misinterprets and orders an ahead full?

(at this point the down angle is getting severe)...the captain wants to add speed so the planes will help level the boat...but the sea botton is only 200 feet from the surface........the math from people who where there estimate the bow about 6 feet from the bottom.......the throttleman answered all stop instead of the bell the con ordered...
the cow blew the ballast tanks at this point putting the boat back on the surface.
this story sounded unbelievable to me as fr as the actions of the co but eyewitness accounts told me the captian was furiose at the throttleman for not answering the ordered bell. he's a hero to the crew who remember him though.
lol...

the only other one I have is my first boat had a SA on it who never qualified ships...or any watchstation?!? this leach was bad tempered and slept way too much but I guess they kept him around to shoot the trash(they would wake himup anytime for this and I heard the cooks would let it build up so he had to do as much as possible)....well he finnally blew it one day......his bunk was in MCLL(missle compartment lower level) and he was caught peeing in the bilge.....mayby not a capital offense to be sure but in this particular bilge we kept our eggs and potatoes(even modern subs get creative with food storage for you non-bubbleheads).....I feel sorriest for the cooks...they couldn't make french fries for the rest of the underwy without hearing it from the crew...that guy was gone the next time we came into port....but thanks to him I never had to shoot trash while doing my kitchen duty :p


(all the food was triple wrapped and sealed in garbage bags but it is still not appetising)

Insane Duane almost bottomed his boat. What a nut!:D In 200 feet of water i would say PD is the about the safest bet. Fun story though.:up:

Trim Party
 

Before I delve into this one I'll have to explain some things for the "non-quals" of our fellow SUBSIMers.

When a submarine does an initial dive, the boats trim has to be established.

The Diving Officer of the Watch (DOW) has the ships control party submerge the boat to about 150 feet. Once the boat reaches depth, a 2/3 bell is rung up and the DOW zeros the bubble and planes and he watches how the boat handles. Increasing depth, pump to sea. Shallowing, flood depth control tanks. He'll do this until the boats depth remains constant without control surfaces. He then watches the bubble (Ships pitch angle) to determine where to pump to, forward or aft trim tanks. once these are complete, 1/3 bell is rung up. If no adjustments are required, the DOW reports to the OOD, "One Third Trim" and the OOD responds "Very Well". All this takes place in a matter of minutes and all at the same time. (A good dive can get it done in a few minutes.)

All perspective DOW MUST do several of these evolutions as part of their DOW watch station qual, and always under the eye of the Captain. OOD's and DOW's are qualified personaly by the CO.

One of the fun things to do when a DOW UI is performing their first initial dive is a trim party. This is where some interprising crew member gets everyone not on watch that's awake to meet in the crews mess. When they feel the boat leveling off, they all march quietly to the forward end of the forward compartment. After about a minute, eveyone quickly runs through the boat to shaft alley all the way in the aft end of the engine room.

After about a minute, you guessed it. everyone runs up forward again. This usually goes on for several minutes. During this time, the Capt is demanding from the DOW UI when he'll get a trimmed #*&$^ boat (but knowing full well what's going on below decks:up: )

Now understand, except for middies, the DOW is for junior officers but mostly the senior NCO's, who have been around the block (on subs that is). You would be surprised how long it would take for the DOW UI to realize whats going on.

:rotfl:

Good memory jog Neptune!:up: When I was a nub on my first patrol we did this running back and forth fore and aft. I did not know what in the world we were doing that for. Funny how the qualifying DOW's forget about that one....:D

Time for another story...The "Deck Gang" as we were callled were the "FNG's". Pretty much when you are a nub you belong to the COB and become a member of the Deck Gang. It was a great time for me then. Sure, it was dirty as we cleaned the head and stocked them. We cleaned bilges and painted the boat, at least the parts that are above water. We always set up the "skid" when performing weapons loadouts. The COB seemd to enjoy the company of his deck gang, maybe because we were young and impressionable and he could mold us a bit more. Often if we finished whatever task the COB required of us in port, he would take us to the "Mar-bar" on lower base Groton Conn. The COB always bought the beer, heck, I think a pitcher of Carling Black label was a buck and and a half then (1979). We used to enjoy the sea stories the COB told us. Then a lot of the senior NCO's were former diesel boat sailors. Our COB served on the Wahoo in the 50's and always reminded of how good we had it on our 637 fast attack. He used to laugh when he told us of "Clappy Jack" apparantly the XO of the Wahoo had that nickname because everytime they visited a port of call, the XO managed to get some form of venereal disease...I thought this only happened to enlisted men, oh well...

One day we were chipping and painting and had to paint the line lockers. We had a new guy who was not a team player and worked harder to get out of work, so we assigned him the duty of crawling in the aft line locker to start chipping and wire brushing. A couple of hours went by and we noticed it was pretty quiet in that line locker and we found this "no-load" sawing logs. Well, we did what any respectful submariner would do and shut and dogged the line locker with trhe blissfully sleeping no-load in it, and then we went to the Mar-bar for more liquid sustinence.
In walks the COB and not looking too happy. He ask the bartender for two pitchers of beer and walked over to the table with both pitchers. "Hi COB, how's it going..." we asked as we knew the jig was up. "Oh, pretty good boys, but I just got my ass chewed by the XO because one of my deck monkeys managed to get himself locked in the aft line locker and was screaming bloody murder to get out. I guess we tried to look astonished and inoccent but it did not fool the COB as he proceeded to bath us with the Carling Black label while spewing nautical obscenities at us. I think we all got restricted to the boat for a week and the no-load decided to make more of an effort in his duties. Heck, a week or so later we were at the mar-bar listening to dear old COBS stories as though nothing ever happened...Those were the good old days:up:

More boredom.

For a while, we got into waterfights. This is before the day of 'super soakers'. I remember is started with a simple squirtgun. Someone got someone wet.

Before you know it, people are bringing on 'personnal protection'. We are carrying hand squirtguns and the little black battery powered 'water-uzi's'. You did not travel back into the engineroom unless you were armed and ready.

Then we get underway. Turns out that the AEA (an e-div'r) has a secret weapon. He brought a hand pressurized chemical despensor. You know, the one that is a gun with a hose attached to a pressurized 1 (or 2) gallon container. Thing shoots water a great distance. This guy is roving the engineroom BLASTING people with water from 20+ feet away. Half the time you can not even see him and this goes on for a few days with laughs all around but it starts to get old and we can not find the weapon to sabotage it.

The M-divers decide to get revenge. We rigged a line off a test port on the outlet side of the main feed pump header and used about 40 feet of hose to give us a good amount of flexibility. The e-div may have a rifle, we have a flamethrower.

We stalked our prey and he knew something was up. After a while he had to come down to engineroom forward to 'troubleshoot' a problem we manufacted and we turned it on. This thing was a firehose and there was water EVERYWHERE. We had him trapped for half a minute or so and he got away with us chasing him into ERLL and as far as the hose and water would reach.

We were sitting there (I was the ERLL watch) chatting at the ERF/ERLL boundary laughing at what had just happened when the ENG shows up and decides to inspect the engineroom. First thing we see are his trademark shoes hit the ladder as he starts down into the ERF watchstaion. Needless to say, we started to get that sinking feeling and just waited for the shoe to drop.

He greets us and starts his inspection. Now you have to understand, there is water dripping out of the overhead. There is water on EVERY panel and control in sight. There is water on the deckplates. There is water in the bilge. We pumped about 100 gallons in that 30 seconds and it showed.

So he walks around a bit and then he asks if there is a water leak. The ERF just tells him that he is doing a mini-field day and wanted to clean everything so he used a little bit of water. He just nodded and told him to make sure he had it cleaned up by watch turnover.

The waterfights stopped that day and all the weapons vanished without another word. We knew we had pushed our luck. We never did hear anymore about it.

Being in a sewer pipe for days on end make for strange people.

You might not know it, but bubbleheads have this strange thing for bodily gases. Even the most straight laced prim and proper person will lift a cheek and RIP one off at any time. He will gloat about his accomplishment. He will take praise for his efforts. We would rate it on sound level, duration, bouquet, hangtime, and all other possiblities

It matters not if you are in your rack or on the mess decks. If you have to fart, if you think you can, you let it go.

We did this because it made for a NEW complaint or conversation. It was different. It was unpredictable. Even better, it was GROSS and thus manly.

Gross you might think? Yes, it was. But I DARE a bubblehead to disagree with me on our favorite pasttime.

Anyway, the height of this artform was known as the SBD. The Silent But Deadly. Now, on a submarine, there are air breathing appartaus all over the place. the most common being the EAB (Emergency Air Breathing). You were considered a master if you could drive someone into wearing one of these things rather than breathing the same air as you. I have seen an ENTIRE control room in EAB's with the CO standing there at the periscope station, a HUGE grin on his face.

Just another insight into the lives of us crazy bubbleheads

:rotfl:

No disagreement about that one BN...I think I used to hide in the emergency diesel room when chili was served:D

One of my fondest memories was walking into manevering to give the SRO a report and I left him a SBD. I'll NEVER forget the how he sounded, sucking rubber and getting on the 2MC, inhaling in that mask, and start to curse me out. That sound of forced inhalation, the muted tone, and yet the anger came right though. The things that bring a smile to your face some 20 years later.

That was one of those times they HATED having the motor controller for the manuevering ventelation fan to be OUTSIDE of manuevering. I had tripped it out on the way aft. He could not reach it without leaving his watchstation.

He got even weeks later, but that is another sea story.