Quote:
Originally Posted by kevinlv
bros,
What's this term mean "blow ballast"?
You mentioned a lot,but i am some how confused in your discusstion.
Obviously I have a lot to learn..
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From
http://www.uboataces.com/uboat-type-work.shtml:
Quote:
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Unlike a surface ship, a U-boat may also adjust its buoyancy, or ability to sink or float. When the ballast tanks are empty, the U-boat displaces positive buoyancy and floats to the surface. When the ballast tanks are flooded with water, the U-boat sinks to the bottom (negative buoyancy). To surface again, compressed air is blown into the ballast tanks, displacing ballast water from the tanks.
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Basically when you "blow ballast" or "blow tanks" you are blowing compressed air into the ballast tanks to force water out and increase the buoyancy of the boat, making it rise in the water.
If the boat is sinking or diving and it's impossible to level her off and maintain or decrease the depth using the hydroplanes and/or propulsion (movement forwards or backwards through the water), blowing the tanks can increase her overall bouyancy and may stop the dive or make her "floatable" enough to get her all the way to the surface.
In Silent Hunter 3 the "E" key on your keyboard is for "Emergency Surface" and will give the order to blow tanks for just that purpose. Of course whether it works or not in any given situation will depend on other factors, for instance how much damage the boat may have taken and where, how badly flooded she is, etc. You may very well order Emergency Surface and find out that you can't blow tanks, or that blowing all the ballast available is not enough to stop the dive or get you back topside.
Edit: in the game when you order the emergency surface, I believe you will hear the appropriate order to "Ausblasen." If you've seen the movie Das Boot, I think they always say "Anblasen." I know "blasen" means "to blow" and I think "ausblasen" is "blow out" (blow out the water) and "anblasen" would be "blow in" (blow in the compressed air). Either way, they're blowing air into the tanks to blow water out of the tanks and make the boat "lighter" in the water so she goes up instead of down.