Thank you for your kind comments.
Beleive me, I have stood lookout watch for many hours myself, and I certainly don't mean to say that it is 'pleasent' in the usual civilian sense of the word. But we're talking relatively, here, in comparison to other submarine jobs. In my experience, the main problem with standing lookout is the extreme monotony. But the standard lookout watch is four hours and, at night, 4:15. Compare this to a sonar watch, where the crew is switched out every few minutes. In good weather, I found that the most trying part of a lookout watch was the extreme, almost hypnotic, monotony (especially life-bouy sentry, with that white, rythmic wake).
In bad weather, however, I freely acknowledge that lookout on a submarine must be hell on water. As you may recall, Buchheim had the engineer waterproof his camera so that he could work on deck. He had a very wet cruise with poor weather even by North Atlantic standards. And yet, even in these difficult conditions he found that one of the cheif hazards of non-combat sailing was the psychological difficulty of living in the cramped, rank interior of a submarine, which quickly left him feeling fuzzy-headed and overfed.
Stripping down equipment is, of course, one of the things that goes on in a torpedo room, but this is equally true of every part of submarine, and so I don't think that it should ideally factor into the numbers. These are, of coruse, crude approximations and... well all the usual disclaimers apply. The short version is that I am making the assumption that the 'hard job' that goes on in a torpedo room is that of trying to move the torps around rapidly and under combat conditions. Thus training will take its toll, as will combat. Maintainance, however, shouldn't be that much more exausting than in the engine room, battery compartment or galley.
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