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Originally Posted by Beery
That's easy. You have a leak in your ballast tank and compressed air is being replaced with sea water. At first the sea water would be pumped out - just like if you had a leaky balloon filled with air and started filling it with helium, at first it would rise, but after a minute the helium would escape and air would start to enter the leaks. Then the balloon would sink.
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I have a leak in my ballast tank? Stempel, grab a monkey wrench and have at it!
Seriously, though, are there not little hatches or such in the ballast tank that open to take in or expell water, and close to maintain buoyancy? Otherwise you'd be constantly using compressed air - even while travelling at the surface.
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Yeah, but that 10lbs of compressed air can remove many times its weight in seawater from the boat.
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Yes, but now all the seawater is gone. So is the compressed air. We're at the surface, and for the sake of argument the dive planes are located on the conning tower. In fact we're docked, and nobody's minding the sub. Why should it sink?