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Originally Posted by Kissaki
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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Of course, but if you have a leak, the tank will tend to equalize pressure with whatever the hole leads to. That means seawater if the boat is submerged. You can't plug a leak by opening or closing a hatch. The defining characteristic of a leak is its tendency to leak.
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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?
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Who said it was surfaced? You asked me why a boat would rise a bit and then sink. We never talked about surfacing. On the surface it's a different matter entirely because the boat can be kept buoyant by filling the ballast tanks with air from outside using the pumps. You don't need compressed air.