According to Edward L Beach (author of RUN SILENT RUN DEEP) the US S-class subs had a conning tower that was nothing more than an oversized escape trunk - there was a small desk for the navigator and two small viewports, 2 inch thick glass. They were eliminated in the fleet boats mainly because you couldn't see squat below 30 feet, not to mention having a weak point. In the S class it didn't matter much since they had riveted instead of welded hulls, with a test depth of 200 feet. The biggest problem deeper than 100 feet or so isn't the murk, it's the lack of light - pitch black even on sunny days. CDR Beach did mention he enjoyed staying in the conning tower during dives to watch the water coming up the viewports, but he would go down to the control room and shut the lower conning tower hatch when it was too dark to see outside. The conning tower wasn't flooded when the S-boat was submerged, but the lower hatch was generally shut anyway since there was nothing up there.
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