Quote:
Originally Posted by C-Wolf
Knuckles were explained to us in sonar school, followed by an explanation of white knuckles -as in fear.
Knuckles are a by-product of flank speed, hard-over rudder orders, and intense prayer fed by imminent fear of death when a torpedo is in one's baffles. At that point, screw/blade cavitation is larger than a knuckle.
While knuckles might be of some use, (probably more psychological than tactical) noisemakers and decoys were much more effective and were the goto tactical choice when our sphincters were clenched so tight you couldn't drive a tack in with a sledgehammer. And prayer, lots of fervent prayer!
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Yeah, but you guys took a lot of showers..
(former (reformed?) Mainer, btw
)
I started out on the Barbel, the lead ship of three (also Bonefish and Blueback) in her class. The Barbel class could be thought of as prototypes (kinda) after the USS Albacore. See, the the Navy wasn't 100% sold on Rickover's nuclear Navy in the mid 1950's, they wanted a fall-back just in case. What was neat about the B-Girls was that we could go pretty much as fast as a 637 if we set up the main motors and batteries just right, we just couldn't do it for very long. This was the main reason the class ran two main motors on a single shaft, two large battery wells, and three diesels.
That "high speed dash" capability was used as a part of the main mission for the B-girl class. They were to be used as "radar pickets" for the original SSGN's. This makes more sense if you dig around for videos of the old Snark missle. It needed someone to guide it to its target after it was launched.
There was a price for that kind of speed, however.
The hulls became rated as
Hydrodynamically UNstable for high speed.
As I understand it, Barbel set the record in this dept. when she snap rolled
89 degrees during a high speed turn.
Think about that for a minute. What used to be tanks for water, fuel, and umm, waste suddenly turned into wall art.
The record stood at 89 degrees because it was later proven that if she had rolled 90 degrees or more there was no way she could have come back.
So, the whole point is this: If you want to induce a snap roll, go fast and then throw lots of rudder at it.
Kinda the same definition as a "knuckle".
