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Originally Posted by Khayman
There's a debate on that issue here http://www.uboat.net/forum/read.php?f=20&i=4669&t=4669. One reply has a link to a Navy report on prisoner interrogation that says;
"Salinometer:
An instrument for measuring the salt content of water was in the control room. It was described as a graduated glass tube, about 12 inches in length and tapering toward the top. It was weighted with lead shot and floated in a metal cylinder which had connection with the outside seawater. Some prisoners believed that this instrument could indicate water temperature and density as well as salt content."
It's also noted that a change in trim would indicate a thermocline. Two answers mention the developers of SH3 and Korvettenkapitän Jürgen Oesten saying the use of thermal layers was a myth. In this thread here http://forums.ubi.com/eve/forums/a/t...3/m/3551047713 it says thermal layers are in the game. So I guess they are. |
I can well understand that any submarine operating near an estuary wants to know about the salinity of the water. The fresh water from a river doesn't mix uniformly with the salt seawater & transiting from a chunk of saltwater to a chunk of fresh water would have the sub plunge downward - maybe hitting the bottom, the reverse could have it popping up like a cork.
Either could ruin your day.
This makes estuaries a poor place to be - except for all that tonnage.
I'm not convinced about using the instrument described to measure water temperature versus depth to the degree of accuracy needed to plot a layer - except in extreme cases.
U Boat captains may have known of the existence of layers, but I doubt if they regularly exploited them.
Then again. I wasn't there.