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Originally Posted by Steeltrap
Was Tang a Balao class?
From Clear the Bridge (pages 39-40):
In time of peace I might have accepted the stipulated test depth of 438ft, but....knowing that extra depth could mean survival, establishing a maximum depth closer to the hull's true capability seemed in order. The dive was slow and deliberate, with battle telephones manned in each compartment, and with officers and senior petty officers stationed throughout the submarine. At any sign of trouble, Tang would start up again.....We passed our test depth, but at 450ft a guage line came apart and one of the hoses to our Bendix speed log ruptured.....At 525ft, the rollers that held the sound heads in the lowered position against sea pressure cracked. The heads housed themselves with a swoosh.....at 580ft the flanged joints in the vent risers took off like road sprinklers....rather drenching the area but with little volume.....the very fact that 600ft was the last figure on the depth guage did cause some uneasiness, like coming to the edge of the ocean.....Tang's actual test depth was 612ft. (note that I have edited this to cut out the descriptions of what they did to correct each problem....the actual process was spread over a few days with them correcting things back at the base....this version makes it look like they just kept diving like mad, but they were far more careful than that!)
So there is a detailed, unequivocal account of what it was like to push depth until things "happened", by the man himself in charge of doing it. Incidentally, this confidence in their true depth capability was used regularly, with diving to 500ft during evasion not even something to be regarded as unusual.
Peter Cremer in U-333: the Story of a U-Boat Ace, pointed out that VIIC boats regularly went to 200m (or about 670ft), and some went well beyond that to the point that their frame members began to crack!!
Either way, the 'sorry, everything has failed at once' is not, based on available testimony, a realistic situation. It stands to reason that the 'weakest links' would give way as the initial warning, as per O'Kane's description.
As an aside, Peto, I'd be very interested to hear from vets what their opinion of O'Kane was.....
Cheers all!
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Hey Steeltrap! I love your quotes! Those are some of my favorites--especially where Cremer talks about pushing it until
frame members begin to crack 
.
Yes, the Tang was a Balao Class. And it survived a 700 foot dive (as you probably know from the book). As far as what most vets I've talked to thought of
Ace skippers like O'Kane, Morton, Dealey et al--most of them say those guys were crazy (reflected by how many were killed). They
liked what they were doing whereas most guys just wanted to get home alive.
I had lunch with a guy who was on the Barb when Fluckey took it into that shallow harbor. He said it was surreal because it was just too nuts to do. He was on the bridge for some of it. While telling me about it, he grabbed all the salt and pepper shakers from surrounding tables to lay out what he remembered. After a little while a waitress came over and asked if she could have a couple back
.
I've been lucky with all the vets I've met that were willing to talk to me. Some were even excited to talk. But I wasn't smart enough to have a tape player with me
. I very much regret that.
Cheers!
Peto