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Old 12-21-07, 09:58 PM   #1
Ducimus
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Default Increasing crush depth to a theoritical value

There is a basic premise that US subs could dive deeper then their test depth. Which is fact. What is often hotly debated is just when they actually crushed. Most people seem to agree that it was deeper then what we think. Getting research on this, is really hard. Ive looked on the internet time, and time again (since my book collection is lacking ), and finding accounts of deeper then test depth dives is really hard.

I think the primary reason for this, was because from all accounts ive found, submarine captains in the US Navy were admonished for taking their boat below the rated depth. They had to show a pretty good reason for doing so, or they were reprimanded. It could very well be that a number of captains simply didnt record a deeper dive in their logbooks because of this, so they're isnt much of a record of them today.

One thing ive wanted to do for awhile, was have a plausible excuse for increasing sub crush depths beyond 20 to 30 feet. So unless someone can come up with some hard evidence of a historical account of the deepest sustained depth, i got an idea.

Generally speaking, a subs crush depth was 1.5 times its saftey depth. At least, 1.5 was the number the navy used by accounts. So for example:

250 test depth * 1.5 = 375
300 test depth * 1.5 = 450
350 test depth * 1.5 = 525

(these numbers look familiar to ya? They should )

So, id like to increase the crush depth to a theortical one, based on the premise that subs could go a bit deeper then what was typically recorded. But to increase this depth conservatively.

So, i have two ideas.

Idea A.)
Take the old crush depth, and multiply it by 10%.
375 * 0.1 = 37.5. + 375 = 412.5

Idea B.)
Take the saftey depth, and multiplly it by 1.6 instead of 1.5
250 * 1.6 = 400


Key to this idea, is modding the deep depth gauge on the orders bar to read in increments of up to 600 feet or so instead of 450 feet, which i think is quite possible as its been done before. Also i think using a test depth of 400 feet instead of 350 feet for the balao is probably more desirable.

Thoughts?
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