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Bubblehead Nuke · 06-25-08, 09:12 PM

You want to kow how bad this sub thing stays in your blood??

Last week, I was on vacation up in New Hampshire/Maine. As we were coming down US1 we passed by a sub in the ground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and my kids went nuts. They were asking me if that was the submarine I served on.

The boat in question was the USS Albacore and it is a static museum pulled out of the water and set on blocks.

I naturally pulled over for the unplanned stop.

We walked around and took some pics but my oldest PLEADED to go aboard.

I paid the fee and off I go with my 3 young kids. I was out of the Navy before they were born so they never got to see a modern boat.

NOTE: To those of you who EVER get a chance, go inside. It might be a diesel, but you will see the design philosophies that were used in the later nuke boats. I mean, it was EERIE going into it. The smells and the sounds. It put me right back into the old days in a heartbeat.

Anyway back to the post:

I was walking aft and noticed that the ventilation was not right. I mean, there was NO airflow into the engineroom. I looked over in the #2 diesel space and there was a placard on the bulkhead with the rig for surface bill. I looked at it a sec, walked back into the main engineroom, and rigged the space for surface ventilate in about 4 minutes. A lot of the valves are are not locked off and the sub is pretty much left as it was when they yanked it out of the water. A lot of the valves used the same naming nomeclatures that we had in the more modern boats. I then walked forward and rigged each space on the main deck for surface ventilate. There are NO tour guides and over time people naturally moved things that could be moved. The whole boat was in a half ass'd recirculate; rig for surface; rig for snorkel; rig for fire/flooding'. When I was done you could smell the air from the nearby sea and things 'felt right'.

I have not rigged a space in YEARS and it all came back to me in a flash. My kids (and a few other people who were also onboard) seemed to be in awe. Here I was reaching up opening and closing main induction valves and dampers like I had been there for years. They could note the change as the air started to flow properly.

In the end I had a feeling of satifaction as I walked out of the after hull opening. I am STILL sub qual'd, and better yet, I know it.

06-25-08, 09:12 PM	#12
Bubblehead Nuke XO Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 435 Downloads: 5 Uploads: 0	You want to kow how bad this sub thing stays in your blood?? Last week, I was on vacation up in New Hampshire/Maine. As we were coming down US1 we passed by a sub in the ground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and my kids went nuts. They were asking me if that was the submarine I served on. The boat in question was the USS Albacore and it is a static museum pulled out of the water and set on blocks. I naturally pulled over for the unplanned stop. We walked around and took some pics but my oldest PLEADED to go aboard. I paid the fee and off I go with my 3 young kids. I was out of the Navy before they were born so they never got to see a modern boat. NOTE: To those of you who EVER get a chance, go inside. It might be a diesel, but you will see the design philosophies that were used in the later nuke boats. I mean, it was EERIE going into it. The smells and the sounds. It put me right back into the old days in a heartbeat. Anyway back to the post: I was walking aft and noticed that the ventilation was not right. I mean, there was NO airflow into the engineroom. I looked over in the #2 diesel space and there was a placard on the bulkhead with the rig for surface bill. I looked at it a sec, walked back into the main engineroom, and rigged the space for surface ventilate in about 4 minutes. A lot of the valves are are not locked off and the sub is pretty much left as it was when they yanked it out of the water. A lot of the valves used the same naming nomeclatures that we had in the more modern boats. I then walked forward and rigged each space on the main deck for surface ventilate. There are NO tour guides and over time people naturally moved things that could be moved. The whole boat was in a half ass'd recirculate; rig for surface; rig for snorkel; rig for fire/flooding'. When I was done you could smell the air from the nearby sea and things 'felt right'. I have not rigged a space in YEARS and it all came back to me in a flash. My kids (and a few other people who were also onboard) seemed to be in awe. Here I was reaching up opening and closing main induction valves and dampers like I had been there for years. They could note the change as the air started to flow properly. In the end I had a feeling of satifaction as I walked out of the after hull opening. I am STILL sub qual'd, and better yet, I know it.