Russian crew accomodations

[msxyz]

I recently stumbled upon this page, which contains a nice collection of photos taken aboard B-515, a former soviet submarine turned into a floating museum. http://www.olegmastruko.com/subs.html

The B-515 is a project 641B-Som (NATO name "Tango") diesel electric submarine. With a 3800t displacement while submerged, it's a decent sized submarine. Yet I was amazed (...and amused!) by the small size of the crew and officers bunks and their unusual location

Here's a shot of the infirmary, wuth two bunks for injured/sick crew members. Notice the mannequin and the valve directly above its head!



Doctor: "How are you feeling today? Can you stand up"
Patient: "Yes doctor..." SDENG! "Ooow!" (Faints)

The second image is even more funny. How is someone supposed to enter this bunk?



Some soviet boads even had bunks on top of diesel engines. Maybe people who snored were punished by being confined there?

[TLAM Strike]

Yea you kinda have too feel sorry for the KGB guard who had to sleep on top of the "Special Torpedo". Poor glowing Pavel...

[vienna]

In Long Beach, California there is a former Soviet sub (Nato: Foxtrot; Soviet: 641) docked next to the Queen Mary. It is dubbed "Scorpion" and is available for on-board tours to the public for a fee. It is 300 feet long, diesel-electric, and the interior very closely resembles the photos posted above. I have been aboard a few times and was also surprised at the cramped quarters, not just in bunk accomodations, but in the the boat as a whole. The crew is listed as 12 officers, 10 midshipmen, and 56 seamen. This makes a total of 78 crew. Frankly, I would have felt uncomfortably crowded with only half that number aboard. On one occasion that I entered the boat, there was a tourist group already aboard and it took a lot of twisting and turning to get through the sub. The overall impression is that the crew in "Das Boot" were living in rather roomy conditions compared to the later Soviet submariners. Claustrophobic need not have applied for duty of those Soviet vessels.

Incidentally, the tour features a short film about the "cat & mouse" Cold War games played by the U.S. and U.S.S.R. The film seems to have borrowed liberally from the movie "The Bedford Incident" but without the nuclear ending.

[msxyz]

Originally Posted by vienna

(...) The overall impression is that the crew in "Das Boot" were living in rather roomy conditions compared to the later Soviet submariners. Claustrophobic need not have applied for duty of those Soviet vessels (...)

That's also my impression.

On a uboot there were fewer bunks which were shared between rotating crews but generally their corridors were pretty wide and straight.

[ETR3(SS)]

It's like this on American boats too. I remember on one patrol we had guys sleeping in the torpedo room, guys sleeping in Missile Compartment Lower Level next to the fan rooms, and guys in MC 2nd level between the supply lockers. Basically anywhere we could fit a rack pan we had somebody sleeping there.

[vienna]

Said TLAM Strike:
"Yea you kinda have too feel sorry for the KGB guard who had to sleep on top of the 'Special Torpedo'."
On the "Scorpion" sub, the KGB officer (known as the "Political Officer") had his very own quarters, with a locking door. However, even he had no more room than the captain and the total space was little more than that found in an airlplane restroom. ETR3(SS) raises the question of where else on the boat the crew might have bunked; the areas below the main deck are off-limits to tourists (insurance concerns given as the reason); perhaps they found other places to bunk as on the American boats. Still, all in all, not very comfortable.

[Subnuts]

Originally Posted by msxyz

If they ever remake The Hunt For Red October, Ramius should kill Putin by blowing up a sandwich bag, holding it next to his head, and popping it when he least expects it.

[msxyz]

Here, I found the picture of the infamous "bunk atop the diesel engine" found in certain russian subs



The image was taken aboard a Zulu V boat currently displayed in Den Helder (Holland). If you're interested in other interior shots of submarines, you can also visit this site: http://www.heiszwolf.com/subs

[TLAM Strike]

Originally Posted by vienna

Said TLAM Strike:
"Yea you kinda have too feel sorry for the KGB guard who had to sleep on top of the 'Special Torpedo'."
On the "Scorpion" sub, the KGB officer (known as the "Political Officer") had his very own quarters, with a locking door. However, even he had no more room than the captain and the total space was little more than that found in an airlplane restroom. ETR3(SS) raises the question of where else on the boat the crew might have bunked; the areas below the main deck are off-limits to tourists (insurance concerns given as the reason); perhaps they found other places to bunk as on the American boats. Still, all in all, not very comfortable.

Actually I was referring to the armed KGB officer who was assigned to guard the nuclear torpedoes. He was seprate from the Zampolit. His job wasn't crew morale/reliability he was just there to make sure that nuke wasn't used without authorization. The Foxtrots in the Cuban Missile Crisis has such personnel.

[msxyz]

To think that the Americans destroyers provoked those subs in several occasions by detonating depth charges nearby without knwing their payload.

One of those submarines came close to launch that "special" torpedo because the inexperienced captain tought he was under attack and he didn't understood that the Americans were using underpowered practice charges just to rock the boat a little and make their presence felt. Good thing that the second in command was a war veteran that served on asw vessels and that could distinguish a firecracker from a true depth bomb!

[ETR3(SS)]

Meh, both sides are guilty of things like that. Just ask the water slugs.