Spearfish didn't make it :(

[CCIP]

My first complete SHIV career ended with the loss of my boat. That said, she didn't go down without a hard and valiant fight

In late September '42, on her 4th patrol, the Spearfish was stalking enemy ships hugging the coast at Palau. Finally, after many night hours of following a juicy tanker and a freighter, she got into a position to strike, sinking the freighter and seriously damaging the tanker - and that's when the torpedoes run out.

But who lets a juicy target go just miles off the enemy coast where it could get towed in, right? So, the captain ordered a battle surface and gunfire commenced.

After a number of successful shots, the boat was spotted by coastal artillery. That's when things started to go wrong. The boat submerged, but not before taking at least two serious hits from the well-aimed guns. Once underwater, repairs commenced; at the same time, the tanker she hit went down.

The systems damaged was repaired, but soon something started going even more wrong - the boat began sinking uncontrollably. Only blowing ballast got her back up. Shortly after that it was discovered that the boat was down by the bows and nothing could be done to bring her back to a stable position (I wonder what did happen - I roleplayed through as a punctured ballast tank!). All further attempts to dive the boat proved to be near-disastrous - the boat would lose all control and take a severe nose-down angle, and only blowing ballast brought her back up.

(Spearfish down by the bows due to damage)

That meant that the Spearfish was stuck unable to dive, thousands of miles from nearest friendly units. Her speed also dropped about 5 knots because of the damage.

It was decided to make a run for it anyway - what other choice was there? For 5 days, the boat had to dodge every ship encountered, and was harassed by aircraft - even shooting down a single divebomber. Finally, and unfortunately, she came in the vicinity of a carrier task force off Celebes. Valiantly fighting back 4 waves of enemy air attacks, her luck finally ran out; a pair of bombs struck the bridge and conning tower, destroying the main pump and leaving the boat flooding. Soon after, the boat sunk in rough seas. No survivors were located.


***

I got a nice screen with a monument at the end and posthumous rewards for the crew. A fitting end to an aggressive skipper's career - if only I hadn't made that mistake and let the coastal guns hit me...

[Cakewalk]

May she and her crew rest in peace.

[shad43]

Salute to the Spearfish

[CaptainHunter]

~S~

[Ducimus]

Being heavy in the bow happened to me once too. I found going all back emergency and making headway by the stern helped. At least it seemed like it. I know it most definatly helps if your submerged. Better luck next time old man

[CCIP]

Yea, during one of my test dives I had to go back emergency because I realize my sub was over 50 degrees down

I really hope this is a damage effect. If it is, it's quite cool and will make any player wary of doing stupid things. Sure taught me a lesson!

I'll start a new career at the closest point to where I lost this one. That way I'll make it through the war eventually, though it'd take a pretty dumb risk to lose one like this again :p

[Ducimus]

SH4 has most definatly taken realism to a new level in sub damage. If a shell punctures a pressurehull - submarine ceases to be a submersible. That wasn't the case in Sh3, but it's most definatly the case here

[Fabrice]

Great story (and nice pictures too) but with a sad end

[Faamecanic]

S! to the crew of the Spearfish! May she join her brothers in a peaceful rest S!

[GnarPow]

its ok, at least you went down to gunfire... I lost my boat yesterday to a plane I shot down...

It hit me square in the stern of the boat and somehow caused my whole boat to flood??????? I expected to go the damage control and see the rear end flooding but my front torpedo room was taking water too, as well as EVERY other compartment.... You would think it would have been more localized to the back of the boat... Dont know what to make of it, kind of annoying but I let it go

[SteamWake]

~ Salute ~

[stuntcow]

I went through pretty much the same thing. Hit by a plane of the coast of Japan and was heavy in the bow. Had repair teams going full tilt and was able to get everything repaired. Was showing no damage other then the deck gun that would not repair no matter what. Was still down by the bow. I tried to go to P depth and went into a nose dive toward the bottom. Fired off all my forward tubes to liten the weight and back emergency with emergency blow and was just able to make it to surface. Tried sailing at slow speed for days and was never able to get her to leavel off. After shooting down 9-11 planes just to keep from diving, 2 dive planes and a bomber made me dive to P depth and went into another nose dive. Nothing stoped the dive. The damage screen showed nothing damaged all the way to the death screen. No damage, no flooding.

[AVGWarhawk]

Cool career but such a heart wrenching ending.

[FAdmiral]

Conclusion: The reckless days of SH3 are OVER !!
Time to make decisions like the real captains did
some 65 odd years ago. AND staying surfaced with
a 100% no damage boat just to AA some aircraft is just
NOT to smart...

JIM