Run Silent, Run Deep

[NEON DEON]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

I've often posted on how much bigger and more habitable (user friendly?) US fleet boats were than u-boats, but upon watching it again last night I got quite a shock. I was watching one of the scenes with Gable and Lancaster together and I suddenly realized that they weren't in the control room in that scene; they were in the CONNING TOWER! Six men on regular watch plus the skipper and the XO...in the conning tower! In Das Boot there was barely room for the captain and his 1WO! Of course their attack scope was powered and had a seat, but still...

I got a chance to see the Pampanito in San Fransisco Bay a few years back. A Balao class fleet submarine. Unfortunately they were renovating the conning tower and I could not get in to see it. But the web site has some great shots of the conning tower.

http://www.maritime.org/tour/tctvr.htm


After seeing the pictures of the conning tower, I just have to go back and see her again. While the boat interior appears to be big, you realy have to visit a fleet boat and tour it to get to see how cramped the thing would be to live in for 3 months at a strech with about 80 other guys.

Anyways back to Run Silent, Run Deep. I have convinced my wife to order one less chick flick from Net Flix this week and replace it with this one!