60 Second Dive Time

[Iron Budokan]

I started reading Beach's Submarine! (eh) and in it he describes how it takes sixty seconds for a Gato to dive.

Are You Effing Me? Sixty seconds? Each one an eternity between you and the kamikaze diving out of the sun...

And I thought those Type IXs were slow. Oh, cripes....!

[flintlock]

Hey look at the bright side: if your watch calls ALLAAARRRRMMMM, the cook will still have time to hop up on deck and toss last night's leftovers overboard, and wander back to the conning tower at a liesurely stroll.

Seriously though, it took that long?

[Mush Martin]

Dont feel hard done by Ive been researching WWI Royal Navy K class subs
and the average dive time for a steam powered fleet sub was 5min's and the
record was 3.5min's. it could be worse.

Gato could dive quicker properly trimmed trained and drilled at speed.

MM

[Ducimus]

If I were you all, id get some stick time on an IXD2. Its very similar to a gato.
(edit: except it moved faster both submerged and surfaced, had more tubes to fire, and NO externally stored torpedo's

[Subnuts]

Hence, the advantage of having a radar that could detect aircraft from ten miles away, right from the beginning of the war.

[Hartmann]

Originally Posted by Iron Budokan

I started reading Beach's Submarine! (eh) and in it he describes how it takes sixty seconds for a Gato to dive.

Are You Effing Me? Sixty seconds? Each one an eternity between you and the kamikaze diving out of the sun...

And I thought those Type IXs were slow. Oh, cripes....!

Great book ! i read it some time ago .

I played a lot with sh1 and a IXB is a lot faster in dive times compared with a Gato.

[bookworm_020]

Originally Posted by Mush Martin

Dont feel hard done by Ive been researching WWI Royal Navy K class subs
and the average dive time for a steam powered fleet sub was 5min's and the
record was 3.5min's. it could be worse.
MM

They were steam powered (they had turbines) It took theat long to smouther the bolier fires and to stow and seal the funnels. Yous can see this was not a good class of subs to be on. Many were lost through collision, either with there sister subs or destroyers when on training cruisers. Some were lost when the funnel seal failed and flooded the boat.
Even when it dived it was no fun, with all the hot machinery taking a long time to cool. It would start to make you long for the trenches of France!

[Finback]

By the end of the war they had trimmed this time to about 30 seconds. What they needed to do was cut back the conning tower fairing (sp?) and add a whole s**t-load more of free-flood holes in the superstructure.

Don't despair though. With SD/SG/SJ radar we should have ample warning to get under. Well--actually we'll be starting with SD radar (air detection) which had a pattern like a 4 leaf clover with blind spots inside the leaves. So make sure you pack extra carrots for your lookouts .

Cheers!!!

[Sailor Steve]

Here's the full procedure:
http://www.maritime.org/fleetsub/chap18.htm#18A

Remember a Gato is a lot heavier than the average u-boat, which means it responds more slowly to every input. Also look down to D: Phraseology. It lists all the orders and everything which must be done during the dive process.

@flintlock: Good point about the cook, but on an American boat they don't say "Alarm", they say "Clear the bridge! DIVE! DIVE!" and ring the klaxon twice. Get's peoples' attention real good.

[BellJack95]

I found a link to the Fine Art Model company's site that offers a model of the Gato/Baleo sub and the description had an interesting comment about the average dive times for the US Gato and Baleo class.


"The increased volume of the conning tower appurtenances led to a notable increase in crash-dive time. The U.S. Navy attached little importance to this. Minimum dive times of 50–60 seconds, which would have been unacceptable in Atlantic operations, were adequate for the kind of warfare being carried out in the Pacific. The excellent radar outfit gave adequate warning of an approaching enemy. "

The link is: http://www.fineartmodels.com/pages/p...roduct_area=68

The earlier post by Finback about radar being very important for these subs, due to the slow dive times, is echoed in this comment. Just another knowledge nugget that the Pacific and the Atlantic were very different combat theatres.

[flintlock]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

on an American boat they don't say "Alarm", they say "Clear the bridge! DIVE! DIVE!" and ring the klaxon twice. Get's peoples' attention real good.

Indeed, you're correct.

I can sometimes still hear that Klaxon ringing and and Clark Gable yelling "dive! dive!" from Run Silent, Run Deep, during the repeated and lengthy training drill where Gable insists he wants to be level at 50' and be ready to fire.

[nattydread]

I think with good traiing some guys got it down to 45-50 secs...maybe a tad better. I gotta go back to my memoirs.

[sunvalleyslim]

Natty,
You got it down. It was all about training, all about wanting to survive...
Just think about being a lookout, ever searching for that contact, wanting to be the first to report. Seventy plus men below relying on you...
The Officer of the Deck screaming "Lookouts Below"
The diving claxton blaring
The officer yelling "Dive, Dive"
Tumbling down the ladder to your diving station
The Chief of the Boat yelling the "Christmas Tree is Green"
The Officer of the Deck dogging the conning tower hatch
Then down to the Control Room, where you mann your planes station
and the Diving Officer says "Full Down on the Bow Planes"
'Fifteen Degrees Up on the Stern Planes"
"Flood Negative"
"Ahead Flank"
And you watch, as ever so slowly as the depth gauge creeps to safety
You don't count seconds....You wait for the explosions....and pray....

[CCIP]

I'd be very happy if, as your crew improved, so did your average dive time in SHIV

[NEON DEON]

The following comes from the USS Pampanito web site a Balao class submarine and very close relative of the Gato:

"A World War II submarine spent most of its time on the surface where it could travel quickly and more easily find its targets. She dove to make stealthy attacks or escapes from the enemy. To make it possible for the crew to walk outside the boat while on the surface, and to protect equipment that is not in the pressure hull, the main deck is built up over the pressure hull. The space between the pressure hull and the deck is the free-flooding superstructure. The many holes that are visible allow air to escape and water to flood this space. Any trapped air would slow down the dive. Pampanito can go from the surface to 60 foot depth in under 30 seconds."

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