Real Submarine Technology & History Q&A

[LukeFF]

Originally Posted by DaveyJ576

I think what they were doing was rotating the ladder 90 degrees aft along the conning tower hatch rim. This would have gotten it out of the way of the planesmen. This was probably a later mod that was based on operational experience.

That was my guess as well. Based on all the interior photos I've seen, the above-posted photo with the ladder perpendicular to the planes was probably either taken late in the war with, say, a Tench class boat or a photo taken in the immediate postwar era.

[Nuc]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

That was my guess as well. Based on all the interior photos I've seen, the above-posted photo with the ladder perpendicular to the planes was probably either taken late in the war with, say, a Tench class boat or a photo taken in the immediate postwar era.

These builder's plans for a Balo class show the ladder behind the planes station



Edit: In Looking at the plans and the pictures of the ladder I noticed that in the game the hatch is rotated 90 degrees from where it should be. regardless of the ladder orientation the long axis of the hatch runs fore and aft with the hinge such that the open hatch is up against the port side of the conning tower. In the game it runs the other way (athwart ship) and when opened the hatch would stick up in the middle of the deck.

[LukeFF]

Dave:

In this overhaul picture of the Wahoo, taken in July 1943, I have a couple of questions about some of the objects on the bridge:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/0823843.jpg

-The circular item on the far left: is that a voice tube?
-Is the item adjacent to the above item a pelorus?
-The "box" on the far right: is that a loudspeaker?

[DaveyJ576]

Originally Posted by LukeFF

Dave:

In this overhaul picture of the Wahoo, taken in July 1943, I have a couple of questions about some of the objects on the bridge:

http://www.navsource.org/archives/08/0823843.jpg

-The circular item on the far left: is that a voice tube?
-Is the item adjacent to the above item a pelorus?
-The "box" on the far right: is that a loudspeaker?

Wow! Take a couple of days off and see what happens! Lots of great posts!

Anyway, Luke you are very nearly correct.

The object on the left is a voice tube. It would normally have been used to communicate rudder and speed orders to the helmsman that was stationed at the surface steering station on the navigation bridge, immediately below the main bridge. The problem here is that the surface steering station, along with the entire covered nav bridge has already been removed in this photo! This was part of the effort to reduce the boats' silhouette. The tube would not have been used to speak to the helmsman inside the conning tower or control room because the tube would have to penetrate the pressure hull and thus would have to be watertight and pressure proof. This tube is obviously not closed or sealed so the only thing I can think of is that it is a leftover from the original installation, were it would have been completely outside of the pressure hull.

The item in the center is actually an early model Target Bearing Transmitter (TBT)! This was used in conjunction with a set of standard 7x50 binoculars that were attached to the mount on the top. The binoculars were unclipped and taken below before you dived.

I am not entirely sure, but I believe the object on the far right is an early model "squawkbox", a combination microphone and speaker used to communicate orders to the conning tower and control room. It was pressure proof and was usually activated by pushing down a switch on the side. I have not seen one of this style before. Later models were much smaller and round.