Stranded About 4-500 Nautical Miles from The Emperor

[corsair15]

Originally Posted by Sailor Steve

Calling for help wouldn't do much good if you're in Japanese waters. It just wouldn't happen.

On the other hand a makeshift rudder might not be feasible but also wouldn't be necessary. In real life they could steer using the engines separately. You wouldn't be able to turn very tightly, but you would certainly be able to turn.

Oh, well of course. Unfortunately there are a lot of things that submarine Captain's were able to do that we just can't do. I've had my rudder blown off numerous times and have wished for being able to stop and start engines independently. Too bad we can't. It would also be cool to be able to switch between Diesel and Electric engines at will. Would make navigating through minefields much safer. (Good thing there aren't any mines in Pearl, Germans won't be so lucky though)

There's a neat story in Herbert Werner's "Iron Coffins" about a day when the Chief Engineer of the pen he was parked in, ordered the XO of his boat to get the U-Boat out of the pen. The stupid part, is that he backed out with the Diesels running, and he set off a mine and sank the submarine. Everyone survived, but Herbert fired the XO anyway; even after he found out the Engineer forced him to move it out of the pen. (They were about to leave for Gibraltar though, he thought it a good opportunity to get a more experienced XO)