100% Skippers.. Is It Hard To Stay Submerged...

Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense · 08-08-05, 10:37 AM

... throughout an entire patrol?

i've just left on my first XXI patrol... and i had the chance to get back to it for a while over the weekend...

i remember when we cleared Bergen, i gave the crew a lil deck liberty for that last taste of sunshine and fresh air before we went under... they were told that they probably wouldn't see the light of day nor night for the next two to three weeks... we would be running submerged for the entire patrol...

but after about a week out, i can already see signs of stress showing on the crew... especially on me, the Captain

i remember back to my ole boat... a TypeIXB... once we got our snorkel refit, we would stay under for days at a time, but never as long as we have been so far on this patrol...

we've already been down for a week... the same faces... the same surroundings... the same routines, day after day... night after night...
no sound contacts... very little action at all...

a good thing perhaps... the allied planes are up there, they have new radars as well, i hear... better to stay under... where it's safe and there are no waves to upset the mess crew...

my ears, glued to the soundphones, have now become my eyes... after hours on end of listening to the strange ocean sounds, i find myself visualizing the scene outside our uboat... not surprising i think to myself, for it is in the mind where the pictures that our eyes normally bring in are actually seen... i'm only giving my eyes a rest, and teaching my mind to 'see' with my ears... the different sounds being the colors and shapes that make up the scene in my minds eye... i swear i can even recognize the sounds of the sea creatures as they follow us, break contact, then return a few hours later, to accompany us for a while longer... i've even been able to recognize several individuals out there... friends if you will, who have been our escorts for the past day or two as we move slowly, silently along our assign route...

and my mind wanders... and i wonder... ten, twenty, thirty years from now... if our uboat crews of the future will have to become accustomed to patrols like this... where they submerge at the pier... depart on their patrol... and surface as they return to that same pier... never seeing the light of day, for weeks at a time...

--Mike

08-08-05, 10:37 AM	#1
Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense Commander Join Date: Sep 2001 Posts: 445 Downloads: 0 Uploads: 0	100% Skippers.. Is It Hard To Stay Submerged... ... throughout an entire patrol? i've just left on my first XXI patrol... and i had the chance to get back to it for a while over the weekend... i remember when we cleared Bergen, i gave the crew a lil deck liberty for that last taste of sunshine and fresh air before we went under... they were told that they probably wouldn't see the light of day nor night for the next two to three weeks... we would be running submerged for the entire patrol... but after about a week out, i can already see signs of stress showing on the crew... especially on me, the Captain i remember back to my ole boat... a TypeIXB... once we got our snorkel refit, we would stay under for days at a time, but never as long as we have been so far on this patrol... we've already been down for a week... the same faces... the same surroundings... the same routines, day after day... night after night... no sound contacts... very little action at all... a good thing perhaps... the allied planes are up there, they have new radars as well, i hear... better to stay under... where it's safe and there are no waves to upset the mess crew... my ears, glued to the soundphones, have now become my eyes... after hours on end of listening to the strange ocean sounds, i find myself visualizing the scene outside our uboat... not surprising i think to myself, for it is in the mind where the pictures that our eyes normally bring in are actually seen... i'm only giving my eyes a rest, and teaching my mind to 'see' with my ears... the different sounds being the colors and shapes that make up the scene in my minds eye... i swear i can even recognize the sounds of the sea creatures as they follow us, break contact, then return a few hours later, to accompany us for a while longer... i've even been able to recognize several individuals out there... friends if you will, who have been our escorts for the past day or two as we move slowly, silently along our assign route... and my mind wanders... and i wonder... ten, twenty, thirty years from now... if our uboat crews of the future will have to become accustomed to patrols like this... where they submerge at the pier... depart on their patrol... and surface as they return to that same pier... never seeing the light of day, for weeks at a time... --Mike