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| -Land of the Free |
| One-minute showers, a message from family once a week and a pong to wilt your periscope - what it's really like to spend seven months UNDERWATER on a nuclear submarine |
| 2024-03-25 |
| [MAIL] With a sense of disbelief, I waved to my children through the February drizzle. I was not going to see them again for ten months. My mission as captain of HMS Turbulent was taking me to sea until December — a 286-day submarine deployment, with only brief stopovers to break up the voyage. The regrets were pushed to the back of my mind from the moment I was aboard 'Turbs', a nuclear-powered Trafalgar-class attack submarine with 130 men — crews were single sex back then. There is no time for any of the crew to dwell on the family life they are leaving behind. Coming back to the real world after months at sea is just as disorientating. The crew of HMS Vengeance, one of Britain's four submarines armed with Trident nuclear missiles, will have experienced it recently as they returned to home base at Faslane in Scotland after a reported 201 days at sea without any break at all. I'm a veteran submariner, with 23 years service, but the thought of that makes me quail. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #2 Spent 4 years total underwater in the US Navy. This story is very good. We had to replenish food every 10 weeks. A submarine shower is being sprayed with Rightguard. When emptying sanitary one would apply high pressure air and listen to the “marbles”, when they disappeared, the valve was shut and the pressure vented inboard. We were not able to exercise by running in place or with weights because sound carries. I left after 10 years because I could not go back to “cold” bunking after getting married. When death charged, the ship rings like a bell, vibrations make it shake 5”. |
| Posted by: Old Salty 2024-03-25 14:14 |
| #1 At least the toilets work. Not sure how the WWII Germans did it. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2024-03-25 11:10 |