# Stupid question special Christmas Ed.): How do they keep subs so exquisitely still? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 24, 2013, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085 "2013-12-24T15:41:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2013, 6:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/21 "2013-12-25T06:27:07Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > It was the [USS Miami](http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/csg2/Pages/MiamiReturnsfromDeployment.aspx). Just a year before it’s “accident”. [This](http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/csg2/PublishingImages/USS%20Miami/111215-N-AW342-068.jpg) is a picture from **ftg** ’s link above. What is the thing that looks like a feather boa around the one sailor? Why is there a gun in this picture if they’re sailing into the friendly port of Groton? What “accident”? ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2013, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/22 "2013-12-25T10:57:15Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > [This](http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/csg2/PublishingImages/USS%20Miami/111215-N-AW342-068.jpg) is a picture from **ftg** ’s link above. What is the thing that looks like a feather boa around the one sailor? Why is there a gun in this picture if they’re sailing into the friendly port of Groton? What “accident”? Now if that isn’t the ingredients for a Tom Clancy novel (may he rest in peace). ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2013, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/23 "2013-12-25T15:48:47Z")
> [@CookingWithGas](#): > > They are used to standing on a deck, which looks like [this](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2_uss_intrepid_aircraft_carrier_flight_deck_2010.JPG). In that sub photo, it looks more like standing on a log. If the sub rolled a little it looks like you’d be dunked. Submarine sailors are pretty used to standing on submarine decks. Also, realize that you’re looking at a 6,000+ ton vessel with most of its mass below the surface of the water. There’s no rolling and little sense of motion in a protected waterway like the Thames River. (Farther out to sea is a different story. In particular, we did some pretty good rolls once coming into Norway. However, nobody would be up on the deck in such a situation.) > [@JBDivmstr](#): > > I imagine the camera angle is part of it, but that submarine looks a tad ‘small’, IMHO. Any idea about what type the one in the pic is? 😕 It’s the camera angle. That’s the USS _Memphis_ (SSN-691), which is in the same class of submarine as the photo in the OP (i.e. _Los Angeles_-class, but not “improved” like the one in the OP, hence the presence of fairwater planes on the sail). > [@Drum\_God](#): > > [This](http://www.public.navy.mil/subfor/csg2/PublishingImages/USS%20Miami/111215-N-AW342-068.jpg) is a picture from **ftg** ’s link above. What is the thing that looks like a feather boa around the one sailor? Why is there a gun in this picture if they’re sailing into the friendly port of Groton? No idea on the feather boa; it’s probably just some “bling” for the vessel when returning to port. The firearm is just part of the post-9/11 heightened security. > [@Drum\_God](#): > > …What “accident”? This [one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_%28SSN-755%29#2012_fire). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/24 "2013-12-25T16:46:48Z")
> [@robby](#): > > This [one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Miami_%28SSN-755%29#2012_fire). I wonder if that civilian-arsonist has paid off the 400 million dollar fine yet? ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/25 "2013-12-26T23:45:06Z")
That’s incredible. Trashing a billion dollar ship because some jerk wants to get off work early. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/26 "2013-12-27T01:32:14Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > That’s incredible. Trashing a billion dollar ship because some jerk wants to get off work early. Sabotage is not all that uncommon, I can remember back when the USS Spadefish was in the yards in 1987 someone set a small fire in the drydock near the emergency cooling containment area and at least one small one on the boat itself that I can remember, and when the Miami was up in Portsmouth in 2001 there were small fires set but caught in time. mrAru said that there has not been a sub he has been on that had yard work that someone didn’t set small fires. He said that people were more pissed off a the cut electrical wires as they are more of a pain in the ass to repair. [Wires were cut in both the Spadefish and the Miami.] I know directly about the fire in the drydock for the Spadefish because someone claimed my first husband had been seen in the location smoking … pity he was a total non-smoker. :dubious::rolleyes: That and he was actually logged in elsewhere working at the time - they loaned him to a sub over at the pier in Norfolk and he was monitoring containment access at the time. A lot of funky shit happens in the sub fleet. I know of offhand a set of stolen documents, a guy that went UA and was missing for 6 months, the poor schlub who had 2 wives [he had one convinced them that in the yards they always worked port and starboard, 12 hours on 12 hours off and sometimes he just got really tired and slept on the boat…:eek::D] the time that half of a crew got nicked for drug use or dealing, the gay abuse scandal … sending the NIS guys staking the house out pizza and setting up mrAru’s camera on a tripod aimed back through the bedroom window at them.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/27 "2013-12-27T01:38:41Z")
The real scandal, to me, about the Miami is how a bunch of rags on fire in a living quarters can cause $400 million worth of damage. ---
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/28 "2013-12-27T01:52:10Z")
Subs, like all ships, are ballasted. I just can’t find it but the most iconic photo I recall is that of a nuclear sub being commissioned and slid into the water. The crew are standing on the top of the hull along the length, while officers are standing on the hydroplanes on both sides of the conning tower, holding on to a rope (with just one hand,) strung on a flimsy railing. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/29 "2013-12-29T02:23:17Z")
> [@Drum\_God](#): > > What is the thing that looks like a feather boa around the one sailor? That’s the lei. Take another look at the photo linked in the OP. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/30 "2013-12-29T02:39:43Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > a nuclear sub being commissioned and slid into the water You mean launched. By the time it’s commissioned, a boat has been in the water over a year. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2013, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085/31 "2013-12-29T18:15:13Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > The real scandal, to me, about the Miami is how a bunch of rags on fire in a living quarters can cause $400 million worth of damage. Like with a concrete building on land it isn’t entirely nonflammable materials, there are assorted chemicals [hydraulic fluid, lubricants] and things like insulation, paint, coatings, uphoulstry and fabrics [mattresses, privacy curtains, cleaning rags, contents of people’s rack pans] packaging [spare parts can come in boxes and bags] and so forth [are wedges for leak control still wood?] and anything left there by workers and squids. I can’t get anybody onto a [688/688I](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles-class_submarine) but you can get aboard the [Nautilus](http://www.ussnautilus.org/), it is open 6 days a week and mrAru is very adept at giving tours - I think he has taken people through her at least 20 times. Anybody heading to Connecticut and going to be here on a Saturday let me know and we can probably arrange a bit of a tour if you like. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-question-special-christmas-ed-how-do-they-keep-subs-so-exquisitely-still/677085.md?page=1)