Years ago, I read that the first US Navy nuclear sub (the Nautilus) developed a reactor cooling system leak on its maiden voyage. This leak was fixed (temporarily) by pouring hundreds of gallons of (automobile) stop-leak fluid into the cooling system.
I think this must be a myth-the temperatures and pressures that a nuclear reactor would operate at are far above those of an automobile cooling system.
Anybody know about this? Is the story true?
According to this site, the story’s true.
According to the story, the leak was in a “condenser system”. This would almost certainly not include the primary reactor coolant loop. And due to purity issues, it would not include the secondary loop, either. It was more likely a condenser for another, unrelated system like the fresh water distiller.
Something strikes me as odd about the description in the link I provided:
Now why would sailors on a submarine take civilian clothing on board? I thought that, especially with the space limitations on the boat, they’d only have their regular (but identifiably Navy) work gear plus, maybe, a uniform for when in port.
The story Barrington links has it in a condenser unit, which is steam plant equipment, not reactor plant.
According to Bar’s Leak History it was a seawater leak in a main condenser. It was probably added to the seawater system.
Some guesses here , but the Nautilus would have been a news item and thus been under scrutiny from the news media and soviet spys if there were any around. The amount of gunk that was bought could have revealed engineering capabilitys of the sub and lastly it may have been to keep from embarrassing the navy and incidently keeping admiral rickover from hauling you in to explain this embarassment.
Declan
Edit timed out, oops , never ansewered your question. I imagine a pair of jeans and a white tee shirt probably would not take up that much more space in a duffel bag. I could guess that almost every sailor had a loud hawaiian shirt and a pair of jeans for liberty calls.
Declan
I can believe it, except for the quantity. The one story says 140 quarts the other says 70 quarts.
The thing is Bars Leak does not come in quarts. Back in the day it came in 8 oz cans. (or there about, might have been 10oz. but it sure as hell wasn’t 32 oz.)
I suspect it was 140 8 oz. cans that works out to 70 pints.
Great story though
The 140/70 confusion could be that they used only half of the stuff. From the first link:
If only Billy Mays had been around back then…
Thanks for the info. I also understand that there was a minor scandal associated with the release of US Navy diagrams (to the Revell Model Company) of the US nuclear subs-supposedly, the Russians copied the Revell models, and saved $millions in development costs!
Sounds like another cold war myth to me, but who knows?
I read the book “Nautilas 90 North” and remember the story well. The copy I read was a paperback given away by Bars Leaks.
When the sub was travelling up the west coast they became aware of the leak and combed the system to repair it. They couldn’t find the leak. Time was running short so in desperation the sailors purchased the Bars Leaks. The mission was top secret because the Soviets would view such a journey as a military threat.
As for plans to Navy ships, I knew a guy who was a master at building large scale model ships. He would get detailed plans of ships directly from the Navy. However, they would black out some areas of the plans such as the elevators for planes on the aircraft carriers. I have no idea if the Navy is so generous these days.
Possibly, but using all that extra Testors Model Glue would have eaten into any potential savings.
Like Spartydog, I also read “Nautilus 90 North”. It’s funny how many people do not know that “Stop Leak” ‘saved the day’ for Bill Anderson and his crew. I guess a great deal of time has passed and even when I tell that story to bubbleheads[sup]1[/sup], they find it hard to believe.
[sup]1[/sup] A “bubblehead” is Navy slang for anyone who serves aboard a submarine. It is not meant as a term of disrespect.
I always had civilian clothes with me when we sent to sea. When you hit a liberty port, the last thing you wanted to do was to go out in uniform.
As far as space limitations goes, depending on how lenient the command was, there were all kinds of places to stash gear.
Here’s an anecdote for you: on my first deployment I was doing a inspection of the engine room, and looked into the space under the main engines with my flashlight, only to see a flash of colored fabric. Peering in, there were dozens of pieces of luggage (i.e. duffle bags, Land’s End soft-side luggage, etc.) I agonized over whether to report it to my superiors. Finally, I decided I’d better tell the Engineer (i.e. the ship’s chief engineer). Upon doing so, he asked me if I’d disturbed anything. I said no, and he replied, “Good! I’ve got a bag back there myself!” 
I later came across a 12-speed bicycle stashed on top of the lab shack in the engine room. 
It belonged to one of the Chief Petty Officers. As soon as we hit a liberty port, while everyone else was trying to catch a cab, he was on his bike. We visited a liberty port in Faslane, Scotland, (near Glasgow), and I think he rode as far as Edinburgh before returning.
Re: Civvies on a sub. When you are stationed aboard a ship (or a boat), you don’t just go aboard when you are going out to sea, you live there. Granted, married sailors generally had base housing or extra pay in the form of a housing allowance that allowed them to maintain a separate household. But IME, that accounted for less than half the crew. So for us bachelors, if you owned civvies, they were always on the ship, because you had no other place for them.
In Norfolk they have bachelor housing for E-5 and below. It’s not open bay barracks… more of a shabby motel/dormitory type thing. You can find really amazing stuff in the dumpsters whenever a boat deploys.