I guess I got too hung up on the “shot out” (impulsed) part.
It did occur to me that a properly equipped diver could theoretically lock out via a torpedo tube, but I’ve never heard of it actually being done.
I’m curious, though. What is the advantage of locking out via a torpedo tube vice one of the escape trunks?
(And hell, you wouldn’t get me in one of those! No room to move, no installed lighting, praying you don’t accidentally get impulsed :(, no way to open the forward hatch & door on your own, etc., etc. Going out via an escape trunk would be a cake walk in comparison–at a reasonably shallow depth, of course.)
(I “dove” torpedo tubes three times in my life at depth. Still gives me the chills…)
I guess the advantage of torpedotube-exiting is that doing so won’t flood the entire submarine, which is unlike exiting through a regular (escape)hatch, init? It might also be advantageous in case the hatch’s stopped functioning and is broken…
BTW why is it that people who sail submarines stand at sea, like other navy-type-beings? Why don’t they sit under sea, wouldn’t that be a lot more accurate?
Using the regular escape hatch doesn’t precisely “flood” the boat, but it does put a lot of water into the ‘people tank’ on each cycle. Nothing that can’t be handled, but still a mess. Swimming out the tubes allows a greater amount of gear, and some rather awkward shapes of gear, to go, all at once. Not for the faint-hearted, although I’d rather ‘dive the tubes’ than do a tank inspection on the Sans, all things considered.
Vincent, the escape trunks have two hatches, just like the torpedo tubes. Used properly, they won’t flood the sub (though there is some residual water that needs to be drained each time). An escape trunk functions like an airlock. You enter, shut the lower hatch, fill the escape trunk with water, pressurize it with air, open the top hatch, and exit. The top hatch can then be shut by personnel inside the sub. There are two escape trunks in every U.S. sub I’ve been on. I think it’s unlikely both would fail. Also, I missed another advantage of the escape trunks–unlike torpedo tubes, the person exiting has control over the pressurization.
The only real advantage of a torpedo tube that I can think of is that they are much longer, so you might be able to get some awkwardly shaped equipment out through them.
Many of the watchstanders do sit. The only ones that stand are those who move around a lot, monitoring equipment and taking logs. The Officer of the Deck (OOD) also stands as he moves through the control room monitoring various evolutions. However, if it’s a slow watch, he’ll sit for a bit as well.
BTW, for those who have read this thread this far, here are some U.S. Navy submarine FAQs:
<quote> Why are submarines called boats? </endquote>
My understanding is that this dates back to the earliest submarines, which were quite small and about the same size as some of the larger steam launches carried aboard battleships. The boat term seems to have been a derisive reference by the “big ship” navy to these tiny upstarts. Submarine sailors rapidly adopted the insult as a sort of unit pride symbol (the source of a surprising number of elite unit and other military nicknames). It is now common, even formal, use in the US and other navies, and you will, as Tranquilis said, get annoyed looks (at the least) from sub types if you call their “boat” a ship. I have read books written by former submariners who quote orders such as “Dive the boat”.
In the US Navy, subs were often referred to as “pigboats” well into the WW2 period - a reference to the limited sanitary and washing facilities, especially on the early boats, and the effects of this on the crew and their vessel over the course of a long cruise.