Sea Stories II

Probably the most frightened that I have ever been in my entire life occurred one day while on watch in the engineroom. We were running fairly deep and other than that it was an entirely routine watch. I was about halfway through the watch and was taking readings on the DeLaval lube oil purifier when all of the sudden I was knocked down by a blast of water.

Please let me take a moment to elaborate, water in the people tank (our name for the interior space of the submarine) was just about the most dangerous thing you can have happen. Not only is the flooding casualty a dangerous, potentially deadly situation it is exacerbated by the fact that the equipment that makes the submarine move and maneuver through the water is all back in the engineering spaces and is negatively affected by the fact that salty seawater is spraying all over it.

Fortunately, I do not, as a rule, panic (I save that for afterward) I called the flooding in as a controlled leak and requested to maneuvering for all available engineering personnel to report to engines aft (where the leak was in the submarine). To make matters worse, we were running deep due to numerous contacts and really could not afford to reduce depth (one of the most important features of a submarine is the ability to remain undetected). The engine room supervisor and auxiliaryman aft showed up at that point with damage control material and we proceeded to make our way though the blast of water to the source of the leak. I was holding a DC plug to the leak while the Aux aft was trying to drive it in with a short handled sledgehammer.

Finally, we managed to get the leak reduced to a manageable level and started to investigate for damage to equipment.It turns out that the leak was due to a grease valve (a one inch diameter hole) coming loose. The water spray extended more than 40 feet and put about 3500 gallons of water into the engine room in the 10 minutes or so that it took to slow the leak. Later that day, we were able to ascend to periscope depth where the plug was removed, the missing grease replaced and a new valve installed.

I can honestly say that barring a major fire, flooding is the single most dangerous casualty that can occur on a submarine. However, the danger was minimized because we were knowledgeable of how to address these casualties due to the high level and quality of training that was provided.

One thing that I mention to every student that I mentor is that if they want training that they cannot get anywhere else they should look into a tour of duty in the Navy or Air Force.