8 ms·

60 Years Ago, a Submerged Submarine Circled the Globe for the First Time (2020)

45 points by baud147258 2mo ago

ggm 2mo ago
I can't find any of them now but there was a satirical series of posts on (I suspect usenet before) reddit about life on-board a nuclear submarine as an ordinary sailor. That kind of humour often encodes realities of lived experience. Life inside a tube, sharing bunkbeds, sleeping next to machinery, toilets which explode, boredom and terror.
- baud147258 2mo ago
  while it's not on that kind of level, but the wikipedia page on operation Sandblast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sandblast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sandblast) has a few details on the daily life aboard, between weekly routine and maintaining the machinery. Also "Beach [the captain] maintained that the greatest challenge facing the crew was a seemingly mundane activity, garbage disposal and cleaning"
sandworm101 2mo ago
While a feet of engineering, purists point out this was not fully submerged. The sub returned to the surface regularly for navigation, poking up its periscopes for star fixes and photographs. The ability to navigate the world ocean totally free of the surface, perhaps spending months under ice, had not yet happened.
- bahmboo 2mo ago
  That's them picking definitions. The ship stayed submerged the whole time. They just poked their periscope out and vented for air once a day or so. There was no other way to do it at the time. They surfaced once for a medical evacuation of a sailor - they didn't have to do that so I don't think that counts.
- BrandoElFollito 2mo ago
  How does a modern submarine navigates today?
  - rkangel 2mo ago
    Very classified so we only know bits and pieces. "Inertial navigation" is part of it - basically very precise dead reckoning. Using specialist equipment like laser ring gyros to get precise measurements. Then also some other equipment like a magnetometer and magnetographic maps of the world to provide references to counteract the drift in any inertial navigation.
    - BrandoElFollito 2mo ago
      Thank you for the information - and what about communication? I don't think they have an antenna that reaches out to the surface?
      - nocoiner 2mo ago
        They can trail an antenna behind the boat underwater that receives low frequency radio waves carrying short signals that basically tell them to come up to a higher depth to receive a longer message.
      - mikestew 2mo ago
        Very low frequency radio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
      - rkangel 2mo ago
        Again, this is what we know about the state of the art 20 years ago: For receiving (very very slowly) there is VLF, as the other comments have said. Can be done underwater. Think 160 character tweets that take minutes to arrive. One option is to release a buoy that floats to the surface, waits a while and then transmits the payload. This allows the submarine to be out of the area when the transmission happens. This gets you "don't know where the sub is" but doesn't necessarily get you "didn't know there was even a sub there". Alternatively, the submarine can come to periscope depth - so underwater but able to raise an antenna above the surface (or maybe close to it). Then something sophisticated like direct laser communication to a satellite can happen, allowing for high data rate bidirectional comms. Assuming you aren't detected by coming up, then this SHOULD allow for completely undetectable comms.
rramadass 2mo ago
Nuclear Submarines are an outstanding marvel of technology and the men serving on them are the most trained and psychologically conditioned of all people. From a philosophical/psychological/physiological pov i think of them as sharing a lot of the characteristics of hardcore monks/yogis. Both must have absolute self-control at all times and follow a strict unbending discipline. The following are some good resources; Fast Attacks and Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War - https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/index.html https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/index.html An online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Lots of cool pictures. How Nuclear-Powered Submarines Actually Work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCNwRvUcuo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCNwRvUcuo An in-depth interview with David Marquet, a former US Navy submarine commander. Includes short but great clips of the insides of a submarine. Life On A Submarine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbJYfyIoeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbJYfyIoeo A short documentary on the British Navy submarines. Life on board a British nuclear submarine - https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/21/life-on-board-nuclear-submarine https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/21/life-on-board-nuc... A nice article from a reporter who went through the experience. Submarine Insider on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Submarineinsider https://www.youtube.com/@Submarineinsider
- firecall 2mo ago
  Wow, that National Museum of American History website is time capsule! Preserved in pristine condition since the year 2000!
- kasey_junk 2mo ago
  My cousin served more than a decade on nuclear subs and he is one of the least yogi/monk like people I’ve met. Virtually no one who knows him would say he exhibits lots of self control. He just isn’t bothered by tight spaces or being underwater and he liked the regimented life the navy provided because it made up for his own lack of internal discipline. I don’t know if he is normal or not on submarines but you certainly don’t have to be some guru to serve on them.
  - rramadass 2mo ago
comrade1234 2mo ago
My dad was based on a submarine when he was in the navy. He didn't talk much about it but maybe because it was just kind of boring. They would go to the North Pole/icecap and just sit under it for three months.
- jmclnx 2mo ago
  A few years ago there was a short podcast on NPR about what it took for someone to be trained for submarine service. From what I remember, that training was far harder than any other navy training. One thing I do remember, everyone had to have working knowledge of all components on the sub, how they remembered that is beyond me :) I am curious about his size, I never saw anyone who worked on subs. I felt they would be smaller on average in size due to cramped conditions. I wonder if that is true ?
  - comrade1234 2mo ago
    I think my dad was around 5'10" or something like that. For training, what he said is that they all had three(?) areas/responsibilities that they were trained in so that if someone got sick or died someone was available to take their place. One of his jobs was actually to maintain one of the first computers installed on a submarine. He told an admiral that it was a big piece of shit because he spent half of his time replacing burned out vacuum tubes. The computer analyzed ship sounds (screw, engine) and could tell them the ship that was passing overhead.
  - mikestew 2mo ago
    I am curious about his size, I never saw anyone who worked on subs. I felt they would be smaller on average in size due to cramped conditions. I play music with a guy who was a weapons officer on a nuclear sub. I’m 6’/1.8m, and he’s noticeably taller than I am.
ludicrousdispla 2mo ago
My uncle was on that voyage, serving as an enlisted mechanic. The Triton's sail is currently at the USS Triton Sail Park in Richland, WA which is just south of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. https://www.nps.gov/places/000/uss-triton-sail-park.htm https://www.nps.gov/places/000/uss-triton-sail-park.htm The blue cranes in the background are occasionally used to pick up decomissioned submarine reactors from barges on the Columbia River.

45 points by baud147258 2mo ago

ggm 2mo ago

I can't find any of them now but there was a satirical series of posts on (I suspect usenet before) reddit about life on-board a nuclear submarine as an ordinary sailor. That kind of humour often encodes realities of lived experience. Life inside a tube, sharing bunkbeds, sleeping next to machinery, toilets which explode, boredom and terror.

baud147258 2mo ago
while it's not on that kind of level, but the wikipedia page on operation Sandblast (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sandblast https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sandblast) has a few details on the daily life aboard, between weekly routine and maintaining the machinery. Also "Beach [the captain] maintained that the greatest challenge facing the crew was a seemingly mundane activity, garbage disposal and cleaning"

sandworm101 2mo ago

While a feet of engineering, purists point out this was not fully submerged. The sub returned to the surface regularly for navigation, poking up its periscopes for star fixes and photographs. The ability to navigate the world ocean totally free of the surface, perhaps spending months under ice, had not yet happened.

bahmboo 2mo ago
That's them picking definitions. The ship stayed submerged the whole time. They just poked their periscope out and vented for air once a day or so. There was no other way to do it at the time. They surfaced once for a medical evacuation of a sailor - they didn't have to do that so I don't think that counts.
BrandoElFollito 2mo ago
How does a modern submarine navigates today?
- rkangel 2mo ago
  Very classified so we only know bits and pieces. "Inertial navigation" is part of it - basically very precise dead reckoning. Using specialist equipment like laser ring gyros to get precise measurements. Then also some other equipment like a magnetometer and magnetographic maps of the world to provide references to counteract the drift in any inertial navigation.
  - BrandoElFollito 2mo ago
    Thank you for the information - and what about communication? I don't think they have an antenna that reaches out to the surface?
    - nocoiner 2mo ago
      They can trail an antenna behind the boat underwater that receives low frequency radio waves carrying short signals that basically tell them to come up to a higher depth to receive a longer message.
    - mikestew 2mo ago
      Very low frequency radio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines
    - rkangel 2mo ago
      Again, this is what we know about the state of the art 20 years ago: For receiving (very very slowly) there is VLF, as the other comments have said. Can be done underwater. Think 160 character tweets that take minutes to arrive. One option is to release a buoy that floats to the surface, waits a while and then transmits the payload. This allows the submarine to be out of the area when the transmission happens. This gets you "don't know where the sub is" but doesn't necessarily get you "didn't know there was even a sub there". Alternatively, the submarine can come to periscope depth - so underwater but able to raise an antenna above the surface (or maybe close to it). Then something sophisticated like direct laser communication to a satellite can happen, allowing for high data rate bidirectional comms. Assuming you aren't detected by coming up, then this SHOULD allow for completely undetectable comms.

rramadass 2mo ago

Nuclear Submarines are an outstanding marvel of technology and the men serving on them are the most trained and psychologically conditioned of all people. From a philosophical/psychological/physiological pov i think of them as sharing a lot of the characteristics of hardcore monks/yogis. Both must have absolute self-control at all times and follow a strict unbending discipline. The following are some good resources; Fast Attacks and Boomers: Submarines in the Cold War - https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/index.html https://americanhistory.si.edu/subs/index.html An online exhibition from the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Lots of cool pictures. How Nuclear-Powered Submarines Actually Work - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCNwRvUcuo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTCNwRvUcuo An in-depth interview with David Marquet, a former US Navy submarine commander. Includes short but great clips of the insides of a submarine. Life On A Submarine - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbJYfyIoeo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZbJYfyIoeo A short documentary on the British Navy submarines. Life on board a British nuclear submarine - https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/21/life-on-board-nuclear-submarine https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/aug/21/life-on-board-nuc... A nice article from a reporter who went through the experience. Submarine Insider on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Submarineinsider https://www.youtube.com/@Submarineinsider

firecall 2mo ago
Wow, that National Museum of American History website is time capsule! Preserved in pristine condition since the year 2000!
kasey_junk 2mo ago
My cousin served more than a decade on nuclear subs and he is one of the least yogi/monk like people I’ve met. Virtually no one who knows him would say he exhibits lots of self control. He just isn’t bothered by tight spaces or being underwater and he liked the regimented life the navy provided because it made up for his own lack of internal discipline. I don’t know if he is normal or not on submarines but you certainly don’t have to be some guru to serve on them.
- rramadass 2mo ago

comrade1234 2mo ago

My dad was based on a submarine when he was in the navy. He didn't talk much about it but maybe because it was just kind of boring. They would go to the North Pole/icecap and just sit under it for three months.

jmclnx 2mo ago
A few years ago there was a short podcast on NPR about what it took for someone to be trained for submarine service. From what I remember, that training was far harder than any other navy training. One thing I do remember, everyone had to have working knowledge of all components on the sub, how they remembered that is beyond me :) I am curious about his size, I never saw anyone who worked on subs. I felt they would be smaller on average in size due to cramped conditions. I wonder if that is true ?
- comrade1234 2mo ago
  I think my dad was around 5'10" or something like that. For training, what he said is that they all had three(?) areas/responsibilities that they were trained in so that if someone got sick or died someone was available to take their place. One of his jobs was actually to maintain one of the first computers installed on a submarine. He told an admiral that it was a big piece of shit because he spent half of his time replacing burned out vacuum tubes. The computer analyzed ship sounds (screw, engine) and could tell them the ship that was passing overhead.
- mikestew 2mo ago
  I am curious about his size, I never saw anyone who worked on subs. I felt they would be smaller on average in size due to cramped conditions. I play music with a guy who was a weapons officer on a nuclear sub. I’m 6’/1.8m, and he’s noticeably taller than I am.

ludicrousdispla 2mo ago

My uncle was on that voyage, serving as an enlisted mechanic. The Triton's sail is currently at the USS Triton Sail Park in Richland, WA which is just south of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. https://www.nps.gov/places/000/uss-triton-sail-park.htm https://www.nps.gov/places/000/uss-triton-sail-park.htm The blue cranes in the background are occasionally used to pick up decomissioned submarine reactors from barges on the Columbia River.