I think I'm going to start getting my son's/son's-in-law t-shirts when they're expecting. It will say:
"Fatherhood: It's not just a job; it's a doo-dee"
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Angles And Dangles
Thursday, 24 January 2008, 8:42 AM
My buddy Butch e-mailed me and asked: On submarines, did you ever get to do one of those humpback-whale-kind-of-broaches? That must really shake things loose."
I said, "About a dozen. We would do it just after we left port for a 90-day patrol. We called it "Angles and Dangles." You'd start out by going to 400 feet in depth and cranking up the speed to about 15 kts. You'd take some hard right turns and some hard left turns... Then they'd tip the bow over and steer 5 degree down and then 5 degree up...then a 10 degree down and 10 degree up. This would keep up until it was 30 degrees up and down. When you'd get to the higher angles, a stack of plates would invariably tip over with a HUGE crashing and breaking....followed by a even larger explosion of Filipino swear words from the Chief Filipino cook. After we secured from the Angles and Dangles, we would make our way down to Test Depth...66% of the manufacturers designed "crush depth" of the boat. We would settle out there for a few minutes and let the people in Sonar decide if there were anything in the area or on the surface. After Sonar gave an "all clear" report the Captain would order an Emergency Blow. The Chief of the Watch, who operated the Ballast Control Panel, would throw the quick-acting valves that would dump 4500-PSI air straight into the Ballast Tanks. At first, while the high pressure air was blowing into the ballast tanks, the upward movement was barely noticeable. After about 15 seconds you could feel yourself moving upward like as if you were in an elevator. As the depth gage would race towards zero the Sonarmen would be franticly searching for any undetected sounds from above them. When the boat "broached" on the surface it felt like the floor was being raised quickly by 2 feet and then dropped out from under you quickly. You would never be thrown in the air but you would definitely feel lighter on your feet. While the boat was in its last toss around you could count on another stack of plates invariably being tipped over followed by an even BIGGER stream of Filipino swear words.
The "published" purpose of this evolution was to make sure the boat was in perfect working order. But the REAL reason was so the Captain could prove to everyone in the crew that the boat really wasn't as secured and tied down as tightly as everyone was trying to say it was.
We would spend the next few hours restowing everything, cleaning up the mess and recharging the High Pressure Air Tanks to their maximum capacity. Then, and only then, would we dive the boat and get under way to start our 90 day patrol.
Most of the time these "Angles and Dangles" would turn out OK. There were at least two incidents where boats "emergency blew" into the bottom of a surface ship. The first was the USS George Washington in the Sea of China. From Wiki..."On 9 April 1981, the submarine surfaced underneath the Nissho Maru in the East China Sea about 110 miles south-southwest of Sasebo, Japan. The 2350-ton Japanese freighter Nisho-marui“ú¸ŠÛj sank in about 15 minutes. Two Japanese crewmen were lost; thirteen were rescued. The submarine suffered minor damage to her sail...The Navy accepted responsibility for the incident, and relieved and reprimanded the George Washington's commanding officer and the officer of the deck." (The captain was a guy named Cmdr. Robert Woehl...I served with him on the USS Lafayette when I was TDY for a month...Woehl was a JERK!!!!)
The second incident is described by Wiki: "In the year 2001, the American submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally struck and sank a Japanese high-school fisheries training ship, Ehime-Maru, killing nine Japanese aboard, including four students, 10 miles off the coast of Oahu. The collision occurred while members of the public were on board the submarine observing an emergency surface drill.
A naval inquiry found that the accident was the result of poorly executed sonar sweeps, an ineffective periscope search by the submarine's captain, Commander Scott Waddle, bad communication among the crew and distractions caused by the presence of the 16 civilian guests aboard the submarine. (It was also largely caused by a First Class Fire Control Technicial who was childishly pissed off because he hadn't been chosen to stay ashore for the day to make room for the "guests." He refused to do his job which was to keep track of all sonar contacts and help to maintain "The Big Picture" about where all other ships were at. I personally hold the FT1 with the greatest "blame." But ultimately it is the captain that is responsible for his ship.
My buddy Butch e-mailed me and asked: On submarines, did you ever get to do one of those humpback-whale-kind-of-broaches? That must really shake things loose."
I said, "About a dozen. We would do it just after we left port for a 90-day patrol. We called it "Angles and Dangles." You'd start out by going to 400 feet in depth and cranking up the speed to about 15 kts. You'd take some hard right turns and some hard left turns... Then they'd tip the bow over and steer 5 degree down and then 5 degree up...then a 10 degree down and 10 degree up. This would keep up until it was 30 degrees up and down. When you'd get to the higher angles, a stack of plates would invariably tip over with a HUGE crashing and breaking....followed by a even larger explosion of Filipino swear words from the Chief Filipino cook. After we secured from the Angles and Dangles, we would make our way down to Test Depth...66% of the manufacturers designed "crush depth" of the boat. We would settle out there for a few minutes and let the people in Sonar decide if there were anything in the area or on the surface. After Sonar gave an "all clear" report the Captain would order an Emergency Blow. The Chief of the Watch, who operated the Ballast Control Panel, would throw the quick-acting valves that would dump 4500-PSI air straight into the Ballast Tanks. At first, while the high pressure air was blowing into the ballast tanks, the upward movement was barely noticeable. After about 15 seconds you could feel yourself moving upward like as if you were in an elevator. As the depth gage would race towards zero the Sonarmen would be franticly searching for any undetected sounds from above them. When the boat "broached" on the surface it felt like the floor was being raised quickly by 2 feet and then dropped out from under you quickly. You would never be thrown in the air but you would definitely feel lighter on your feet. While the boat was in its last toss around you could count on another stack of plates invariably being tipped over followed by an even BIGGER stream of Filipino swear words.
The "published" purpose of this evolution was to make sure the boat was in perfect working order. But the REAL reason was so the Captain could prove to everyone in the crew that the boat really wasn't as secured and tied down as tightly as everyone was trying to say it was.
We would spend the next few hours restowing everything, cleaning up the mess and recharging the High Pressure Air Tanks to their maximum capacity. Then, and only then, would we dive the boat and get under way to start our 90 day patrol.
Most of the time these "Angles and Dangles" would turn out OK. There were at least two incidents where boats "emergency blew" into the bottom of a surface ship. The first was the USS George Washington in the Sea of China. From Wiki..."On 9 April 1981, the submarine surfaced underneath the Nissho Maru in the East China Sea about 110 miles south-southwest of Sasebo, Japan. The 2350-ton Japanese freighter Nisho-marui“ú¸ŠÛj sank in about 15 minutes. Two Japanese crewmen were lost; thirteen were rescued. The submarine suffered minor damage to her sail...The Navy accepted responsibility for the incident, and relieved and reprimanded the George Washington's commanding officer and the officer of the deck." (The captain was a guy named Cmdr. Robert Woehl...I served with him on the USS Lafayette when I was TDY for a month...Woehl was a JERK!!!!)
The second incident is described by Wiki: "In the year 2001, the American submarine USS Greeneville (SSN-772) accidentally struck and sank a Japanese high-school fisheries training ship, Ehime-Maru, killing nine Japanese aboard, including four students, 10 miles off the coast of Oahu. The collision occurred while members of the public were on board the submarine observing an emergency surface drill.
A naval inquiry found that the accident was the result of poorly executed sonar sweeps, an ineffective periscope search by the submarine's captain, Commander Scott Waddle, bad communication among the crew and distractions caused by the presence of the 16 civilian guests aboard the submarine. (It was also largely caused by a First Class Fire Control Technicial who was childishly pissed off because he hadn't been chosen to stay ashore for the day to make room for the "guests." He refused to do his job which was to keep track of all sonar contacts and help to maintain "The Big Picture" about where all other ships were at. I personally hold the FT1 with the greatest "blame." But ultimately it is the captain that is responsible for his ship.
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