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Book on NR-1
snStarter writes "Hyman Rickover created NR-1 for a variety of purposes, one of which included doing science from a nuclear-powered vessel capable of sustained deep operations. Back in the '70s I really wanted to be on the crew of this puppy but all crew members were required to qualify as second class divers and that was hopeless for me. A new book, and web site, discusses NR-1 and is the most complete information on the boat I've seen in one place."
It must take a very special sort of soldier to submit to the claustrophobic surroundings and lack of freedom inherent in being in a submarine. I can only wonder what that's like when you're in a submarine that nobody knows about.
Watching Das Boot was as close as I ever want to get to that.
What's long, hard and full of seamen?
(ducks)
Read about this a while back. This is really interesting. After the end of the cold war, the navy deployed this shop in the Mediterranean to search for greek ship wrecks. They found thousands of ships, cargo, etc, all well-preserved after thousands of years by the cold depths of the medi.
A UVic researcher is among a National Geographic Society team of oceanographers, engineers and archeologists that used a nuclear submarine to discover the largest concentration of ancient shipwrecks ever found in the deep sea. Dr. John Peter Oleson (Greek and Roman Studies) viewed the site off southern Italy and examined artifacts retrieved from 2,500 feet beneath an ancient Mediterranean Sea trade route by the remotely operated submersible Jason.
More on it here.
Then read about Richard Gere's Ass Zoo!
tcd004
Considering its directly-downward crew viewport, and a claw manipulator capable of lifting roughly 1000 pounds (id wager there is a seperate claw control set right near the viewport), NR-1 would be perfect for tapping and/or interfearing with deep-water communications cables.
Even today, when America has almost nothing in the way of global powers about which to spread FUD and justify massive military spending on a project such as this, NR-1 would still be extremely useful as an intelligence gatherer operating against foreign corporates in the interests of American compaines, via taps on shallow and deep-water data lines.
Kind of makes you wonder if all those cable cuts in the north of Australia were really caused by ships anchors, or by FUBAR'd operations by boats such as the NR-1
Janie took my gun...
I've heard that it's possible to escape from a couple hundred feet, but the odds of your survival are pretty slim. The longer it takes from the time you begin to pressurize the escape trunk to when you begin your assent, the more likely it is that you're going to get a very bad case of the bends. If that doesn't get you, there's also a VERY good chance you'll hold your breath just a tiny bit and blow out a lung due to overpressurization during your assent.
In spite of what happened to the guys on the Kursk, most of the ocean is so fricking deep that your ship will crush LONG before you hit the bottom.
Hence, escape training is largly a waste of time.
When the ship crushes, the volume inside the ship gets VERY small, very quickly (think diesel engine). Everything bursts into flame, then you get hit in the face with a thousand piece of equipment, then the fire gets put out a split second later by tons of seawater. Fun...
Beats being shot and laying in a muddy ditch with your guts hanging out.....
Don't anthropomorphize computers, they don't like it.
OK, I spent a couple of years on a bigger submarine (LA class Fast Attack) Here's how you can get a feel for this stuff at home.
Surround yourself with a few people you don't like. Close all windows and doors tightly, close curtains. Seal any openings to the outside world with a proper vault. Unplug all radios and TV sets to cut yourself off completely from news, football games, Saturday Night Live, the Muppet Show, etc.
Hourly monitor all operating home appliances, if not in use, log as secured. If using the bathroom, do not flush toilet for first two days to simulate smell of blowing sanitaries and venting inboard. Then flush daily.
Wear only approved FBM coveralls, or proper Navy uniforms. No hats, special T-shirts, etc. Cut your hair once a week ensuring that you make it look like hell. Work 18-hour day intervals to ensure your body really gets confused. Listen to the same cassette over and over until you can't stand it anymore, and then put in one that you can't even listen to without acute nausea setting in. Set your alarm to go off just as you fall asleep, with alarm set at loud, or buy a special alarm clock with various settings, (i.e., "Man Battle Stations, Fire, Flooding in the Basement").
Prepare food with a blindfold on to simulate what real submarine cooks do. Then take the blindfold off and try to get your dog to eat it. Then break out a can of tuna and/or peanut butter.
Cut your bed in half, and enclose all but one side using the dimensions of a small casket as a reference. When not in bed, make up blankets properly so no one will see or care.
Periodically, for want of excitement, open main power breaker and run around yelling, "Reactor Scram", until you are sweating profusely, then restore power. Buy yourself a snorkel and mask, and again, periodically, just for want of nothing else to do, put it on and pretend you're in a smoke filled room with no way out. For added variety, hook up the garden hose and pressurize it.
To enable yourself to handle anything, constantly study wiring diagrams and operating instructions for various home appliances (stove, refrigerator, can opener). For no reason at all, at specified intervals (monthly, weekly, etc.) tear one item apart, just in case it was going to break down.
Paint everything around you gray (Navy FSN gray, no substitutes) or off-white. To be sure you are living in a clean and happy environment, every Friday, set alarm on loud for a short but hated drill sound, then get up and manned with only a bucket and sponge and greeny, clean one area over and over, even if it was already spotless. Then make out a discrepancy list.
Once a day, after normal programming hours, plug in TV and watch one movie being careful that it is (a) at least five years old, (b) made long enough prior to showing to be sure that you've seen it at least once before, or (c) be so bad you have to install a seatbelt in your chair to keep you there until it is over.
Since no doctor will be available, stockpile Band-Aids, aspirin, and Actifed as these are proven cure-alls. Practice if necessary on your dog (surgery, dentistry, or death).
When commencing this test simulation, lock your family, friends, and anything that means anything to you outside. Tests will run for at least two months with no end in sight.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey