Submarine trip report part 2

[chrisinhouston]

Meals are served 4 times a day because there are always men who are up and around, even in the middle of the night. Breakfast was from 5 to 6 AM, lunch from 11am to 12 pm, dinner from 5-6pm and
Middies (the midnight meal) from 11pm to 12am. We were asked to allow those going on watch to get to eat first as they had to go to a pre-watch planning session and the Mess only held about 50 or so. I have to say that I was quite amazed by the overall quality of the food and the generous portions served. The meals were a bit heavy on meats and starchy carbs as well as a sweet dessert, sodas or energy drinks and plenty of coffee, but these young guys burn calories a bit faster then we old ones, I guess. There were always 2 choices for an entree, beef and chicken, pork and fish, etc. A starch as well as some vegetable; the frozen were far better then the canned stuff. There was also a salad bar area with lettuce and an assortment of other basic salad items. Desserts ranged from fresh baked pies to cakes and often had the hard packed ice cream which was more of a treat because of our presence on the cruise I was told. I only ate in the Crew Mess a few times as I was invited to dine in the officer's Ward Room since my son is a Lieutenant. Meals there were a bit more formal although breakfast was the most informal as not everyone attends. As we entered and sat for breakfast, a sailor in chef's uniform came to take our order; I typically chose an omelet with the usual sides like bacon or sausage or hash browns. It was my big protein start to my day and I usually had a few cups of coffee which actually was not bad! Lunch and dinner were more formal with the Captain at the head of the table and officers and their guests seated. There were seats for 12 or so and once again the first to dine were the officers who would go on watch after the meal. The server always came in and announced the meal items and then asked if anyone wanted soup. If you did not you were to place your spoon in the empty soup bowl and it was taken away and the soup was served. As was to be expected, no one ate until the Captain took his first bite. I usually got a salad from the special salad bar that was set up after my soup and then the main dishes were passed around family style and you could pretty much take whatever you liked. The officers seemed to genuinely enjoy the casual time and there were plenty of jokes and funny stories about what may have transpired that day. The general rule was that only the Engineering Officer could discuss any business with the Captain. If anyone had to be excused to go on watch they stood up and addressed the Captain with a polite, “Excuse me, Captain.” I changed it up a bit when I would leave by asking to be excused but also thanking the Captain for inviting me to dine. There were also some amusing rules in the Ward Room such as if 2 officers were present who had to leave early for their watches they could invoke “the dessert rule,” which meant they could have their dessert before the others, including the Captain, were served. There was also a rule that if the Engineering Officer made a late entrance after the door was shut he had to do something called the Periscope Dance, which I never did get to see. I never did sit down to eat at midnight but I was told it was mixture of leftovers as well as some comfort foods fixed in smaller batches. On Saturday, pizzas were made in the galley and served continuously from 8pm to 10pm and a movie was shown in the mess. All the crusts had been freshly made and pre-baked by the chef earlier that day, quite a feat in such a small kitchen with only 2 ovens!

The bathrooms or heads, were near the bunking area and had several toilets, sinks and 2 showers. I tended to get up to shower before breakfast and beat the rush so I was up at 4am or so each day.

Each day we met with members of the crew and discovered what they did. Areas like sonar, navigation, missile guidance and torpedo launching as well as all of the positions in the busy Com room where the Officer of the Deck was in control. Technology may have changed many things on a Navy ship but some things have not. The OOD typically gives out commands or asks for data and the officer or enlisted man in that area repeats the request with an Aye at the end and responds as they fulfill the command. With all of the Tiger Cruise guests on board it could get quite crowed in this area but the crew was great about allowing us to be there and intermingle. I found a small stool next to the Quarter Master (which is the name for the sailor in charge of keeping track of the course on the charts). I enjoyed watching them as I have always liked maps and navigation. I also enjoyed spending time in the Sonar room where 3 to 4 sailors spent their shifts staring at computer screens with green and black dots and shapes slowly dropping room the top to the bottom of the screen, sort of like that scene in the movie, The Matrix with lines of code going by. They also listen to sounds on headphones and they explained what they heard to me and let me listen. “Biologics” as they call them are fish or dolphins or whales or even the clicking sound that shrimp make as they move through the water. Then there were the sounds of other ships moving above on the surface which made a mechanical noise like the sound of a train clicking along as it goes down the tracks or the “Wub Wub Wub Wub” of a ship's propeller or “screw” slowly turning. The sonar operators could even tell how many blades a ship had by counting the beats out in a cycle!

We were treated to special activities like actually firing a torpedo known as a Green Zinger which was the term for an empty torpedo chamber that was filled with water and fired out as a water slug. It was kind of like when you flush the toilet on a passenger plane and you hear the loud “WOOSH”; but, on the sub there was also a blast of cold vapor that actually came out of the breach seal at the back of the tube. The pressure created by the water slug firing also made your ears pop no matter where you were on the sub! I also got to launch a make believe Trident missile at Country Bravo who was some sort of enemy of ours. I saved our nation with a direct hit!

Once while a few of us were out exploring the decks we came upon the ordinance specialists busy taking out the tracking controls for the second of the 2 test missiles they had taken on this cruise. This was the back up missile in case something failed on the first one that was launched. It was amazing to climb up to the hatch at the nose cone of the missile and see the various parts of what would be a huge nuclear warhead after the ship loads out later this month. Such destructive power in a very small package... Each SSBN sub has 24 Trident missiles and each warhead has 10 separate nuclear devices. I asked the Weapon's officer what was the payload, how many mega tons of explosives did the sub have and he replied that was classified but said that it was roughly 9 lbs of dynamite for every, woman and child on the planet.

I also had a fair amount of private time where I could just go walking around or just have some quite time to read. I had purchased a Nook electronic pad reading device just before my trip and downloaded several books to read as well as taking along an iTunes device with some music to listen to. My favorite place to relax was on the top deck in between missile tubes 14 and 16 where there was a comfy spot to lean back on and curl up between the pipes, valves and connections that would be used if the ship ever has to fire it's payload. Seemed kind of ironic that s a place of such solitude could be so close to weapons of mass destruction.

On the second to last day as we made our approach up the coast of Washington, the sub did several interesting maneuvers. They did a deep dive which I am only authorized to say was to 700 feet below the surface but you can venture a guess that we were a bit deeper! We also did what is know as “Angles and Dangles” where the sub goes from a 600 to 200 foot depth and back and increases in dive angle from 15 to 20 to 25 degrees. All I can say is that 25 degrees is pretty darn steep and you better hope they don't ever have to do it when you are in your bunk or you might end up on the floor!

See Trip report 3 for the final part of this report. Link: http://www.cellar.org/showthread.php?t=24742