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- Hacker News
- 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.
by ggm - while it's not on that kind of level, but the wikipedia page on 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"by baud147258
- 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 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 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 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-nuc... A nice article from a reporter who went through the experience.
Submarine Insider on Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/@Submarineinsider
by rramadass - Wow, that National Museum of American History website is time capsule!
Preserved in pristine condition since the year 2000!
by firecall - Philosophically and psychologically I don’t think any monk of any religion would approve working on a weapon capable of razing cities to the ground.
- 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.
by kasey_junk - 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
The blue cranes in the background are occasionally used to pick up decomissioned submarine reactors from barges on the Columbia River.
- 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.by sandworm101
- How does a modern submarine navigates today?
- 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.by bahmboo
- 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.by comrade1234
- 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 ?
by jmclnx