Igster's Inklings

Submarines have a unique smell. It’s a combination of Amine, diesel fuel and various other chemicals.
I wouldn’t find this out my first day at the pier. That would wait until the second day. I was still fairly new to the Navy, and had no clue what to really expect.
Probably 95% of the crew was made up of people that had been to the sub for patrols before. They all had a good handle on what to do expect.
The first night we went to the base enlisted club. I also wound up sleeping in a top bunk. I was not used to sleeping in such a small place that high up. I did not stay in the bunk long. After that I didn’t sleep much after that.
The next day I got to see the sub up close, this would be my home for roughly 90 days. Climbing down the ladder into Aux upper level, I was hit with this umm aroma, smell stench. Actually it didn’t even take getting into the sub. It was more like wafting out of the hatch. This was not a good sign.
I think it took me a week being underway before I didn’t notice the smell anymore. Maybe halfway through, we went up towards the surface to do something, we also ventilated the sub, bringing fresh air in,exhausting the bad,stale air.
That’s not to say the air was bad for us, quite the opposite. On board we had equipment to make oxygen, scrub out co2 etc.We also desalinated the water for fresh,non-salt water to drink with, bathe etc.
Anyway, we were bobbing up near the surface and I was in the control room. I was asking what the horrible smell was. Turns out, it was air from the outside and it smelled horrible. I had gotten so used to the basically manufactured air, that real air almost made me sick. I don’t recall, but I think I was steering and diving the boat at this point. 6 hours of watching gauges and level indicators or bubbles. Solely keeping the sub on the prescribed course and depth. It was exciting for about 30 minutes. Some of the guys would play games to keep us awake, etc.The only time it was tough was if we were close to the surface and the seas were rough. Then it became a game of chasing that stupid damn bubble. One operator worked the planes in the front and one worked the planes in the stern. I also learned, that if I had to, I could hold it for 6 hours. The human bladder was not designed for this, but it can be done. I do not recommend this practice at all.

Oh, the smell I was talking about, permeates everything, including your clothes and seabag. It’s very obvious to anyone from outside the sub. My mother in law at the time, came home from work, my bag was in the laundry room. Her first words were, what the hell is that smell. Nothng like sharing the love.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 4th, 2009 at 3:49 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.