Curious flaw caused US torpedos to sink the sub that fired a torpedo.
Maggie’s You sank my submarine!
- Thread starter hermosabeach
- Start date
Curious flaw caused US torpedos to sink the sub that fired a torpedo.
This book is about three submarines during WWII. The Tang is one of them. Excellent reading. I could not put it down.
I'm a scuba diver. I will go in deep water with a tank on my back any day but you could not pay me enough money to get in an iron coffin. As far as I'm concerned, submarine crews have got the biggest stones compared to anyone in the military.
Sorry if the SF guys get upset by my comments but read the book and learn about how bad it was for the sailors left on the Tang and how hard it was to escape.
I'm a diver, and I could have ascended the 180 feet of water given the training but these guys probably only used the Momsen lung once. It isn't in the book or the article, but the Navy use to recommend a 30 foot-per-minute rate of ascent to the surface.
That's basically putting one hand over the other on the rope that's tethered to the sub so you don't go up too fast. In 180 feet of water that means you take 6 minutes to get to the surface all the while your mind and body are screaming "I got to get out of here!"
The Tang went down at night and at depth there is no way the sailors could see their hands in front of their face. Not too mention the water was pretty darn cold down there.
The skipper, Richard O'Kane got the medal of honor and died in 1994. He was on his death bed calling out to the sailors on his boat trying to rescue them.
Get and read the book. You won't regret it!
https://www.amazon.com/War-Below-Story-Submarines-Battled/dp/1439176841
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