He always talks about how the US Navy were not allowed to drink and so were always pleased to see the British and, especially, the French. British sailors used to get a measure of Pussers rum every day, at least until the 1970s. The French would have copious amounts of wine. You can imagine the swopping that went on between the forces.
All very true!
He always talks about how nice the Russian navy were to meet in port. No doubt trying to get secrets. All at the time of the Cold War of course.
He also mentions the terror of surfacing through five feet of ice in an emergency. The submarine did it, but there was a loud bang.
He also talks of nuclear submarines sounding like a bag of bolts compared to the diesel ones which were apparently quieter (steam ships incidentally - his first when he joined the navy at sixteen - were really quick).
Modern nuclear submarines are very very quiet....and getting better what with the "caterpillar" propulsors...etc. It is still very true that a diesel submarine on battery propulsion is EXTREMELY quiet. The problem has been limited speed, and of course limited underater endurance, and of course fuel range. Nuclear submarines today DO NOT REFUEL...EVER. One shot of uranium is good for the life of the ship in most cases. The newly rediscovered technology of AIP ( air independent propulsion) is producing some diesel boats with fewer limitations than their predecessors. We will see some of those, but the need for the US to be able to cover the entire globe will make the speed and endurance of the SSN hard to eliminate. The old russky alphas had phenomenal underwater speed. But you could literall sit in port in San Diego and hear that sucker in the Indian Ocean. So instead of trying to compete heads up with that one on speed....we made torpedos which can catch it!
And then the 100 foot tank, to simulate an emergency escape from a sub. The air would expand in your lungs so you would be breathing out furiously as you rose to the surface.
Oh and washing in diesel because fresh water was at a premium.
I forget the capacity of our vapor distillation evaporator, but as long as it was up to snuff, showers, laundry, etc....not problem.
And dropping a spanner on HUGE lead-acid batteries to see it disappear in a flash. you have to strip down at the entrance hatch to the battery well....no rings, jewelry, watches, nothing metal . Certainly no TOOLS! Inside the well are approved and thoroughly plastisol coated tools. The cells are somewhere in the 12,000+ amp hour range, so shorting the terminals of even one cell would be not good!\