Do submariners get fat on duty/how do submariners stay fit?

[CrumpetsForAll]

Yes I’ve been watching The Vigil. Does anyone know this important bit of naval info?!

Richard Humphreys book Under Pressure talks about life on board and qualifying. It isn't pretty. You are working or resting and your life is dependant on everyone doing their job. Eccentric officers, cramped conditions, poss death in numerous ways all would put me off but it's a certain sort of life.

My 6.6ft cousin is a submariner and he always comes back underweight after months under water, usually because they end up staying longer that planned and have to start rationing food

I felt a bit seasick and claustrophobic watching it (definitely no sealegs here) but am already hooked! Huge respect to anyone who lives and works in those conditions.
As a child our elderly neighbour was a former submariner who was torpedoed and rescued twice in WW2. Bejesus he was a brave man

If you get seriously ill you are helicoptered off, same with mental issues

You can't always get someone off a submarine promptly even if they are ill - all depends on where they are any what they are doing. Submariners know this is one of the risks before they sign up for the gig. Mission and safety of boat always come first. If it's not safe to surface, then you don't risk the boat and entire crew, end of.

So yes, you might have to be treated down there and kept from dying until it is possible to get you off

It's one of the reasons why they resisted female submariners for so long - it's really too risky to be pregnant down there. With a young male healthy crew, you are looking at trauma injuries from workplace incidents, dental emergencies and appendicitis (all of which can be managed by knocking out patient out with ketamine, so can be done with one MO and a med tech)

With women you have to add the risks of pregnancy, in particular that from ectopic pregnancy (immediate and to long term reproductive health) is unpleasantly high, and people do have surprise pregnancies or could start on on board (which is not meant to happen because of strict 'no touching' rules, but who knows)

How often are silent times? I'd cry if I went 6 months without any music of my own choosing!

Whenever it's operationally necessary, and for as long as required

Very interesting about female submariners. I can't off the top of my head think of a fair but effective way to ensure only non-pregnant women are deployed. If women Naval officers and ratings are given full information, I expect they mostly self-select out of it.

Couldn’t they just take a pregnancy test 2 weeks before and 1 day before going?

What do submarines actually do ?

Surely they're not all torpedoing the shit out of everything as there'd be news reports. What do they do day to day?

@mpsw

If you get seriously ill you are helicoptered off, same with mental issues

You can't always get someone off a submarine promptly even if they are ill - all depends on where they are any what they are doing. Submariners know this is one of the risks before they sign up for the gig. Mission and safety of boat always come first. If it's not safe to surface, then you don't risk the boat and entire crew, end of.

So yes, you might have to be treated down there and kept from dying until it is possible to get you off

It's one of the reasons why they resisted female submariners for so long - it's really too risky to be pregnant down there. With a young male healthy crew, you are looking at trauma injuries from workplace incidents, dental emergencies and appendicitis (all of which can be managed by knocking out patient out with ketamine, so can be done with one MO and a med tech)

With women you have to add the risks of pregnancy, in particular that from ectopic pregnancy (immediate and to long term reproductive health) is unpleasantly high, and people do have surprise pregnancies or could start on on board (which is not meant to happen because of strict 'no touching' rules, but who knows)

How often are silent times? I'd cry if I went 6 months without any music of my own choosing!

Whenever it's operationally necessary, and for as long as required

It’s a brilliant insight to know submariners sign up knowing what they’re signing up to before they’ve experienced what they are signing up to.

It’s an incredible world.

They are ‘sailing’ round the world with their respective countries nuclear weapons. Keeping them moving, keeping them hidden. Ready to be At War at any given moment but living in the shadows. It’s amazing they don’t all go mad.

I suppose nuclear subs can stay submerged for much, much longer than the old diesel powered ones?

@ThatsNotMyReindeer

What do submarines actually do ?

Surely they're not all torpedoing the shit out of everything as there'd be news reports. What do they do day to day?

Simply the day to day running of a sub is a complex and specialist business.

There are many, many very skilled and vital jobs and systems that need to be continually monitored.

The whole point of a sub is stealth so huge effort goes into making sure the sub isn't being tracked whilst simultaneously try to find out where the enemy is.

Then you have the supporting staff in the galley for example, medics etc

The sub runs 24 hours and people work in shifts. Actual downtime is very limited. Mostly people are working or sleeping.

There's no concept of having nothing to do.

Trident subs are our main nuclear missile lauching method so have to be around constantly

Wonder if the vacuum toilets can handle tampons or if there are sanitary bins?

Are vacuum toilets the ones you get in Portacabins and on small yachts?

I wonder what living with no natural light does to your cycle tbh

Read about Vasily Arkhipov, a true hero who was persecuted for his actions

On 27 October 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, a group of 11 United States Navy destroyers and the aircraft carrier USS Randolph located the diesel-powered, nuclear-armed Foxtrot-class submarine B-59 near Cuba. Despite being in international waters, the United States Navy started dropping signaling depth charges, explosives intended to force the submarine to come to the surface for identification. There had been no contact from Moscow for a number of days and, although the submarine's crew had earlier been picking up U.S. civilian radio broadcasts, once B-59 began attempting to hide from its U.S. Navy pursuers, it was too deep to monitor any radio traffic. Those on board did not know whether war had broken out or not.[6][7] The captain of the submarine, Valentin Grigorievitch Savitsky, decided that a war might already have started and wanted to launch a nuclear torpedo.[8]
Unlike the other submarines in the flotilla, three officers on board B-59 had to agree unanimously to authorize a nuclear launch: Captain Savitsky, the political officer Ivan Semonovich Maslennikov, and the flotilla commodore (and executive officer of B-59) Arkhipov. Typically, Soviet submarines armed with the "Special Weapon" only required the captain to get authorization from the political officer to launch a nuclear torpedo, but due to Arkhipov's position as commodore, B-59's captain also was required to gain his approval. An argument broke out, with only Arkhipov against the launch.[9]
Even though Arkhipov was second-in-command of the submarine B-59, he was in fact commodore of the entire submarine flotilla, including B-4, B-36 and B-130.[10] According to author Edward Wilson, the reputation Arkhipov had gained from his courageous conduct in the previous year's K-19 incident also helped him prevail.[8] Arkhipov eventually persuaded Savitsky to surface and await orders from Moscow. This effectively averted the general nuclear war which probably would have ensued if the nuclear weapon had been fired.[11] The submarine's batteries had run very low and the air conditioning had failed, causing extreme heat and high levels of carbon dioxide inside the submarine.[10] They were forced to surface amid the American pursuers and to return to the Soviet Union as a result.[

Absolutely nothing but human waste and special toilet roll down there. Depo and mooncups are very popular in the naval female community. Sanibins on ships are swapped out when alongside but it’s not unusual to orange bag the inside and double bag and swan neck the contents into the medical waste bin. Some ships have licence to burn this waste. Being a health safety and environment advisor and female it’s a task I get involved with far more than I ought to.

There is a surprising number of women given the short time they’ve been serving. iirc the first women were commanders. There’s loads of medics and chefs too. I think the RN are at about 12% women. I don’t know what the specific % is for SS.

what do submarines actually do?

They are a nuclear deterrent. There job is be there, undetected, anywhere. They generally hang around areas of risk, areas where coalition navies operate and anywhere else deemed necessary to patrol.

At any given time you can guarantee there are several Russian subs around UK waters. Sometimes they will surface to be seen. They have been known to toy with UK coastal defence.

www.express.co.uk/news/world/1368971/russia-news-vladimir-putin-russian-ships-uk-waters-royal-navy

You can bet there are subs as part of that too. They just aren’t talked about.

It’s fascinating (and scary) that our entire nuclear defence strategy is based on, what is effectively, cat and mouse.

I find calling it nuclear 'defence' faintly ridiculous but i appreciate thats the correct term

The whole nuclear defense thing is totally out of date.

Cold war was a different time. USA and Russia fronting up to each other. Nuclear proliferation treaty was more realistic to some extent than today. Only 5 (was it) countries allowed to have nukes globally.

Now. We aren't such a big player on world stage. At all.
Warfare has changed massively.
The threats have changed massively.
Plenty of countries close to or have nuclear warfare capabilities. Hard to say.
I mean one always did and that was ignored but now who knows.

Everything has changed.

USA has and will maintain nuclear warfare capability.

Spending billions replacing ours feels totally wrong for so many reasons.

Sorry gone a bit serious there!

As I side note I watched war games with the kids the other day. It's aged a bit but was actually still really good! So maybe time to dust that one off

This thread is amazing. So many technical details I'd never even have thought about. Thanks to everyone sharing your knowledge- its fascinating!

What makes you think the Cold War ever finished NiceGerbil? It still goes on in one form or another.

DeRigueur Watches please, not shifts. Dh reckoned he worked 18-20/24, when on patrol, but he was a Head of Department, so stood his watches, grabbed food, did the paperwork for the department and sorted out the defects and other issues. He slept like the dead when he got home.

There's no doubt the countries, threats, reasons, methods of warfare and aims have changed.

Do you think we need nuclear defense against Russia? Specifically?

It's all so different now.