War Beneath the Waves (29 page)

 

Tank, Bow Buoyancy—
A tank with its main volume above the normal surface waterline, it is in the bow of the submarine. It provides reserve surface buoyancy, emergency positive buoyancy in the submerged condition, and helps during surfacing.

 

Tank, Clean Fuel Oil—
Storage tanks located within the pressure hull, they are where the engines draw their clean fuel.

 

Tank, Expansion—
Receive overflow from the fuel tanks and input from bilges that is pumped in to prevent leaving an oil slick or polluting a harbor.

 

Tank, Freshwater—
Contain water to be used for drinking, cooking, and sanitary facilities.

 

Tank, Fuel Ballast—
Used as auxiliary fuel oil tanks for increased operating range. When empty, they can be used as main ballast tanks.

 

Tank, Fuel Oil—
Contain engine fuel oil and, since they are located outside the pressure hull, they cannot take the pressure of the sea during a dive. They must always be filled with fuel oil or water. As fuel is used from these tanks, it is replaced with seawater. Fuel oil floats on water and is withdrawn from the top of the tank.

 

Tank, Main Ballast—
Tanks that furnish buoyancy when the vessel is on the surface.

 

Tank, Negative—
A variable ballast tank that gives negative buoyancy and initial down-angle. It is used to reduce the time required in submerging and to prevent broaching when decreasing depth.

 

Tank, Safety—
A heavily reinforced main ballast tank used to quickly regain positive buoyancy.

 

Tank, Sanitary—
Stores sanitary drainage until it can be discharged overboard.

 

Tank, Trim—
Variable ballast tanks at the bow and stern that are used to keep the boat at the desired attitude.

 

Tank, Variable Ballast—
Ballast tanks whose contents can vary for weight compensation and are built to withstand full sea pressure.

 

Tank, WRT
(water ’round torpedoes)—Variable ballast tanks in the forward and after torpedo rooms for flooding or draining the torpedo tubes. When a torpedo is fired, water equal to the weight of the torpedo is pumped into the WRT tank to compensate for the loss of weight.

 

Target Bearing Transmitter (TBT)
—A permanently mounted binocular instrument that can be used to sight objects and determine their bearing relative to the heading of the submarine.

 

Topside—
Exposed or semiexposed, nonwatertight areas of the ship, usually referring to the main deck.

 

Torpedo Data Computer (TDC)—
Electromechanical analog computer used for torpedo fire control on American submarines during World War II. The submarine’s course and speed were read automatically from the boat’s compass and other equipment, but information for the target’s bearing and speed had to be entered manually. The firing solution was then sent through an electromechanical link to the torpedoes themselves, and could be updated by observations right up until the torpedo was fired.

 

Torpedo Room—
The compartments in a submarine designed for the storage, maintenance, and launching of torpedoes. Most submarines had two torpedo rooms, one at the rear and one at the front of the boat.

 

Torpedo Run—
The distance in yards that a torpedo travels from the tube to the target.

 

True Bearing—
Gyrocompass bearing, or bearings in degrees measured clockwise from earth’s true north. Usually abbreviated “T” in deck logs and patrol reports.

 

Venting—
Allowing the flow of air into or out of a tank.

 

Vents, Emergency—
Stop valves near the tank tops used in case of damage to the main vents to prevent accidental flooding.

 

Vents, Main—
Valves for venting the main ballast tanks when flooding.

 

Wardroom—
The dining area and social center for officers on a submarine. Also used generically to refer to all officers collectively aboard a submarine.

 

Watch Section—
The officers and men on duty in a specified area constitute the watch section for that area.

 

Wolf Pack—
Several submarines acting as a unit.

Adelaide, Australia

Aesop

Aft torpedo room

Aleutian Islands

Alexander the Great

American Civil War

Anderson, William R.

Annunciator

Arlington National Cemetery

Armistice Day attack (
see
Makassar Strait, Armistice Day depth-charge attack on
Billfish
)

Balabac Strait

Balao
-class submarines

Ballast tanks

Batteries

Beach, Edward

Benko, Michael

Bennett, John E. “Jack,”

Bertrand, John

Billfish

Billfish
(
see
USS
Billfish
[SS-286])

Bismarck, Otto von

Borneo

Bowfin

Bowfin
(
see
USS
Bowfin
[SS-287])

Breathing

Brisbane, Australia

Buddha

Buoyancy tanks

Bureau of Naval Personnel

Bureau of Ordnance (BUORD)

Burlingame, Creed

Bush, George W.

Caine Mutiny, The
(film)

Campbell, Jeffrey

Camranh Bay

Cape Varella

Cape William

Carbon dioxide

Carbon monoxide

Carbon tetrachloride

Carpenter, Emmett

Celebes (Sulawesi)

Celebes Sea

Charleston Harbor, South Carolina

Chidori
-class gunboat

Chlorine gas

Christie, Ralph Waldo

awards ceremonies held by

on
Bowfin
second patrol

Griffith and

Lucas and

Lucas resignation and

on
Puffer
incident

Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia endorsement for
Billfish
by

torpedo controversy and

Churchill, Winston

Clean Sweep Bar and Skippers’ Lounge, Pearl Harbor

Congressional Medal of Honor

Conning tower

Control room

Controller men

Crush depth

Cutter, Slade

Dangerous Grounds

Darwin, Australia

Davidson, Robyn

Dead-reckoning tracer (DRT)

Deck guns

Denning, John

Depth charges. (
see also
specific submarines)

experience of

Depth gauge

DEs (destroyer escorts)

Destroyers, primary mission of

Diesel engines

Diesel tanks

Distilled water

Diving planes

Diving procedure

Doc Can Island

Doolittle bombing raid (1942)

Dutch Harbor, Aleutian Islands

Dutch Harbor, Java

East Indies

Electric motors

Electric-powered submarine, first

Electrician’s mates

England, Gordon

English, Robert

Exmouth, Australia

Exmouth Gulf

Farley. C.

Farragut, David

Flagpoles

Fremantle-Perth, Australia

Friendly fire incidents

Fulton, Robert

Galantin. J.

Gawne, Mrs. James Oliver

German U-boats

Gibran, Kahlil

Greater Sunda Islands

Grieves, Billy

Griffith, Walter Thomas

Bowfin
command of

leadership style of

Navy Cross awarded to

Groton, Connecticut

Grubb, Sir Howard

Guadalcanal

Gulf Coast Military Academy

Gyrocompasses

Hackworth, David

Haines, John Meade

Harvard University

Hatches

HMS
Eagle

Holland, J. P.

Hongom Peninsula

Housatonic
(Civil War warship)

Hoxsey, Cliff

Hull, Harry

Hunley
(Confederate submarine)

Huxley, Sir Thomas

Hydrogen gas

Inclinometer

Indian Ocean

Indochina

Indonesia

Induction valves

Java

Java Sea

Kano Maru
(transport)

King, Ernest J.

Korean War

Kramer, Stanley

Kwajalein atoll

Lawrence, James

Lockwood, Charles

Lombok Strait

Lookout stands

Lucas, Frederic Colby, Jr.

background and experience of

Billfish
command of

Bowfin
joint patrols and

death of

patrol reports of

personality of

posts after leaving
Billfish

promise to Rush to resign from submarines of

resignation from submarine command by

Rush and

Makassar Strait

Armistice Day depth-charge attack on
Billfish

Armistice Day depth-charge attacks on
Billfish

Malaysia

Maneuvering room

Mark XIV torpedo

Marshall Islands

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Matheson, Gordon

May, Andrew Jackson

Michener, James A.

Millican, William John “Moke,”

awards

background of

Escolar
command of

leadership style of

legendary status of

Rush and

Thresher
command of (
see
USS
Thresher
[SS-200])

torpedo malfunction and

Millican Field, Pearl Harbor

“Millican’s Marauders,”

Momsen lungs

Morton, “Mush,”

Nasubata Channel

Navy Cross

Newport, Rhode Island

Odom, Charley T.

background of

citation awarded to

Makassar Strait Armistice Day depth-charge attack and

quoted

stethoscope of

Office of the Chief of Naval Operations

Officer of the deck (OOD)

Ogurasan Maru
(tanker)

O’Kane, Dick

Ostrander, Max “Red,”

Otori
-class gunboat

Padgett, John B.

Panama Canal

Parks, Lewis S.

Parks, Mrs. Lewis S.

Pearl Bank

Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Japanese attack on

Periscope, invention of

Periscope housings

Philippine Islands

Plunger
(1900 submarine)

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, Kittery, Maine

Post, William Schuyler

Potshot naval base

Propulsion systems

Pump room

Radar

Radio

Ramage, “Red,”

Regulus missile project

Rendernick, John

initial meeting with Rush and

joins
Billfish

Makassar Strait Armistice Day depth-charge attack and

Silver Star awarded to

training facility renamed in honor of

Rendernick, Mary Kay

Revolutionary War

Roosevelt, Franklin D.

Roosevelt, Theodore

Rush, Charles W., Jr.

background and education of

Billfish
patrols and

in charge of relief crews

as crew of
Thresher

desire for submarine duty of

destroyer duty of

as executive officer of
Carbonero

initial meeting with Rendernick and

Lucas and

Makassar Strait Armistice Day depth-charge attack and

Millican and

Nautilus
transarctic passage and

Navy Cross awarded to

Queenfish
command of

retirement from Navy of

Sea Owl
and

takes command of
Billfish

Williamson turn executed by

Ryan, F. A.

S-18
(SS-123)

Sea snakes

Selby, Frank Gordon

Shears

Sherman, William Tecumseh

Shinso Maru
(torpedo tender ship)

Sibutu Passage

Silent Service, The
(television series)

Silver Star

Singapore

Sonar

South China Sea

Spratly Islands

Squadron Eight

Squadron Sixteen

Sub-safe program

Submarine Combat Patrol Insignia

Submarine service. (
see also
specific submarines)

age of crew members

development of innovations

early casualties in

enginemen

food in

history of submarines

life aboard submarines

pay in

personality of skippers in

scorn for

training for

as volunteer service