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At random: In 1921, a United States submarine, the R-14, having run out of fuel at sea while looking for the missing tug USS Conestoga, rigged sails from blankets and hammocks sewn together. Bunk frames were used for yardarms and booms. The torpedo loading king post for a fore mast, the torpedo loading boom for a mizzen mast and the telescoping radio mast, for the main mast. The R-14 sailed 100 miles in five days to the port of Hilo, T.H. at a speed of two knots. It has been reported in March 2016 that the Conestoga has been located 3 miles off Southeast Farallon Island, probably sinking with-in a day of leaving port. All hands lost.

...a WW II NTINSer.... Moderators: Jump to page : 1 Now viewing page 1 [25 messages per page]
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Ric

Posted 2009-09-03 4:06 PM (#30416)

Plankowner

Posts: 9165

Location: Upper lefthand corner of the map.

Subject: ...a WW II NTINSer....

I received this great little story from a guy who was the Engineering Officer on the R-14 during WW II.

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I was on the R-14 for a long time Apr. 42 to Aug. 44 with 3 months away for Submarine School (July – Sept. 42). We were in Key West the whole time and mainly ran target for the Sonar School and trained submariners going from Sub School to fleet submarines. We called our usual routine the 686- we went out at 6AM, dived to 80 feet to run target for surface ships (and blimps), and came back to port at 6PM. Not a bad routine considering what the fleet submarines were encountering at that time.

It was also fun in that we could do anything we wanted to keep things going. Many of the repairs we accomplished would have probably got us in deep trouble if done on modern nuclear subs. A lot of repairs had to be what the U.S. marines call “field expedients” because many of our systems had no spare parts in the supply system. We had to improvise all the time. An example of a dangerous condition – toward the end of my tour, I noted that the after engine room hatch was very difficult to seat properly. I made sure that I was the only one authorized to close it because if it was not seated properly the gasket could easily blow out and flood the engine room. I guess we were lucky that only one of 7 R-boats in Key West (R-12) was lost operationally.

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