Tethered Buoys

[Mark Sarsfield]

Guys,

  How many other fleet boats out their still sport the tethered buoys on their decks?  Batfish has one forward on the starboard side of the forward escape trunk and one aft on the port side of the ATR stairwell.  Any idea when the Navy may have installed these?  At the risk of being "whacked" by Paul, we hate looking at these things, but if it's a late war mod, then they can stay.  I don't remember seeing them in any of the Batfish war photos and Rick thinks that they were added in the 50's or 60's.  A little bird told me that modern subs have them, but the crews aren't very fond of them in case they break free.

[Tom Bowser]

The Drum had them until they went to pearl where they were removed. They were put back when the went to Mare Island in '43 and removed agin in PH and put back again in Hunters point JUne '45 and remove again in PH, don't have any records past that. In 65-72 both boats I was on weld the bouys done prior to going on patrol.
Tom Bowser

[Mark Sarsfield]

In 65-72 both boats I was on welded the bouys down prior to going on patrol.

We've been told similar stories.   

So, these buoys "conceptually" are from the war period.  Ours may be a newer design than what was originally on the boat, based on how many times Drum had hers added and removed over the years.  Sounds like we should leave them installed.

[Lance Dean]

What are these things and what do they look like?

[Mark Sarsfield]

It's an oval cage with two metal spheres and some smaller buoys contained within it.  It has a reel with a cable.  The other end of the cable is fastened to the hull.  There is a release mechanism in the escape trunk to set it free to float to the surface.  When you escape from the boat you slowly follow the line up to the surface saying "ho, ho, ho, ho..." because the air in your lungs is at a higher pressure than sea level pressure - that's how they train the guys at the sub school today with the diving tower.  Back then you probably would have used the momson lung.  If you surface too fast without exhaling enough air, you can do lung damage and also get the benz from the nitrogen in your blood expanding too rapidly.  Divers have to do the same thing if they go down past a certain depth.

[Lance Dean]

Oh yeah, I've read about that many times.  There's a book about the guys on the Tang escaping that way.  Many got too excited and let go of the rope/cable or else didn't count at the knots like they were supposed to in order to prevent the benz.

[Darrin]

From what I understand about those on the WWII boats is that they are spring loaded so IF you pop the top before warned that you may get a suprise that you were not looking for as it comes up to kiss you in it's rusty glory. Honestly they aren't hurting anything and they have been there a LONG time so leave them and just maintain them

[Paul Farace]

I'm LOADING MY GUN!!!    AND IT AIN'T WITH BUCKSHOT!!!   


The rescue bouys were aboard fleet boats in 1939 when SQUALUS sank... it's how she was located. The original ones were cylinders (single spherical float) with a telephone inside and a cable attached to the top bridal on the two torpedo room hatches (fore and aft).  When a boat went on patrol they were removed and 'the hole blanked. In peacetime they were mandatory. In 1953 the cylinders were replaced with the oval versions we all have now. They were painted yellow until 1960s when it was changed to orange. Some boats had the flat steel lids removed and replaced with a steel mesh that followed the contours of the crap inside (UUUUUGGLY!!)... IMHO.  LIONFISH has this late mod.


The McCann rescue bell would be attached to the steel cable and would inch down to find its mating surface on the torpedo room hatches.

BTW:  this is not the float you would follow up to the surface making a free escape. Those were much smaller Kapok floats cylindrical in size about 14 inches in diameter and and 20 inches long with a groove in the middle where the crew would tie a rope and pass it up through the escape trunk. The first men out of the escape trunk door would tie the end to a ring above the side door...


B A N G  !!!!

dang... I just shot off my big toe with this gun!!!   

PF

[Paul Farace]

On the TANG situation:

Clayton Decker said he felt the men inside either were too sick or scared of what the Japs had in store for them and didn't want to risk a horrible death at their hands and instead chose to die among their shipmates (how sad is that?).  Poor training in escape proceedures was blamed for the very low survival rate of the men in the FTR.  Again, very sad.

PF