Thanks, Darrin. That means a lot coming from the head school master on here.
Honestly, we seldom give all of this information to visitors on event weekends. Otherwise, it would be a 2-hour tour and our goal is to limit a speech to maybe 5 minutes per compartment. Almost impossible to do. I try to memorize the highlights and if people have more questions, usually the tour sheets have the answers.
You're never going to have someone ask you how to manually open a MBT vent when there is a hydraulic failure or how the negative tank affects the depth trim. So, I left most of the "engineering" stuff off of the sheets. I do explain how a torpedo tube is loaded, flooded, fired, sea water is salvaged, etc. I also bring up decoys in the aft torpedo room, because it just amazes me what they thought of back then and how they managed to do it with vacuum tubes. A visitor won't know to ask about decoys or that battery-operated torpedoes had to be recharged on a regular basis (in tandem with a hydrogen gas burner) unless you bring it up.
A lot of us are becoming tour/presentation experts, since many of us have done these public events 7 times and it gets easier every time (unless 400+ visitors show up in a 6-hour window). A lot of the guys have thanked me for the tour sheets, because they have learned a lot about submarine operations and we all give a consistent message, now. It was very embarrassing early on when we would tell a visitor one thing and then someone else would give a different answer. The visitor almost always would challenge you and it removes your credibility as a historian and docent. That was the main reason that I labored over these things.
So, I appreciate all of the positive feedback. If you find anything incorrect or questionable, let me know.
