SubQual
03-23-2005, 10:37 AM
Was in the mall with my wife today and was a gentleman where a submariner hat, being a bubblehead myself I went up to say hi. This guy served on the Seahorse in the 40s. He was actually off the cost of Japan and submerged when the first bomb was dropped.
We spoke for quite some time comparing his experiences and mine. He told me an interesting story.
The Torps on the use Subs burn acohol, the same stuff they used for medical purposes. Now this mean they had a large supply on board. it also turns out that this stuff was drinkable so the Navy had a chemical put in it to stop that. This chemical gave the alcohol a strange color.
What they would do was use two loafs of fresh bread and make a filter. The checmical would be filtered out enough for drinking. They would put this in pineapple juice to grab a buzz during down time.
He also told me that the use of deckguns in games and books is not accurate. They ONLY time they ever used a deck gun was when they had a fishing boat run into them when they had surfaced at night to recharge.
We spoke for about 45 minutes and I must say I really enjoyed the conversation. He said he might buy the game for his computer to check it out himself.
We spoke for quite some time comparing his experiences and mine. He told me an interesting story.
The Torps on the use Subs burn acohol, the same stuff they used for medical purposes. Now this mean they had a large supply on board. it also turns out that this stuff was drinkable so the Navy had a chemical put in it to stop that. This chemical gave the alcohol a strange color.
What they would do was use two loafs of fresh bread and make a filter. The checmical would be filtered out enough for drinking. They would put this in pineapple juice to grab a buzz during down time.
He also told me that the use of deckguns in games and books is not accurate. They ONLY time they ever used a deck gun was when they had a fishing boat run into them when they had surfaced at night to recharge.
We spoke for about 45 minutes and I must say I really enjoyed the conversation. He said he might buy the game for his computer to check it out himself.