The Submarine

Next to the USS Yorktown in Charleston was this submarine used during the Cold War.

Here's Jack, boldly going where no man has gone before.

Wait.

Scratch that.

Anyway, I wanted Jack to experience it and I had never been on a submarine before either, so he, Josh, and I all climbed down to explore while Kyle stayed on dry land with Sam and the stroller.

Because I'm only slightly obsessed with kitchens, I had to include the next couple of shots. I'm not sure if military jargon uses the word "mess" for a kitchen, a dining hall, or both, so for this post, I'm just going to use the good old civilian word "kitchen." I hope that's OK with everyone.

Anyway, whatever they're called, they are tiny. No, "tiny" doesn't cut it.

There are no words.

From now on, whenever something is too small to describe,

I'm going to say it's "submarine kitchen small."

This first shot is the officers kitchen:

This second shot is the crewman's kitchen.

Is that a giant KitchenAid or is this kitchen also tiny?

Yes. To both.

Wait, is that a guys head sticking out of the floor?!?

Here is an officers office. If I remember correctly, this submarine housed 33 officers and 77 crewmen. However, the actual living space on board would accommodate approximately 1 adult human and maybe a cat.

Maybe.

Here is one of the larger rooms. Please note how small it is as well. The largest room on the entire sub is the "War Room," which makes sense.

Here's another shot of the tiny command center.

Check out the state-of-the-art typewriter.

I think it's electric!

Very impressive for "back in the day."

Also worth mentioning:

it appears that the chair doubles as a filing cabinet.

Jack is three years old. He is big for his age, but he's still a smallish human. Do you see how he almost entirely takes up the width of the walking space?!?

And he's looking at a bunk.

Someone slept there, next to all those pipes and gears.

Actually, my dad later told me that 3 men shared one bed, and that they slept in 8 hour shifts. Once your shift was over, there was another guy waiting to get in the bed you just vacated.

Jack's favorite room, of course. He loved all the gears, knobs, levers, everything that moves and makes other things move. I think we spent the majority of our time in this room, which was fine by me because it was one of the larger rooms on board.

Prior to my experience with this submarine, the only knowledge I had of them came from movies. Now, we all know how accurate movies (and Hollywood in general) are, but still. I need to just say that touring this sub gave me a whole new respect for the guys who go on board these tiny vessels, then willingly go into the depths of the oceans, not resurfacing for months at a time. These men know that if something happens, there isn't a helicopter or a dingy or anything else to come rescue them.

They are literally quite cut off from the rest of the world.

And yet, they do it.

I have a lot of respect for that.