Greetings again folks,

Another technical question:

By now, many of you have probably seen the movie: "The Perfect Storm". For those of who who have not, I recommend it - the storm scenes are quite dramatic.

In any case, I am curious to know how a U-boat, or a submarine for that matter would handle such an event, running on the surface (no cheating now, they can't duck under for purposes of my question).

Would a U-boat risk capsizing in such weather? Would the severe longitudinal stresses be such that the boat could break in half, as what sometimes happens to large tankers and bulk carriers (notwithstanding the fact that the latter two are much longer than a submarine)?

Finally, it seems to me that when a U-boat was running on the surface during a storm, that the air intake for the diesels would be severely taxed due to the constant washover from heavy seas. As I understand it, the later models of the type VIIC had the air intake trunks running up the side of the conning tower, however, given some of the photos that I have seen, this would be of dubious additional value given the low profile of the boat in a storm.

More questions from the peanut gallery.


Robert Eno