THE DEEP

The Northwest is full of cool, unusual museums.  On our way up to Port Townsend (see “A Tale of Two Cities,” posted out of order) we came upon a sign for the

We old tars can’t pass up anything dealing with the Navy, so we detoured off our route to check this out.  We’re (yes, Loni too!) very glad we did.  A fascinating museum dealing with the history of submarines, mines, torpedoes, and diving apparatus.  Definitely check this out.  We spent several hours viewing all the exhibits.  Some of the stuff was incredible.  Jacques Cousteau did NOT invent the aqualung, he only improved on a design that actually worked in the 1860’s.

Submariners of necessity have to work and live in confined spaces.  The crew bunks on a nuclear sub are stacked three high, with a sort of drawer under each bunk which houses ALL of the clothes and personal effects for each sailor.  Here, the center bunk is raised to show the drawer. Talk about packing light!

 

Dry-camping (no hookups) RVers are well aware of the “Navy shower.” 

This was not exclusive to submarines.  Even on aircraft carriers we had to be careful of use of fresh water.  I recall an extended deployment on the Kitty Hawk when one of our desalinization units went out and the whole ship was placed on water restriction.  Even we ossifers had to troop down to the crew quarters, where a master chief sat with a stopwatch and allowed you your two minutes of H20 every third day.  Rank had dual meaning during that time.

The section on torpedoes was very cool.  The essential principles of a design first established back in the 1800’s were in use for nearly 100 years.  The genius of those early inventors was mindblowing.  There were displays of every major development,

and of how they were used.

Diving apparatus filled another section,

including a nice, large area devoted to the history (and travails) of the women who pioneered their way into this historically male domain.  They didn’t have it easy.  The equipment is incredibly heavy and the men, on the whole, didn’t give much encouragement.  For really deep diving these days, one ends up looking like Robbie the Robot:

This was a great stop.  I’m glad we caught a glimpse of the signage, as I was otherwise unaware of it.