An Idiot's Guide to Submarine TerminologyWritten by Billy Dobson

Billy Dobson

 

Conventional Submariner's titles/nicknames differ somewhat to that of the Polaris Submariner as does he to the newer Trident Submariner and will certainly differ when female (Splits) Wren Officers / Wrens are carried.

Polaris (SSBN) SS stands for Submarine, the B stands for Ballistic and the N for Nuclear.

First Things First - the Captain:

Starting with the Captain, he is the 'Gaffer', Mr Big, Skipper, God, his word is law, if he's in the control room with the periscope raised, no-one other than he speaks unless he's spoken to by the Captain, the main reason being that a submarine is at its' most vulnerable state whilst coming up from deep to PD (Periscope Depth), whilst at PD or that of leaving PD. The Captain, as a for instance, might be observing a surface contact, a lighthouse on shore to confirm his position on a chart (sea map), whatever it is, he must be heard by one and all, he would give a description of what he's looking at, shout out whatever he's observing "Bearing That", a person who's duty at PD is called the Periscope Reader, reads off the bearing indicated by the Periscope Bearing Ring and calls it out, the Captain can also press a button that transmits the bearing to various places within the Control Room too.

The Captain sleeps in a single man cabin, usually eats alone unless invited into the Wardroom (Bunhouse/Bunrun) by the Senior Officer who will be the Executive Officer (Second in Command). Also known as the 'Jimmy', 'Jimmy the One' or the XO, he normally will have had his own Command previously on a Conventional Submarine and is capable of taking over the duties of the Captain if the Captain is taken ill or has decided to take a few hours off to get his head down (sleep).

The Captain's needs are catered for by a capable 'Underwater Plate Layer', a nominated Leading Steward. The "Leading" bit of his title means that he's climbing the ladder of promotion, having served some time as an ordinary or able steward learning the basics of grovelling round an Officer's Messdeck (Flunkey) (Soup Jocky) and adept at using his Crumb Brush cleaning the tables. Once he passes his promotion exam, he takes on the mantle of mentor to his juniors in his charge and he becomes the right hand man of the Petty Officer Steward if one is carried as part of the ship's company.

Part 1 – The Fore Ends - Fwd Dome to BKHD 35:

fore_ends

The Ship's Company has various tasks to attend to. We'll start from the sharp end/front bit (Fore-Ends). This is where the torpedos are stowed down the lower level, then loaded and fired from the torpedo tubes. Each department has a HOD (Head of Department Officer), Senior Rate (Ordinance Artificer) (Tiffy), Leading Hand, down to an AB (Able Bodied) sailor or, nowadays, possibly Greenies (For'd electrical cross threads), but generally sailors (Dabber/Dabtoe).

There is quite a bit of equipment stored in the fore-ends too with regards to life saving equipment - oxygen generators, Abortion Units (absorption units), oxygen candle burners. Because the fore-ends is a designated escape area, there is a BIBS (Built in Breathing System with pipework and connections for portable Breathing Units (B Us) to be plugged into during a rush escape; you plug the male connector into the female receptor and place the B U mouth piece into your mouth and breath air normally as the air in the compartment may well be under pressure and be lethal to breath in. The accepted practice is for each man to form a line, all plugged into the BIBS System pipe. Someone first of all prepares the escape tower, taking off clips, dropping the twilled trunking etc; then, as each man exits the tower, everyone moves one place nearer to tower following the BIBS pipework. What you must ensure is that, whilst holding your breath, you pick up the next in line B U and test that it's working before releasing the one you've been using; this is called Fleeting.

In this area are SSE's (Submerged Signal Ejectors), a library, books/games and an Escape Tower (two man) and the upper area is also a recognised messdeck for junior rates. On the upper level there is also equipment in the fore-ends that is linked to equipment in the Control Room that transmits data to the fore-ends for setting on torpedos ready for firing. This information is gathered from information provided by the Soundroom Staff Wallahs (the ears of the submarine) and the Control Room Attack Team.

Having said all before on torpedo firing, it's highly unlikely that a Polaris Boat would fire at a Skimmer/Target (Surface Fleet Ship), I've not heard of one, but HMS/M Conqueror (SSN) SS submarine, N Nuclear, did sink the Belgrano during the Falklands conflict and we still practice however, just in case !!!!!!

 

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