Voyage of the Devilfish

RELIEF VALVE A spring loaded valve that will open and relieve the pressure on a tank or vessel instead of allowing the tank to rupture or fail.

REM Roentgen Equivalent Man. A unit of radiation dosage that takes into account tissue damage due to neutron radiation. Convenient since it allows gamma, alpha, and neutron radiation to be measured with the same units. 1000 rem will kill. 500 rem may kill. Yearly dose for submarine personnel is restricted to less than 25 to 100 millirem.

RIG FOR BLACK Submarine term meaning “turn off the lights in the control room.”

RIG FOR COLLISION A ship wide lineup consisting of shutting hatches in bulkheads and shutting hardened ventilation dampers in bulkheads to minimize possible risk to the ship during a collision. Generally same as rig for flooding.

RIG FOR DIVE A detailed valve and switch lineup done in preparation to dive. Initially done by a dolphin-wearing enlisted man and checked by a dolphin-wearing officer.

RIG FOR FLOODING Similar to rig for collision. Bulkhead hatches and ventilation dampers are shut to isolate each compartment from the neighboring compartment. Ship is buttoned up to ensure maximum survivability.

RIG FOR PATROL QUIET Ship systems lineup to ensure maximum quiet while allowing normal creature comforts such as cooking and movie watching. Maintenance on equipment is allowed, if it does not involve banging on the hull. Noisy operations are only permitted with the captain’s permission, such as reactor coolant discharge, steam generator blowdowns, etc.

RIG FOR WHITE Submarine term meaning “turn on the lights in the control room.”

TO (REACTOR OPERATOR) Nuclear trained enlisted man who mans the Reactor Plant Control Panel and reports to the EOOW.

ROUTINE A message priority below PRIORITY. Delivery assurance in weeks or months.

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT A formal manual detailing what actions a U.S. vessel may take in response to enemy actions, such as an intentional collision by an enemy vessel in peacetime.

In general, the rules require that no weapon may be shot unless the enemy ship has already launched a weapon.

RUN-TO-ENABLE Initial torpedo run taking it away from own ship. During the run-to-enable, the warhead is not armed and the sonar is not operational. When the run-to-enable is complete, the weapon activates the active or passive sonar and swims the search pattern. The warhead is not armed until it has a detect on the target.

R-l 14 AIR CONDITIONER Two air-conditioning units that control the high temperatures and humidity caused by the steam plants. Ship is air-conditioned to allow electronic equipment to function, not for creature comfort.

SAFETY LANES Special routes for submarine transit in time of war. Submarines detected by U.S. forces inside these lanes are assumed to be friendly.

SAIL Conning tower. Named because, unlike the conning towers of World War II diesel boats, which were misshapen and asymmetrical, modern nuclear submarine conning towers are smooth fins with square profiles when viewed from the side. Someone called it a sail in the distant past and the term became official.

SCI (SPECIAL COMPARTMENTED INFORMATION) A classification of information separate from the Confidential/Secret/Top Secret system. SCI information is compartmented or sectioned, so that no one person has the full story. Capture or compromise of one compartment of the information will be damaging but not catastrophic. SCI information is usually so sensitive that it is generally considered a higher classification than Top Secret. SCI is also information that compromises intelligence methods and sources.

SCRAM An emergency shutdown of a nuclear reactor, done by driving control rods to the bottom of the core using springs.

A term left over from the 1940s when primitive lab reactors had a single control rod suspended by a rope. An emergency shutdown would be done by cutting the rope and letting the rod drop by gravity. The safety man was called the Safety Control Rod Ax Man — hence SCRAM.

SCRAM BREAKER A circuit breaker that interrupts power to the latching electromagnets of the control rod drive mechanisms. When the breaker opens, electrical power to the electromagnets is shut off, the magnets lose their magnetism, and the latches of the rods open, allowing springs to drop the rods to the bottom of the core.

SCRAM SETPOINTS The power level that will result in the protective circuits scramming the reactor. There are also setpoints for amount of flow through the core and core pressure.

SCRAMBLED EGGS The gold branches of leaves sewn onto the brim of a senior officer’s cap.

SCRUBBER C02 scrubber. Atmospheric control equipment that rids the ship of carbon dioxide (from breathing, the diesel, and the CO burner) by blowing it over an amine bed.

SEA TRIALS Post construction shakedown cruise of a ship. Done to ensure the equipment lives up to the specifications and that the ship is ready to perform its mission.