Voyage of the Devilfish

STATION NUMBER ONE Position off the Russian northern coast used by either a submarine waiting in ambush in wartime or a coven intelligence gathering ship in peacetime. Location coordinates are in the SIOP WARPLAN.

STATUS BOARD A white board in the control room used to indicate the status of miscellaneous things of interest to the OOD such as torpedo tubes (empty, flooded, door open, or warshot loaded), time of sunrise, etc.

STEADY A report from the helmsman that the ship is on the ordered course and is not turning.

STEAM EXPLOSION One possible result of a reactor overpower accident, in which too much heat is added to the coolant in a short time. The water expands into steam, and the pressure rises dramatically, finally breaching the reactor vessel, causing it to physically explode.

STEAM GENERATOR A large heat exchanger with superhot primary coolant flowing inside tubes, with cold water from the condensers pumped in the bottom. Primary coolant boils the water to steam for use in turbines. Also called a boiler.

STEAM LEAK, MAJOR When one of the large steam pipes ruptures in the engineroom or AMR 2. Result is rapid cooking of engineering crew unless the leak is isolated using MS1 or -2 valves. Steam leaks are also dangerous because they will overpower the reactor.

STEAM PLANT CONTROL PANEL (SPCP) Console in the maneuvering room that monitors the steam plant. Has the large throttle wheel in front that controls the speed of the main engines. Manned by the throttleman.

STERNPLANES Horizontal control surfaces at the tail of a submarine. Similar to the elevator tail surfaces of an aircraft, the sternplanes cause the ship to rise or dive.

STERNPLANESMAN Enlisted watchstander in the Ship Control Party who controls the sternplanes at the Ship Control Panel.

STRAIGHT BOARD Indications on the Ballast Control Panel showing green bars, indicating that all hatches and vents are shut — final announcement indicating ship is ready for dive.

SUBEX Submarine exercise.

SUBMERSIBLE Small deep-diving submarine designed for short trips to the ocean bottom to gather data. May be manned or a robot.

SUBROC Submarine launched rocket with a nuclear depth charge. Obsolete and eliminated since analysis indicated it would severely damage the firing ship due to the nuclear blast.

SUBSUNK An emergeicy transmitter that releases from a submarine hull autom; i.cally at a certain depth that calls a distress signal to the satellite that a submarine is sinking. System taken out of service for fear of it going off mistakenly, giving away the ship’s position.

SUCKER An emergency air breathing mask for use during toxic gas emergencies or radioactive contamination release to the submarine’s atmosphere.

SUPERCRITICAL A condition of a nuclear reactor when power level is increasing and each fission neutron generation’s population is exceeded by the next generation’s.

SURFACED-AT-ICE Ship rigged to stay for a long period of time surfaced at a polynya. Ballast tanks are partially filled with air and monitored.

SUSTAINER ENGINE The jet engine of a cruise missile. It sustains continued flight.

SYNCH A radioman’s term meaning the ship’s radio equipment is tuned and receiving radio signals from the transmitter.

TAPE MODE A firecontrol casualty condition in which the tape module is used as the operating system instead of the disk module. Reduces speed and capability of the Mark I firecontrol system.

TARGET ONE The designation of a sonar, radar, ESM, or visual contact as a target to be fired upon or tracked.

TARGET ZIG A term used to describe a target’s maneuver, either a turn, speed change, or both. Requires the ship to do more TMA to get a new solution.

TDU (TRASH DISPOSAL UNIT) A vertical torpedo tube used to jettison garbage overboard. Garbage is first bagged and weighed down with lead bricks to ensure it does not float to the surface and give away the ship’s position.

TERMINAL VELOCITY A falling or accelerating object in a fluid (air or water) eventually stops speeding up when fluid drag balances accelerating force. The velocity that is reached is called terminal velocity.

TEST DEPTH A depth about 2/3 of crush depth. Maximum allowed depth a submarine is allowed to go in peacetime.

TG’S (TURBINE GENERATORS) The two turbines aft that turn the ship’s electrical generators and provide electrical power.