Forward engine room looking aft. Engines one and two are hidden behind the lockers and benches on port and starboard sides. On Guppy-II submarines like CUBERA, the propeller shafts were driven from large batteries by electric motors, both on the surface and submerged. The motor armatures were actually wound on the propeller shafts. The four sixteen cylinder General Motors diesel/generator sets (two in each engineroom) charged the batteries while on the surface. The CUBERA also had a snorkel, modified from the original Dutch design, that permitted running one or two engines at a keel depth of about 54 feet.
Want to know more about WWII Fleet Submarines? The Maritime.org site has
the complete series of NAVPERS 16160 training manuals online.
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Interactive demo - How a Sub Works! |
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Diagrams:
[PDF: Require Adobe Acrobat 4 ]
Balao-class sub layout
(160Kb PDF)
Or as a JPEG (60kb JPG)
Interior diagram of Cubera
(Revised Apr 2004)
(120kb PDF)
Or as a JPEG (325K JPG)
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| Cubera's patch (re-created 1998 version) |
1946 "Disney" patch (Courtesy Al Conner) |
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| Ship's plaque circa 1963, courtesy of Nelson Seyford, nephew of R. Boykin |
CUBERA Crew photo at Destroyer and Sub Piers, Norfolk 1964.
Here I'm pretending to be operating the bow planes. I had a shipmate follow me around one night on below-decks watch in port and take shots in various rooms (compartments to you skimmers). At sea, lookouts manned the planes after clearing the bridge for diving. Bow planes controlled the depth, stern planes the angle. The large dial behind the wheel is the shallow depth gauge, that reads down to one hundred feet. The smaller one to the left of it reads down to one thousand feet. We could only operate down to about 650 feet, although the theoretical "crush" depth was 900 feet. We went to 660 once, by accident.
Control room. I'm at what was known at that time as the ESM scanner. It scanned a wide band of radio emission frequencies and would display and record signal characteristics. I tracked
several Russian trawlers down around Cuba with this gear. Above my head is the hull opening indicator panel, called the "christmas tree" - red lights meant an open hatch, green - closed, Hence the term "green board" signified all openings were shut and it was safe to proceed with the dive.
Radar watch in the conning tower. I'm standing facing the CW-55AGV-3 display/control console of our SS-1 radar set. I had the air conditioning duct taped to keep the icy North Atlantic air off my forehead. Condensation dripped into the scope from there when it was cold, and I had to continually wipe the PPI screen. My arms got a workout fighting the rolls in heavier seas.
Crew's Mess. Left to right, QM3(SS) Billy Joe Price from Georgia writing a letter, big guy is "Suitcase" Simpson RM1(SS), the lead radioman. Seated is Jerome Leach, a seaman just relieved of lookout watch during stormy weather. We used to rotate the bridge personnel down for a coffee and a smoke. The dark streak is an artifact in the polaroid film.
In Toulon, we met a couple of French sub sailors in a local bistro. They took us on a tour of their boat, and we of course recipicaded...reciprotated...did the same. Here we are, (me on the far right) sloshed ti the gills, after consuming a great prtion of pickled vegetables from the jar visible in the lower right. We, of course, subsekwently... subsquently... ah, afterwards, we returned to the city (hic) and drank until we (hic) dropped.
Merrill (Gus) Negus and I having a smoke break in front of the starboard motor control cubicle, in the Maneuvering room. Below the deck under our feet was the motor room, containing the huge DC electric motors that powered the sub's screws (propellers). Gus was in the process of overhauling an engine - that's why he's so hard to see.
This is the port motor and engines control cubicle in the maneuvering room. I was standing a battery charge watch for qualification. The dials behind me indicated voltages and currents to and from the battery and generator. The box behind my head with the handle on top is a "battle lantern", a battery operated flashlight to be used when main and emergency lighting fails (a BAD situation).
See and hear Cubera's
bell aboard USS COD
