Submarine Mystery Questions of the Week: 7-29-2009

The theme of this week's Submarine mystery Questions is time.

Quote of the day:

"My first year on board the boat, she spent two-hundred and eighty-five days deployed. The second year, she spent two-hundred and sixty-five days underway. During my three-year tour, the boat only paid short port visits to Italy, Bermuda, Fort Lauderdale and Key West."

Question 1) - From the online source, who was the sailor and what was the boat?

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The remainder of this week's questions are slightly more difficult. Ship's bell clocks, a wardroom tradition on naval ships, were based on shipboard watches that were, historically, 4-hours long. In fact, even the nuclear submarines in which some of us served had a brass, bell-strike clock like the Chelsea model in the photo. The cost of these quaint timepieces has quadrupled since then, and submarine watches shifted to 6-hours length decades ago.

Question 2) - What is the latest commissioned submarine with a wardroom ship's bell clock?

(Answers to the 2 questions in bold highlight will depend entirely on the feedback of knowledeable submarine commenters. M.E. does not have this answer).

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Question 3) - About when did U.S. submarines switch from the 4-on and 8-off watch schedule of WW2 to the 6-on and 12-off watches?

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Question 4) - How recently did some U.S. nuclear subs use a 4-on 8-off schedule?

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Question 5) - Is the future of the 18-hour day for U.S. subs currently in question?

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Question 6) - If your sub had a brass bell-strike clock in its wardroom, who polished it and was the strike mechanism usually turned on or off?

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Answers Saturday.

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Submarines are always silent and strange.