A Submarine Mystery for the Astute Only

Yesterday's Mystery Questions of the Week were answered correctly by the SonarMan. One question involved identifying something striking from the ship's underway photo, other than 3 items M.E. mentioned.

There was something else remarkable in that photo. Think hydrodynamic flow and observe the HMS Astute's unusual bow configuration. Note the freeboard (height of ship's hull, excluding sail, above the waterline). We do not know Astute's speed, but compare the sea turbulence on the sub's flanks to that of our SSN-21. Let's assume the underway Seawolf was at a higher surface speed.

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Does surface turbulence even matter for a nuclear submarine? Like U.S. boats the Astute's hull is hydrodynamically rounded for higher speed with lower drag, turbulence and noise generation.

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The forward fairing on Astute's bow no doubt covers specialized equipment (space is never wasted). Does it also provide another purpose? Is it a flow diverter to reduce sonar transducer noise. M.E. suspects so.

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Submarines are always silent and strange