How to Poop on a Nuclear Submarine - Smarter Every Day 256
- Hey, it's me, Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Every Day. If you're just joining this nuclear submarine deep dive series, boy have I got a treat for you. We have covered a ton of stuff that happens on board nuclear submarines. We looked at sonar, we looked at torpedoes, how to make air, food, water, all this stuff, the command structure. This has been a fascinating series on board the USS Toledo as it participates in ICEX in the Arctic. We're under the ice in the nuclear submarine. It's awesome.
So today's video is the next to last video in the series. We're going to end the whole series by surfacing through the ice, which is fascinating and far more complicated than I could imagine. But I needed a video to try to catch all the things that didn't really have another place. So today on Smarter Every Day, we're going to talk about all these things that you might not think to ask about life on board a nuclear submarine until you find yourself on a nuclear submarine.
So, to get started, I want to show you a game that I learned on board. It's called cribbage. I saw it in the crew's mess, I saw it in the ward room and I saw it in the chief's quarters. This is a game that involves cards and using a clever arrangement of numbers and stuff like that, and pegs to keep track of your score. If you were looking closely during the sonar video, you could see above the white board that Chief Luth was using to explain sonar to me, there was a scoreboard of sorts between the captain and the executive officer. That's how important cribbage is on a submarine.
So, I mean this is a built-in cribbage board. So, what's the deal with cribbage? This is like the second or third time I've seen it.
[Submariner] It's like a game you can play on a ship that's moving around.
[Destin] Yeah, oh--
[Naval Officer] That's why it's a Naval, like a Navy tradition.
[Destin] 'Cause of the pegs, 'cause if the boat's moving, it doesn't matter.
So in all sailing ships they drill holes in the wood and they put the pegs in and that's how they play it.
[Destin] That's awesome.
[Submariner] It's like the underwear thing. Just to waste some time, blow off some steam.
[Destin] Really?
[Submariner] Do some math quick in your head.
[Destin] Really? It's pretty fun?
[Submariner] Yes, a lot of fun.
[Destin] So like all submariners know how to play cribbage?
[Submariner] Most, I would say most of us know. It's not all of us.
[Destin] Who's the best?
[Submariner] He claims to be but he actually just got whooped on one a little bit.
[Submariner] It varies on who you're playing.
[Destin] How long does it take to play one game?
[Submariner] 10 minutes.
[Submariner] 15 minutes.
[Submariner] It depends on how good your hands are.
[Destin] 15?
[Submariner] 10, 15 minutes, yes.
[Submariner] It doesn't take long.
[Submariner] Well, some people can't count so it takes longer. (Destin laughs)
[Submariner] Yeah, some people don't count for it.
[Submariner] You don't play check. (submariners laughing)
[Submariner] 'Cause you need a translator.
[Submariner] It's frustrating man, like always speak, did you even go to school?
[Submariner] Yeah. (Destin laughs)
[Submariner] Second language is English you know. (laughter)
[Destin] Where are you from?
[Submariner] South Carolina.
[Destin] Oh, yeah? (all laughing)
[Destin] He said that, you just see the shame on his face. South Carolina. He's like I don't know what I'm gonna say -
[Submariner] My accent comes in every now and then too, so.
[Destin] Do you know what code switching is?
[Submariner] Uh.
[Submariner] Code switching is when you hear someone talk in a certain way and you try to match it.
[Submariner] Okay.
[Submariner] I do that so hard.
[Destin] Oh, really?
[Submariner] Oh yeah. Yeah I was talking to this fancy lady the other day, and then someone came up from like South Alabama. They were like, "Hey man, how's it going?" I was like, "What's up Bird? How's it going?" And she's like, "Destin, are you okay?" It's just a thing, man.
So this is a shirt for the sun?
(speaking together) That's from our Chief's Quarters.
[Submariner] That's our actual tee shirt.
[Destin] Well, you have a, you have a shirt for here.
[Submariner] Yes.
[Submariner] Like this 20 square feet has like its own shirt. So this literally is a club.
[Submariner] Yes. (all laugh)
[Destin] Can I know the handshake? Don't even act like there's no handshake. There's no handshake?
[Submariner] There is no handshake.
[Submariner] No handshake.
[Destin] Well, let me teach you one. So, yeah, yeah. So like that, and then you roll it up, roll it up, and you throw it down and step on it. You can't smoke on a submarine, everybody knows that. (all laughing) (making fizzing sound)
[Submariner] I like that.
(making fizzing sound)
[Submariner] Morale is a huge thing on the boat at all times. That's why submariners get really good food, right? One thing that I didn't realize could be used as a tool to increase morale is facial hair. I kid you not, mustaches are used specifically in order to increase morale on the boat.
There's a special individual on the boat, that I had never heard of this position, it's called the yeoman. This person is in charge of all the admin. So for example, how do you get paid? Like how do you make sure like everything is accounted for and all the admin stuff is straightened out? This is a very important job.
So it was really interesting to speak to Petty Officer Cleveland and understand what the role of the yeoman is.
I'm in charge of all the administration on the boat and I'll handle all the crew's pay issues and all the instructions, and I just take charge, make sure accountability for all the personnel we have on board.
[Destin] So how do you do that? So typically when you think about pay, you have to go back to like, I dunno, headquarters.
Yes sir, so we are essentially the boat's headquarters. If anybody has a problem with their pay for instance, they'll let us know and we go and track that down. We call our, we call who we report to and we try to handle the situation as we can.
[Destin] Okay, so that gives me a really interesting question, so, you're underwater for months?
Yes sir.
[Destin] So how do people get paid? I don't understand that.
Um, so--
[Destin] You're not like handing out cash on the boat.
No sir, we try not to. (Destin laughing)
But, essentially when we pull back in, most of our, like 90% of our job is import, so when we get back into port we're going to be pretty much busy with everything we do. But when we're underwater, we handle instructions, notices, the typical correspondence stuff. Everything should be routed through us. We try to--
[Destin] What do you mean correspondence? Like mail?
Mail, letters, local instructions, anybody procedures, yeah typically. If something happens with someone's pay for instance, they go back and they don't get as much as they expect, then they print out what they are entitled to and we just compare the numbers.
[Destin] Got it. So it's all direct deposit back home.
Yes, sir.
[Destin] So it's going into your bank account.
It should be.
[Destin] It should be, (laughing) and if it's not, it's a pretty big issue really, you got to handle it really fast.
Yes, sir.
[Destin] Got it. Oh, I guess that makes sense because if there is a pay issue back home and your family has the issue, you don't know 'cause you guys are all secret squirrel stealth down here.
Yes sir.
[Destin] Yeah, has that ever happened?
Many times, yes sir.
[Destin] Really? And so you're the guy that comes and saves the day.
Yes sir, it keeps us busy.
[Destin] So you're good with numbers?
Yes sir, I try to be. (Destin laughing)
[Destin] That's good. Awesome. Nice to meet you.
You too, sir.
A couple of things about sleeping on a submarine. Number one, I was dog tired. So, I am not a good like barometer for what it's actually like to sleep on a submarine 'cause I was tired. I had flown over the Arctic, landed on an ice float, took a sled out to Camp Seadragon, spent some time freezing there, and then took a helicopter out to the submarine and toured on the submarine and asked the most intense questions I could think of for hours and hours and hours. I was tired.
So they could have told me to sleep anywhere and it would have felt great to me. But I did not have the typical sleeping experience which is these long halls, and you gotta be super quiet, no light. (background noise) This is where people sleep. And you might be sharing a bunk based on what shift you're working. For me, they're like, "Look, you're a visitor, we're going to put you in the executive officer's cabin, he's got an extra bunk, that's where you're staying." And I was like, "But, I would want to see what the other--" They're like, "Nope, you're staying there." And I said, "Yes, sir." And boy did I sleep good. (background noise)
Okay, it's time to get to bed. We're going to flip the lights to red. And, oh, it's so fun 'cause I don't know what I'm doing. (light clicking on and off) All right, I think I got it? (light switch clicking) (voices speaking in the background)
So this is really good. This is the night, these are the nice bunks. These are like the really nice bunks. Oh, there's a light right there. Oh, wow. Look at that. Neat. Okay, well it's time to go to bed. Goodnight.
Okay, just woke up. XO, what is it you said we were doing?
So the day just started, the oncoming wash team is already briefed. Right now we got breakfast going in the ward room. It's kind of a special day. We got waffles with strawberry hard pack, chocolate syrup, eggs and all kinds of stuff that we are going to--
[Destin] Did you say waffles and ice cream for breakfast?
We do have waffles and ice cream. It's not a common thing. It's only happened a couple of times but we made sure we loaded up right for this underway.
[Destin] Okay.
So. (alarm ringing)
[Destin] All right, here we go. So what's the, what are we going to do now?
So schedule's, we're going to go have some breakfast after that we got people set up to do some interviews with you and then once that's done there's going to be the vertical surfacing of the ship. So I'll have you back in control to see how the whole party comes together. Put the sail out through the ice, make sure we're stable on the surface. Kind of what you've watched yesterday, but in reverse.
[Destin] Uh-huh.
And then once that's done based on the timeline for your departure, we'll see if there's a little bit more time for any questions you might have for us or some we may have for you.
[Destin] Sounds good. Thanks, all right. I had never even considered ice cream on waffles but it was incredible, and I just want to show you a picture of what that's like. It's wonderful, you should try it.
Okay, so this is the state room, this is where the senior officers live. So this is kind of one of the perks of going to college and coming in as an officer, right? You get a little bit more space to yourself. So this is one room, it's got three beds in it. Each person gets a couple of different lockers here. So you'll see there's two, one on top and the bottom for each person.
[Female Submariner] I didn't leave my room clean. (laughter)
[Destin] Is this your room today?
[Female Submariner] This is my room.
Yes it is. Sorry, I got to clean.
[Male Officer] And then if you turn around here you can see we've got these dropdown desks where we have our laptops. So there's two workstations per state room.
[Destin] And, that's safe.
Yep, we got a safe, and then each state room has one. What we call low side and unclassed system, and then there's two classified systems for us going on.
[Destin] So you can email like home?
When we have the ability to communicate.
[Destin] Got it.
Yep
Which comes and goes.
[Destin] Gotcha. (both laugh)
Okay, this one's a little interesting, when I went onboard the submarine I wanted to understand the atmospheric pressure that I was under as we dove down under the ocean. So I took this little pressure gauge on board to measure the pressure inside the submarine when I was there. And I noticed when I was looking at the CAMS data that we are over 760 torr, which is one atmosphere. So that means we are over one atmosphere of pressure, and I found that to be fascinating. Now I didn't really learn anything from this but here's the data. You can see on the graph here, this is what the pressure history was while I was on the submarine and learn from that what you will.
So how do you deal with medical emergencies onboard a submarine? I progressively learnt how important this was onboard. This is my first contact with what that was like. (engines roaring)
So this is where all the medical stuff happens on board, right?
Yup.
[Destin] So what kinds of things can you accomplish in this little room?
In this little room, not very much. Most of my patient care happens in the ward room.
[Destin] Where people eat?
Yup. So if I have to do a surgery or something like that I do it over there. Just like two weeks ago, I filled somebody's tube in the ward room.
[Destin] Really?
Yep.
[Destin] So, when you say surgery, what happens if somebody has like appendicitis or something and you're at sea for multiple months?
So appendicitis we treat with a bunch of antibiotics. So starting by IV antibiotics, pain management and a bunch of antibiotics really.
[Destin] Really?
We--
[Destin] So you don't actually do the cut here?
No, we haven't cut on anybody in a long time on board.
[Destin] But it's something you can do?
Theoretically, but it's not something that we're really trained to do.
[Destin] Got it, understood.
So right now, for example, I have a headache. Are you the guy I see for the headache?
Yep.
[Destin] Can I get some aspirin or something?
Yeah, definitely.
Comm inter ratio at the electrical went to a normal full power line.
[Destin] So, is this where all the medication is on board?
This is a portion of it. This is the ready stock. So, I have restockments here for stuff that I use all the time, and then I have lockers all over the boat, you can see them with the red crosses on them.
[Destin] Got it.
And they have either medical equipment or medications.
[Destin] Got it. (keys clanking on locker)
Here we go. (pills pouring out) I don't know. (man groaning)
[Destin] Thank you very much. I'll take this two, okay.
Two's fine.
[Destin] Thank you very much.
Yep, you're welcome.
[Destin] I just drink water right here?
[Medical Submariner] Yep.
Okay, so at that moment, in my experience onboard the Toledo, it seemed like a pretty interesting stop. Like, Oh, okay, this is where you get your aspirin, right? Except not long after this conversation, I kid you not, someone was injured on board while doing their duty, and it was what I would classify as a serious medical emergency. And if it were me and you, for example we would have gone to the emergency room. It was significant, but we were in the Arctic ocean, there was no emergency room. There was a ward room table.
So what happened is, they went in there and they dealt with it. I elected to not film it. I wasn't told not to film it, but I knew that if this was me and I was injured in this way, I wouldn't want anybody filming me. So I told the Public Affairs Officer with me I was like, "Hey, I'm going to cut my cameras off because that just feels like the right thing to do." The Navy didn't tell me I can't talk about it or anything like that. But to respect the privacy of the individual that was injured, I've decided to not talk about it. What I can tell you is, even though it seemed like they had rudimentary medical facilities, they dealt with a very intense situation involving like wounds and stuff right there in the middle of the Arctic, and it was impressive.
This was a significant enough event that when they poked out of the ice, which you'll learn about in the next episode, when they sent me home, they sent this individual with me because they wanted this individual to get to medical facilities. So that's what happened.
Next thing, showers. I really care about showers. It's a big deal for me. So I want to know how to take a shower or at least get clean while on a submarine.
Okay, so this is the XO for the Toledo. Sir, you just run through it. Just give me the name, everything.
Sure, awesome. So my name is Yorg Andrews. I've been in the Navy for 15 years now as a submariner. This is my third submarine, third class submarine. I was on board the Henry M. Jackson as a junior officer, I was then on the John Warner as the department head, and now I'm here as an XO with Toledo, which has been a pretty amazing experience. I work hand in hand with the community castle on them. My job is to run the boat so he can kind of focus the boat, point us in the right direction and been excited and enjoyed living with you for the last portion of the day and sharing our spaces with you (crosstalk).
[Destin] Yeah, thank you for sharing your quarters with me. I appreciate that, yeah.
So, this is your restroom, right?
Correct, this is the CO/XO head, so it's shared really just by the two of us. We have a shower here on the right which is your standard shower, hot and cold water access and it has a restart pump so that the water stays hot and you can use it quickly and efficiently and minimize water usage, which is a constant drive for us to try and minimize water usage. We're able to make plenty of water, but if you use less you have to pump off less, and when you have to pump off less, you're making sure you're staying quiet as long as possible. So everything that we can do to minimize usage or waste generation is something that we're always striving to achieve.
[Destin] Good, so if I take a shower in here, how long should that shower be?
You can take as long as you want.
[Destin] But what should it be?
That's typically three to five minutes.
[Destin] Okay, three to five minutes.
Yup and then the process is it's up to you, but we'll get ourselves nice and wet shut off the water, soap up, turn on the water, rinse off, switch off the water again, and that's your standard submarine shower.
[Destin] That's what you do?
Yup.
[Destin] Okay, got it. (water in shower)
Ooh. (water in shower) Ooh, ahhh. (water in shower stops) Okay. (water in shower) Ooh, it's very hot. Okay. That was a submarine shower.
And the big question, how do you go to the bathroom on a nuclear submarine? And this is actually a more complicated thing than I realized.
Now this bad boy in here, this is not a normal toilet.
[Destin] This is not a normal toilet?
So we have pressurized sea water that we use in order to do flushing water when you're done. There's a ball valve there which is a plumbing free, so you use the toilet, you'll open the ball valve and you see the water go down, like so, or the waste go down like so.
[Destin] Oh yeah, it's a straight up ball valve.
[XO] Yep, so it goes down and then you'll refill when you're done with the toilet.
[Destin] Yep.
[XO] Now, as Doc was saying earlier, we have a procedure for literally everything on board. So you'll see right here, we have the instructions for flushing water closets.
[Destin] Yeah.
[XO] In case you just happen to forget that it's there, it'll be waiting for you. (Destin laughs)
So with respect to these so downstream, we have other valves that we can use to isolate that system. That way, when we dispose of our waste, we don't send that pressure this way. It's important that the guys get that portion of the procedure right because, it'll come out in this way if you're not careful about doing it. We also have signs here to make sure.
[Destin] I've heard, okay, that's the sign.
Yep, this is our blowing san sign. So we'll set it up so that when those tanks are being isolated for their discharging and that you don't accidentally come in here and find yourself taking the pressure in a different direction.
[Destin] It's like the world's worst bidet.
Yes. That's not what you want.
[Destin] So there's a lot of engineering that goes on behind all this stuff.
That is correct.
[Destin] Okay.
I engineer a lot of procedures and a lot of training for those guys especially to make sure that they understand how to execute it from the moment they start doing it.
[Destin] So why do you backfill it with water?
The back filling is it helps perform, provide a seal so that none of the smell can come up in the other direction in the event that there's any leakage past the ball valve.
[Destin] Makes sense. I noticed there's a lot of literature up here as well.
Yep.
[Destin] And so what's all this?
So, these are different manuals that we have with respect to our, both our engineering and stuff back Aft, we have a drawing booklet as well, and a couple of different binders that we all keep. In the event that there's a question that needs to be resolved or an equipment thing that needs to be worked through, most likely it's going to be in one of these books primarily. There's other books or other things that we can pick up on our LAN. Our network to do research on. But usually it's out of one of these books and so it's easier for us to just grab it, open it up and show the captain what it is that we're talking about on a random procedure.
[Destin] Got it. And I saw, I'm not allowed to look at this?
Yes.
[Destin] Okay. So I noticed you have like stuff like this everywhere.
[XO] Correct.
[Destin] I mean, you have stuff like this in the bathroom.
Uh-hum.
[Destin] So is that just because you need the space or?
So the commanding officer state room is set up for being our controlling station during any casualty. So as a result you'll have the weapons officer typically come in here and man DC central, he'll be making announcements over the one MC, which is our Ship Right Announcing Circuit and I'll be communicating with him at the scene of the casualty, be it flooding, fire, or hydraulic rapture, whatever it happens to be. And they will track using these boards the various equipment that we're using, as well as the different announcements that we need to make, and the sequence of that we're going to be using to go through fighting the actual casualty. So this will get opened, he'll mark stuff up as he goes.
[Destin] What do you mean opened? Is there a door?
[XO] Yeah, this isn't actually a door.
[Destin] Oh, it's a door.
This is the door that opens up into the CEO state room. So his state room's there, mine's on this side. To make sure this space is (crosstalk).
[Destin] So, that's where the CO is.
Yes, sir.
[Destin] I didn't realize that.
[XO] Yeah, he's asleep in there right now.
[Naval Officer] Oh.
[XO] Yeah.
I genuinely thought that he was like down the hall like really far.
No.
He's right there.
Yeah.
[Destin] Okay.
Right next to each other.
[Destin] Gotcha, okay. I had no idea. This is amazing. Okay. Well thank you for the tour.
Absolutely.
[Destin] Yeah, thank you very much. I'm going to try to use these facilities now.
Urinals work the exact same way. Valve, valve, okay. (doors clicking in place) (door closing) (door clicking in place)
The fact that above my head when I was using the facilities are all these books that explain how nuclear submarines worked and like the inner workings of everything, it was very tempting to not have some really interesting reading material while I was there, but I did not. (splashing) There you go. I've used the bathroom on a nuclear submarine. (laughs)
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I only talk about products here on Smarter Every Day. I love, this is part of my everyday carry. Yeah so, thank you very much to Raycon for supporting the video. Thank you for watching the submarine deep dive series here on Smarter Every Day. Next episode, we're going to finish this thing out. We're going to surface the ship from under the Arctic ice which is a super big deal. So feel free to subscribe. If you're into that, you want to see that, if not, no big deal, I'm just glad you watched this. I'm Destin, you getting Smarter Every Day. Have a good one, bye.