1974
My sub (Boomer) hit something on patrol in the Med (a few hundred miles east of Gibraltar) while we were at about 250 feet.
I was on watch in the torpedo room (most forward compartment on the boat). It was less of a “bang” and more of a “dull thump” and there was the slightest shimmy/vibration for a half sec or less.
Never found out what it was. Could have been a whale, some kind of percussion device, a piece of sea junk of some sort floating around at that depth. People got very excited for about 20 minutes while we checked for damage/leaks. Then back to sleep/card game.
Every now and then we had to go to “ultra-quiet” because a probable Soviet sub was detected within a few hundred yards. Underwater collisions are quite possible.
As we entered and left through the Straits of Gibraltar to the Atlantic we went as fast as we could and tried to get “lost” in the massive amount of shipping traffic noise 200 feet above us. Soviet subs would sit on either side of the strait trying to pick us up and track us.
Gibraltar, reminds me of that scene in Das Boot.
Thanks for the brief personal narrative on boomer activity - probably the most interesting thing I’ll read all day (or week).
Interesting read....thanks for posting.
Not nearly as exciting and only distantly related, but yours triggered a long-forgotten memory.
1952, WWII Fleet Boat in the Caribbean, where BIG oil tankers plowing through were two-a-penny. I was also in the forward torpedo room and could clearly heard the "Clear the bridge! Clear the bridge!" through the open bulkhead doors. Waited for the oogah oogah of the klaxon.
Instead, hear the high-pitched siren of the collision alarm. Pucker factor shoots to 4.0 as I could see a big tanker cutting us in two. Instantly there was the "thump thump thump" as bulkhead doors and flappers slammed shut. Manned the phone and heard all compartments report they were on line. A tight few minutes, then All Clear.
It turned out our new ensign was handling his first dive and seconds after the collision alarm went off, he stuck his head down in the hatch with a huge Daffy Duck grin and said "hit the wrong button".
The skipper was not amused, but admitted that he never saw the crew move so fast in all his life.