[rlmorel]

I was reading “Scorpion Down”, and the author said that one could visualize the amount of ocean accessible to modern submarines by standing in a room with an 8 foot ceiling, and putting the head of a match against the ceiling.

Anything above the bottom of the match was accessible by submarines.

Wow...I did some quick math, and that came out to around 500 feet. Perhaps that was 1968 submarines, or maybe someone just got lazy and used the “excess of 500 ft” statement.

[wbill]

I'm sure that there are plenty of FReepers who can set me straight, but I've got a buddy who used to be a civvie contractor on the Permit-class subs.

He said that they were officially rated to "in excess of 30 knots and in excess of 300 feet". His commentary on that? "Yeah.....right."

Those were fast boats. I think that I'd rather be invisible than fast, though.