???
I served on a submarine, and maintained submarines as a shipyard engineer for ten years.
EVERY compartment (even the one I slept in - right above my own bunk!) had at least two exits!
I agree every berthing space has more than one exit. I still don’t get this.
I was on an Adams class DDG. Those were one of McNamera’s screw ups. Aluminum above the main deck because of the weight of the electronics suite and weapons. It definitely had sea keeping issues. I knew of no other access to our berthing compartment other than the ladder. There was a ladder down to the missile computer room below. Other hatches accessed the shaft alleys below.
Perhaps you are mis-remembering. Or perhaps subs are different.
I have never seen a *watertight* compartment on a US Navy ship with more than one *escape* hatch. It may have more than one watertight hatch that leads to another area on the same deck, but every one I have ever seen only has one escape hatch to the deck above. The more hatches, the less your chances of maintaining watertight integrity.
And standing orders in the event that a compartment is taking on water faster than you can get it back to sea is to dog it off - even if there are sailors inside. It sucks but as others have pointed out - you save the ship no matter what. Hundreds and sometimes thousands of lives may depend on that vessel staying afloat.