That picture of the NR-1 next to a 688 is is from when it was being dismantled at PSNS. I believe that 688 is the Salt Lake City. I came into the yard the year after the dismantling was completed but they still had pieces of the haul around the dry dock. 2 sections of the haul we still have and are used for training welders to seal up the reactor compartment. If you’re not familiar with the navy’s nuclear ship recycling program it’s cool stuff. You should do a video on it.
Back in the early 90’s I was stationed on the Drydock Waterford ARD5. We docked Nr1 numerous times. We were given a tour of the control room and crew space.
19:00 Can we all agree this is just the cutest sub ever? Shaped like a Baby boomer with no weapons - the size of the officers in the tower makes it look like a friendly toy.
@@andrew6978 you can squeeze some tech way, way, down, *if* you know what you're doing. There's a minimum size you can go with a nuclear powered system (critical mass).
This is a great video / presentation about NR-1! Thank you! From 1985 through 1989 I was a civilian navy nuke at the KAPL Kesselring Site where I was a plant engineer and shift supervisor at the S3G prototype nuclear plant. One of my active duty crew members had recently served as a reactor operator aboard the NR-1. He had some great "sea stories" about what it was like to live and work aboard NR-1.
At 36:43ish Mare Island is/was a closed US Naval shipyard in eastern San Francisco Bay. The NR-1 was towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she sat on a barge for awhile along with 688’s waiting for the chopping block where reactor compartment is cocooned and barged to Hanford Wa with a heavy lift vehicle they place it on pedestals in Trench 94 waiting to be buried when the Trench is full
My dad helped build her at G.D. (Electric boat) Groton Connecticut. My drafting teacher designed the manipulation arm while at electric boat. And would show us his blue print drawings in class.
The NR-1 was tied-up on the other side of the pier from s (SSN-678) when the battery fire occurred. I recall passing up from below decks every fire extinguisher we had. Lots of smoke. Had to get a blood test to see if I had inhaled particulates from the fire.
One of my "Nuke" crewmates was previously stationed on NR-1 back in the 80s...I Tried to tour it multiple times both back in Sub School and when my Charleston based Boat visited Groton to no avail. At least I can say I visited it multiple times, though I never got to go on board.
The NR-1 wasn't always towed. I was a EM2 stationed on the USS Portland, LSD-37, and we carried NR-1 down to the Caribbean in the well deck. In order to ballast down low enough to bring the NR-1 aboard they had to load the well deck with anchor chain, heavy seas off of Cape Hatteras allowed the heavy, unsecured anchor chain to slide in the well deck. No serious damaged other than splintered wood decking. It did make for an exciting visual of flying anchor chain. Plus ballasting down, so low in the water allowed intrusion of salt water where it should not have been, keeping me very busy as the duty electrician. No pictures were allowed the operation was classified at that time. It was in the early 70s.
It’s a shame they didn’t get the resolution passed in time to save more of the sub, but glad some parts were able to be shared with the public. We need more people like this Admiral, especially when they can make very good decisions and have the drive to get projects done. The father of nuclear submarines, what a wild story tied with Nautilus and NR-1 here.
I just wanna say that I discovered your channel the other day, and what a wealth of content you've brought us! Holy smokes man, keep up the good work, very rarely do you see such niche info being presented in an easy to digest, yet ACCURATE format.
They knew what happened with Challenger. Aviation Week nailed it the week after. I worked with a guy that worked at NASA on the Challenger and quit after the accident. He only talked about it once.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard was in Vallejo, CA and was closed in 1996. NR-1 went to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA for disposal. I was on SSN-703 in 1986 doing ADCAP testing out of Port Canaveral when Challenger blew up. I got to see plenty of NR-1 in the months following. One of my fellow Plankowners on SSBN-735 went to NR-1 and I got a tour, forward and aft. Saw it in Gibraltar in 1995 when I was on SSBN-738 and again in Groton in one of EB's Graving Docks when I was building SSN-22. Seeing it dry was VERY interesting.
Remember walking by at Groton, was tied a little up river from our Shop. Met the CO while taking Perivis school. He had some tapes he needed to analyse. Definitely more interesting than the test tapes we were playing with in class...
No commanding officer just “Officer in Charge” probably Lt. Cdr while I was at Nuclear Power School my advisor disappeared back to NR-1 to help with battery Silver-Zinc he occasionally told a story most of the enlisted E-6+/E-7 had some special Nuke duty and good stories also My first boat was Flintstone version boomer but my second was first boat with Mk-117 FCS and Q-5 1978. 3 AN-YUC-7’s she was good in the “Mud” No leveling computer so no SUBROC. We shot over 100 Mk-48’s then test platform for Mk-117 and Harpoon and into Tomahawks The Weapons and sonar guys had a lot software updating
@@markarthur3950 I believe many of the guys on NR-1 went to NRRO after and were Adm. Rickover’s God children. I was never sure how Jimmy Carter worked with the Admiral
Thanks @Jive Turkey -- this is a Sub Brief that I really wanted to hear from you. As usual, you not only provided new stories, information, and insight that I had not heard before, but you presented it from a slightly different angle as well, which makes the whole thing much more 3-dimentional for me. I'd never heard about the "UYK" before, and fascinated that it was shared with the 688s. Thanks for a great tribute to a world-class one-of-a-kind submarine. And yes, I am a life-time member of the Sub Force museum in Groton, and try to visit it at least once a year. One story I did hear, and can't quite remember accurately, was that when the NR-1 was in the Med, it found many of Phoenician wrecks with amphora, and one of the crew (possibly even JP Craven himself?) had used the robotic arm to pick one up and bring it home. The crew member had the jar in his home when an archeologist was visiting, saw it, and was completely gobsmacked (amazed) about it. He said we have seen pieces of these before, but never one completely intact.
From the stories I heard during my career at a Western New York steam turbine manufacturer I believe that the turbine for the turbo generator was made there. Years later we went on to build and test the main propulsion turbines for CVN 77, 78, and 79. We also built root valves fo Virginia class subs and guard valves for the three carriers.
Met the admiral a couple of times as he rode new con subs on initial sea trails as well as subs coming out of overhaul. We had to do reactor drills with him in maneuvering until he was happy (or not so angry). I remember he had to have his lemon drop candy on board and some other things I cant remember. It would have been easier for the president to visit.
I first heard of the NR-1 from a PBS special about a Ballard expedition (maybe the Britannic). I’m sure it was all planned but it just kind of showed up one day to provide unlimited lighting for them. Been fascinated about it ever since..
Did a short tour on Sunbird. We had a 'towing machine' (like a lot of fleet tugs) that made towing a bit more complicated than just 'hook up a line an pull'. When I was working meter-cal in NL, I remember calibrating a couple of meters from NR-1 and thinking to myself, "Where in the world did this come from?" Even the electrical plant meters were 'small'. Nice video.
Towards the beginning of the middle his career my grandmother's brother apparently had to frequently travel sitting next to admiral Rickover (my great uncle was an acoustic physicist for the Navy for his most of his professional life, was a college professor part time right before he retired). Said he was a smart guy and they got along relatively speaking, but was often difficult to be around (apparently many would consider that as a positive experience with Rickover). I'm pretty sure the last r & d program my great uncle was involved in was developing what became the sonar systems for the Seawolf class (based on pieces of info I have been able to put together, he has never explicitly said that); along with the Virginia class, a boat the admiral would surely be proud of today.
We had a UYK-25 on the 3-6 SINS, (pre-688). The Sperry computer worked the same way, all in octal registers…… (fwd ET, stretched sturgeon class, we drove them with aircraft style yoke, not the 688 joystick. They are all de-commissioned now too) the 688s were the new hotchits of the FA boats….
Man, I can only imagine how puckered the support vessel was when the Nerwin submerged. There's lots of stories about subs catching a trawler by the nets and dragging it underwater, trawler lost with all hands. In fact, that's a running suspicion every time a trawler disappears, and the Navy scrambles to make sure it *wasn't* us.
I was on one of those boats that snagged a trawler off the Azorres! The net and cable messed up our prop and shaft so bad that we cavitated submerged and had to make an emergency port stop in Gibralter at a time it was supposed to be a "neutral" territory.
@@ScottKenny1978 It's always bothered me a little that we didn't come up to periscope depth and check - we were transiting across the Atlanic at the time for a Med Run at flank speed when it happened. Man you should have heard it! we felt the the kind of surge in momentum as we hit the net but then through the hull you could hear this kind of "Atghh Arghh...ark..." sound that went from that to a kind of high pitch bird chirp cavitation - we were basically screwed. When we pulled into Gibralter you could see where the steel cable of the net peeled the non-skid off the deck and actually etched the exterior hull. I was on broadband Sonar watch at the time and had to throw off my headphones - I seriously doubt the trawler survived unscathed.
To follow up a bit, I'm not entirely sure that we didn't come up to periscope depth and take a look (seems really irresponsible not to)...I just don't remember if we did or not. It was also in the middle of the night local time so we would only see the lights of the poor trawler - I'm not sure if it may have been a change of watch situation where I just missed it but I don't remember us coming up to take a look...it was almost 30 years ago so I can see just be forgetting that detail. On a side note, i had the best gourmet meal of my life in Gibraltar and really enjoyed my brief unscheduled stay there - the locals were really cool and hospitable with us.
White Board idea - Explain how you could tell the difference between lets say a submarine sitting on the bottom of the ocean with engines,etc off vs lets say a peak of a big mountain.
Pre-drop comments. Didn't know it was even a thing. Anyways, Congrats JT! I've never ever even once used the reminder function... until just a minute or ago. I've said it before, but good fluffin' job! Keep it up!
JT: It's only a n unsupported personal guess but If personnel and life support needs are removed from the equation, the replacement to the NR-1 might be hiding in plain sight at the US Navy's Orca XLUUV program. It’s large enough to function autonomously and it’s small enough to be paired to a Seawolf or Virginia type mother ship. The USS Jimmy Carter is already operational and has a 30 m multi mission platform section that could accommodate a XLUUV. No surface support or tow needed. Respectfully, WS
Rickover is a character, that's for sure. If you've ever watch The Simpsons, Mr. Burns is Rickover. Not a caricature, according to anyone that had met him Burns is exactly like Rickover.
There is a video documentary on Amazon Prime about him. Really good. The part where he says "Who does your fitness reps" to someone *not* under his command had me lol.
I was at Site One, aboard the USS Holland AS-32, S-7 Div., Automated Data Processing. I liked seeing the NR-1 maneuvering at the end of the USS Los Alamos AFDB-7. Scotland duty in 1978-80.
A NUC MM2 I served with on the Tecumseh was accepted to serve on the NR1. For a NUC submariner it was top dog duty. He had an interview with Rickover and the whole nine yards of security checks.
Thank you Aaron, it’s so cool you make these videos and I appreciate all the work and effort you put into them and the knowledge you share with your audience.
If I would venture a guess I'd say the NR-1 nuclear reactor was a radioisotope thermoelectric generator full of red hot glowing plutonium-238. That uses the heat generated by natural plutonium decay to generate energy. Similar to the once who flew on Pioneer 10&11 in 1972.
I have a friend that was privileged to ride NR-1 for her last dive. The original Aegis Combat System on Tico was loaded in four UKY-7 computers. ORTS was in one UKY-44. We thought we were hot stuff!
The military rarely gives up an intelligence asset, often even acknowledging the existence of an asset, without its replacement already being on duty. Jussayin………
I remember standing topside watches in holy loch Scotland and looking at the NR1 tied up to a barge in front of the bow of the sub I was on. Always wondered what it was up to.
I got offered NR1 as a aganger in 98. I had another aganger friend non nuke Who was assigned to NR1 as well. I'm assuming they just worked on it in port and not at sea since me nor he was a nuke. I turned the NR1 down in 98 because I thought a rescue sub would be boring work. Now I kick myself knowing it was a spook boat but none of us knew it at the time.
In 1989 NR-1 was so desperate for a body that they went to Sub School where I was asked if I would volunteer and I turned it down because I didn't know anything about it. Today I'd have touched gloves to be a member of that crew.
I remember there being an open billet to the NR1 back in the day and cracking jokes about going there in the sonar shack, but none of us were nucs of course. Still a very cool little sub nonetheless.
Unmanned Autonomous undersea vehicles. The DSRV's were replaced with a drone where the people on board are along for the ride totally at the mercy of the control van on the surface
Talking about those early computers, I remember watching our NAV-ETs loading our early SINS computer program with paper-tape. About inch wide tape with sprocket line down the middle and holes punched to load the binary instructions. Not sure what model computer that was.
I was stationed on the 687 in Groton and I remember seeing the NR-1 but never thought anything of it. Sure wish I had appreciated what I was seeing then. If we were both in port, we were usually a pier of two apart.
NR-1 did have its own small pressurized water fission reactor and all that goes with it. A lot of people think it was an RTG for some reason, which is wrong. Satellites don't/cant really use fission reactors, they use RTG's which basically are just a pile of decaying mass and some (many) thermocouples, and power in an RTG is limited to a few kW to maybe 50kW or so. The soviets had some pretty big ones for lighthouses. There are some new designs that do use fission, but there are a lot of problems and limitations with it concerning a heat sink, because you are limited to radiative heat transfer in a vacuum, which sucks.
Makes you wonder what Ballard and NR-1's real mission in the med was because the navy ain't just going to give a nuclear submarine to retired Navy officer to go find old shipwrecks. You have to remember when Ballard found Titanic it was actually a cover for another mission I think it was the mission where they went to look at the USS scorpion
The combined authorities of NR was a huge "hack" that Rickover mastered... The same secretary would answer two phone numbers for his different (AEC, NR) roles!
The tower is just a fairing around a pressure cylinder to hold the hatches. A submarine sail is the same way, just a smooth surface around a reinforced cylinder. Most of the periscopes and stuff is actually *outside* the "bridge trunk."
@@ScottKenny1978 I sent that comment at midnight when my brain was definitely off. I absolutely knew what you've put in that comment. Fml I say some stupid stuff when I'm tired
great video as always. are we going to get a sub brief for the Victorio class submarines of the canadian navy. i heard one just finished its modernization/overall. i hear that the victoria class is supposed to be crazy quiet (like most diesels can be). really interested what upgrades they are getting. i have heard rumours that they are being upgraded for Arctic patrols in the NW Passage.
I did read about the Halibut, Parche and other subs...in a book released so many years past ("Blind Man's Bluff" - as well as "Scorpion Down" and a few others)...and about John Craven and of course Rickover and his manipulations...But "Nerwin" is a new one...grins
Per the museum curator at the Keyport, WA Submarine museum and on their website, the control room from the NR-1 is to be displayed as an exhibit. The Keyport Museum and the Groton, CT Submarine museums could and should have their own episodes.
All the Sub Briefs (50+) with1000's of photos and bonus material is available on Patreon.com/subbrief
I got a tour back in 2001. The "Captain's Stateroom" was a mattress on the deck aft of the conn.
That picture of the NR-1 next to a 688 is is from when it was being dismantled at PSNS. I believe that 688 is the Salt Lake City. I came into the yard the year after the dismantling was completed but they still had pieces of the haul around the dry dock. 2 sections of the haul we still have and are used for training welders to seal up the reactor compartment. If you’re not familiar with the navy’s nuclear ship recycling program it’s cool stuff. You should do a video on it.
Built while the Blue Water Navy was distracted? "Look a Kirov!"
LOL
Back in the early 90’s I was stationed on the Drydock Waterford ARD5. We docked Nr1 numerous times. We were given a tour of the control room and crew space.
19:00 Can we all agree this is just the cutest sub ever? Shaped like a Baby boomer with no weapons - the size of the officers in the tower makes it look like a friendly toy.
Quite amazing a sub this size was nuclear powered.
@@andrew6978 you can squeeze some tech way, way, down, *if* you know what you're doing.
There's a minimum size you can go with a nuclear powered system (critical mass).
This is a great video / presentation about NR-1! Thank you! From 1985 through 1989 I was a civilian navy nuke at the KAPL Kesselring Site where I was a plant engineer and shift supervisor at the S3G prototype nuclear plant. One of my active duty crew members had recently served as a reactor operator aboard the NR-1. He had some great "sea stories" about what it was like to live and work aboard NR-1.
At 36:43ish Mare Island is/was a closed US Naval shipyard in eastern San Francisco Bay. The NR-1 was towed to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard where she sat on a barge for awhile along with 688’s waiting for the chopping block where reactor compartment is cocooned and barged to Hanford Wa with a heavy lift vehicle they place it on pedestals in Trench 94 waiting to be buried when the Trench is full
My dad helped build her at G.D. (Electric boat) Groton Connecticut.
My drafting teacher designed the manipulation arm while at electric boat. And would show us his blue print drawings in class.
Really cool. I always wanted to draw for a company that built military equipment, but alas I was stuck in process heating.
The NR-1 was tied-up on the other side of the pier from s (SSN-678) when the battery fire occurred. I recall passing up from below decks every fire extinguisher we had. Lots of smoke. Had to get a blood test to see if I had inhaled particulates from the fire.
One of my "Nuke" crewmates was previously stationed on NR-1 back in the 80s...I Tried to tour it multiple times both back in Sub School and when my Charleston based Boat visited Groton to no avail.
At least I can say I visited it multiple times, though I never got to go on board.
I participated in a minor valve repair on the NR-1 at Holy Loch in the early 80s. Pretty cool…
The NR-1 wasn't always towed. I was a EM2 stationed on the USS Portland, LSD-37, and we carried NR-1 down to the Caribbean in the well deck. In order to ballast down low enough to bring the NR-1 aboard they had to load the well deck with anchor chain, heavy seas off of Cape Hatteras allowed the heavy, unsecured anchor chain to slide in the well deck. No serious damaged other than splintered wood decking. It did make for an exciting visual of flying anchor chain. Plus ballasting down, so low in the water allowed intrusion of salt water where it should not have been, keeping me very busy as the duty electrician. No pictures were allowed the operation was classified at that time. It was in the early 70s.
Whats a well deck?
John Craven was an absolute genius!
Nice! I read the book Dark Waters, written by a plank-owner of the vessel. This craft was in lots of memorable operations. 👍
Like the mine field one..... that's the last thing I'd want to be be seeing when looking out of a submarines porthole
FWIW: I had already heard a few of these details about the NR-1, but _BEING TOWED WHILE 150 FT UNDERWATER_ was a *TOTAL SURPRISE* for me!
It’s a shame they didn’t get the resolution passed in time to save more of the sub, but glad some parts were able to be shared with the public. We need more people like this Admiral, especially when they can make very good decisions and have the drive to get projects done. The father of nuclear submarines, what a wild story tied with Nautilus and NR-1 here.
NR - 1 is a great topic that i never really researched myself - many thanks for this brief!
I just wanna say that I discovered your channel the other day, and what a wealth of content you've brought us! Holy smokes man, keep up the good work, very rarely do you see such niche info being presented in an easy to digest, yet ACCURATE format.
They knew what happened with Challenger. Aviation Week nailed it the week after. I worked with a guy that worked at NASA on the Challenger and quit after the accident. He only talked about it once.
"We even had one..."
*pauses briefly as if thinking, "Oh, I can't say that..."*
"...Oh, never mind. There they are."
*CIA monitoring intensifies* :P
You can almost hear the click as the guy holding a pistol to his head pulls the hammer back xD
Mare Island Naval Shipyard was in Vallejo, CA and was closed in 1996. NR-1 went to Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, WA for disposal.
I was on SSN-703 in 1986 doing ADCAP testing out of Port Canaveral when Challenger blew up. I got to see plenty of NR-1 in the months following. One of my fellow Plankowners on SSBN-735 went to NR-1 and I got a tour, forward and aft. Saw it in Gibraltar in 1995 when I was on SSBN-738 and again in Groton in one of EB's Graving Docks when I was building SSN-22. Seeing it dry was VERY interesting.
You’ve been a few more places than most Bubbleheads you should tell more of what you can.
Remember walking by at Groton, was tied a little up river from our Shop. Met the CO while taking Perivis school. He had some tapes he needed to analyse. Definitely more interesting than the test tapes we were playing with in class...
No commanding officer just “Officer in Charge” probably Lt. Cdr while I was at Nuclear Power School my advisor disappeared back to NR-1 to help with battery Silver-Zinc he occasionally told a story most of the enlisted E-6+/E-7 had some special Nuke duty and good stories also
My first boat was Flintstone version boomer but my second was first boat with Mk-117 FCS and Q-5 1978. 3 AN-YUC-7’s she was good in the “Mud”
No leveling computer so no SUBROC. We shot over 100 Mk-48’s then test platform for Mk-117 and Harpoon and into Tomahawks
The Weapons and sonar guys had a lot software updating
Post engineer nuc who was promoted to CDR as OIC, engineer was LtCDR and Ops was LT. that was it in 1981-1984 during my tour of duty
Correct. My stepmother's first husband was NR-1's first OIC (LCDR). His subsequent command tour his command tour was USS Woodrow Wilson.
@@markarthur3950 I believe many of the guys on NR-1 went to NRRO after and were Adm. Rickover’s God children. I was never sure how Jimmy Carter worked with the Admiral
Thanks @Jive Turkey -- this is a Sub Brief that I really wanted to hear from you. As usual, you not only provided new stories, information, and insight that I had not heard before, but you presented it from a slightly different angle as well, which makes the whole thing much more 3-dimentional for me. I'd never heard about the "UYK" before, and fascinated that it was shared with the 688s. Thanks for a great tribute to a world-class one-of-a-kind submarine. And yes, I am a life-time member of the Sub Force museum in Groton, and try to visit it at least once a year.
One story I did hear, and can't quite remember accurately, was that when the NR-1 was in the Med, it found many of Phoenician wrecks with amphora, and one of the crew (possibly even JP Craven himself?) had used the robotic arm to pick one up and bring it home. The crew member had the jar in his home when an archeologist was visiting, saw it, and was completely gobsmacked (amazed) about it. He said we have seen pieces of these before, but never one completely intact.
From the stories I heard during my career at a Western New York steam turbine manufacturer I believe that the turbine for the turbo generator was made there. Years later we went on to build and test the main propulsion turbines for CVN 77, 78, and 79. We also built root valves fo Virginia class subs and guard valves for the three carriers.
I kept wondering: Where did they put the toilet?
Thanks for the brief, I didn't know anything about this submarine.
I was obsessed with the NR1 as a kid, loved my national geographic article featuring this sub. Thanks for posting 👍
Met the admiral a couple of times as he rode new con subs on initial sea trails as well as subs coming out of overhaul. We had to do reactor drills with him in maneuvering until he was happy (or not so angry). I remember he had to have his lemon drop candy on board and some other things I cant remember. It would have been easier for the president to visit.
32:00 I wish I could be in the military with a beard.
I first heard of the NR-1 from a PBS special about a Ballard expedition (maybe the Britannic). I’m sure it was all planned but it just kind of showed up one day to provide unlimited lighting for them.
Been fascinated about it ever since..
Did a short tour on Sunbird. We had a 'towing machine' (like a lot of fleet tugs) that made towing a bit more complicated than just 'hook up a line an pull'. When I was working meter-cal in NL, I remember calibrating a couple of meters from NR-1 and thinking to myself, "Where in the world did this come from?" Even the electrical plant meters were 'small'. Nice video.
Towards the beginning of the middle his career my grandmother's brother apparently had to frequently travel sitting next to admiral Rickover (my great uncle was an acoustic physicist for the Navy for his most of his professional life, was a college professor part time right before he retired). Said he was a smart guy and they got along relatively speaking, but was often difficult to be around (apparently many would consider that as a positive experience with Rickover). I'm pretty sure the last r & d program my great uncle was involved in was developing what became the sonar systems for the Seawolf class (based on pieces of info I have been able to put together, he has never explicitly said that); along with the Virginia class, a boat the admiral would surely be proud of today.
We had a UYK-25 on the 3-6 SINS, (pre-688). The Sperry computer worked the same way, all in octal registers…… (fwd ET, stretched sturgeon class, we drove them with aircraft style yoke, not the 688 joystick. They are all de-commissioned now too) the 688s were the new hotchits of the FA boats….
Man, I can only imagine how puckered the support vessel was when the Nerwin submerged.
There's lots of stories about subs catching a trawler by the nets and dragging it underwater, trawler lost with all hands. In fact, that's a running suspicion every time a trawler disappears, and the Navy scrambles to make sure it *wasn't* us.
I was on one of those boats that snagged a trawler off the Azorres! The net and cable messed up our prop and shaft so bad that we cavitated submerged and had to make an emergency port stop in Gibralter at a time it was supposed to be a "neutral" territory.
@@epicjourneyman2145 yikes!
Did the trawler survive?
@@ScottKenny1978 It's always bothered me a little that we didn't come up to periscope depth and check - we were transiting across the Atlanic at the time for a Med Run at flank speed when it happened.
Man you should have heard it! we felt the the kind of surge in momentum as we hit the net but then through the hull you could hear this kind of "Atghh Arghh...ark..." sound that went from that to a kind of high pitch bird chirp cavitation - we were basically screwed.
When we pulled into Gibralter you could see where the steel cable of the net peeled the non-skid off the deck and actually etched the exterior hull.
I was on broadband Sonar watch at the time and had to throw off my headphones - I seriously doubt the trawler survived unscathed.
To follow up a bit, I'm not entirely sure that we didn't come up to periscope depth and take a look (seems really irresponsible not to)...I just don't remember if we did or not.
It was also in the middle of the night local time so we would only see the lights of the poor trawler - I'm not sure if it may have been a change of watch situation where I just missed it but I don't remember us coming up to take a look...it was almost 30 years ago so I can see just be forgetting that detail.
On a side note, i had the best gourmet meal of my life in Gibraltar and really enjoyed my brief unscheduled stay there - the locals were really cool and hospitable with us.
@@epicjourneyman2145 yeah, I'd be really surprised if you didn't come up to check on the trawler.
And damn, that's some nasty damage to your boat!
"We even had one... oh nevermind."
White Board idea - Explain how you could tell the difference between lets say a submarine sitting on the bottom of the ocean with engines,etc off vs lets say a peak of a big mountain.
I remember reading the book on it,
Great read, like the time that they accidentally stumbled into an uncharted MINE FIELD!!!!
Finally nerwin! I'm a huge fan of it, great to learn more about it.
Pre-drop comments. Didn't know it was even a thing. Anyways, Congrats JT! I've never ever even once used the reminder function... until just a minute or ago. I've said it before, but good fluffin' job! Keep it up!
Cool, thanks!
JT: It's only a n unsupported personal guess but If personnel and life support needs are removed from the equation, the replacement to the NR-1 might be hiding in plain sight at the US Navy's Orca XLUUV program. It’s large enough to function autonomously and it’s small enough to be paired to a Seawolf or Virginia type mother ship. The USS Jimmy Carter is already operational and has a 30 m multi mission platform section that could accommodate a XLUUV. No surface support or tow needed. Respectfully, WS
Thank you Mr Turkey for this, keep on keeping on!
the more stories you relay about Rickover the more I like the guy. Anti Establishment!
Rickover is a character, that's for sure.
If you've ever watch The Simpsons, Mr. Burns is Rickover. Not a caricature, according to anyone that had met him Burns is exactly like Rickover.
There is a video documentary on Amazon Prime about him. Really good. The part where he says "Who does your fitness reps" to someone *not* under his command had me lol.
These briefs are so awesome, thank you!
Great video! What an impressive boat and crew.
I was at Site One, aboard the USS Holland AS-32, S-7 Div., Automated Data Processing. I liked seeing the NR-1 maneuvering at the end of the USS Los Alamos AFDB-7. Scotland duty in 1978-80.
Hard to believe they made a nuclear powered sub that can only make 5 knots. Also hard to believe 13 people fit in there.
Building 605 averaged pretty slow being tied to the so much
A NUC MM2 I served with on the Tecumseh was accepted to serve on the NR1. For a NUC submariner it was top dog duty. He had an interview with Rickover and the whole nine yards of security checks.
_"We even had one...oh...NEVER MIND."_
😊😊😊😊😊
Yeah, hard to remember what you can't talk about once you start talking sea stories. 😂
Thank you Aaron, it’s so cool you make these videos and I appreciate all the work and effort you put into them and the knowledge you share with your audience.
Nice vid. Watching Ballard's work in this boat when I was very small got me interested in our deeps. Glad some bits of it survived.
Is it depth or deep?
If I would venture a guess I'd say the NR-1 nuclear reactor was a radioisotope thermoelectric generator full of red hot glowing plutonium-238. That uses the heat generated by natural plutonium decay to generate energy. Similar to the once who flew on Pioneer 10&11 in 1972.
You would be incorrect.
I have a friend that was privileged to ride NR-1 for her last dive.
The original Aegis Combat System on Tico was loaded in four UKY-7 computers. ORTS was in one UKY-44. We thought we were hot stuff!
The military rarely gives up an intelligence asset, often even acknowledging the existence of an asset, without its replacement already being on duty.
Jussayin………
You know it.
I remember standing topside watches in holy loch Scotland and looking at the NR1 tied up to a barge in front of the bow of the sub I was on. Always wondered what it was up to.
I got offered NR1 as a aganger in 98. I had another aganger friend non nuke Who was assigned to NR1 as well. I'm assuming they just worked on it in port and not at sea since me nor he was a nuke. I turned the NR1 down in 98 because I thought a rescue sub would be boring work. Now I kick myself knowing it was a spook boat but none of us knew it at the time.
In 1989 NR-1 was so desperate for a body that they went to Sub School where I was asked if I would volunteer and I turned it down because I didn't know anything about it. Today I'd have touched gloves to be a member of that crew.
I always enjoyed the story of Naval Reactors 1
Mare Island, Washington? You meant to say Bremerton. That's where it was deactivated.
My late father in law was an engineer for the NR1 at Electric Boat Works.
My Section Chief in NPS was an ET-C (SS, DV), who'd crewed NR-1. NPS on board NTC Orlando, Class 7803 Section 12.
"You'll never get them out of me!...we even had one...er...nevermind." lmao...
I remember there being an open billet to the NR1 back in the day and cracking jokes about going there in the sonar shack, but none of us were nucs of course. Still a very cool little sub nonetheless.
Had to be nuclear operator and a diver both.
Fascinating. Thanks for all your videos.
Rickover's Rubber Duck they called it. :)
Thanks Jive! Great episode as always
Another excellent Sub Brief - please keep them coming
Awesome vid thanks JT
Glad you enjoyed it
Wonder if there is an NR-1replacement. Also can you talk about the U.S Navy's sub rescue program? What are its capabilities for rescuing submariners?
When have you ever know the military to give up an intelligence asset without its replacement being operational?
Unmanned Autonomous undersea vehicles. The DSRV's were replaced with a drone where the people on board are along for the ride totally at the mercy of the control van on the surface
Would love to see a sub brief on the “Golf” class submarines. Great video as always!!
31:38 the desire to know more intensifies...
Talking about those early computers, I remember watching our NAV-ETs loading our early SINS computer program with paper-tape. About inch wide tape with sprocket line down the middle and holes punched to load the binary instructions. Not sure what model computer that was.
Remember NR-1 dockside in Groton with her support ship across the pier.
A great story, but probably only partial. A vessel such as the NR-1 probably has tales to tell that are still top secret. Good job.
For the tires. Pressure Delta onoon is whatever you put in the tire. Most likely one bar whereas under water it can reach 50 or 100..
1 ping, Vasilli, 1 ping only.
I was stationed on the 687 in Groton and I remember seeing the NR-1 but never thought anything of it. Sure wish I had appreciated what I was seeing then. If we were both in port, we were usually a pier of two apart.
Great reviews!
Great brief!
NR-1 did have its own small pressurized water fission reactor and all that goes with it. A lot of people think it was an RTG for some reason, which is wrong. Satellites don't/cant really use fission reactors, they use RTG's which basically are just a pile of decaying mass and some (many) thermocouples, and power in an RTG is limited to a few kW to maybe 50kW or so. The soviets had some pretty big ones for lighthouses. There are some new designs that do use fission, but there are a lot of problems and limitations with it concerning a heat sink, because you are limited to radiative heat transfer in a vacuum, which sucks.
".. it puts the lotion in the basket.."
Makes you wonder what Ballard and NR-1's real mission in the med was because the navy ain't just going to give a nuclear submarine to retired Navy officer to go find old shipwrecks. You have to remember when Ballard found Titanic it was actually a cover for another mission I think it was the mission where they went to look at the USS scorpion
3000 feet and still haven't reached the bottom.
Damn that's a deep sinkhole.
Thank u btw nr1 has allways been my favorite sub
Having experience with machine language in the 1970s, I'm amazed by this wonderful story. 😂
Mare Island NSY is located in Vallejo, CA
Not WA as listed
The location of the original Horse & Cow. May we honor its name.
There's an excellent book about this by a guy who served in it's frist crew called "Dark Waters."
The combined authorities of NR was a huge "hack" that Rickover mastered... The same secretary would answer two phone numbers for his different (AEC, NR) roles!
I'm amazed at the shape of the hull/tower given the depth it could reach. Very strong welds vs the more common spherical shape.
The tower is just a fairing around a pressure cylinder to hold the hatches.
A submarine sail is the same way, just a smooth surface around a reinforced cylinder. Most of the periscopes and stuff is actually *outside* the "bridge trunk."
@@ScottKenny1978 I sent that comment at midnight when my brain was definitely off. I absolutely knew what you've put in that comment. Fml I say some stupid stuff when I'm tired
Love the content. Think I’ll have to join the patreon ranks
Dude Mare Island is in Vallejo CA. Not Washington.
great video as always.
are we going to get a sub brief for the Victorio class submarines of the canadian navy.
i heard one just finished its modernization/overall. i hear that the victoria class is supposed to be crazy quiet (like most diesels can be).
really interested what upgrades they are getting. i have heard rumours that they are being upgraded for Arctic patrols in the NW Passage.
I did read about the Halibut, Parche and other subs...in a book released so many years past ("Blind Man's Bluff" - as well as "Scorpion Down" and a few others)...and about John Craven and of course Rickover and his manipulations...But "Nerwin" is a new one...grins
It was a neat little ship but, hearing about the lack of a toilet, I'm not sure it would have been comfortable to be a member of the crew!
F-14 had 2 hard throttle cables kind of like you would find on a regular boat that civilians would use manual control.
Chouest is pronounced "Schwest" I work for them offshore. Love your videos! Always learn a lot.
Mare Island is in CA
Per the museum curator at the Keyport, WA Submarine museum and on their website, the control room from the NR-1 is to be displayed as an exhibit. The Keyport Museum and the Groton, CT Submarine museums could and should have their own episodes.
Oh, dang! I gotta go back once they get that exhibit sorted out!
Used to fix UYK-7, 20, 43, 44 quick trip down memory lane.
👍🍺🍺🍺🍺🍺 Admiral Rickover was a genius !!! 😁😁😁