Submarines

I spent a good deal of my free time in the shipping section of the museum. Aside from the part of our tour with the fascinating explanation on the start of the industrial revolution in England because of the lack of trees, I found a ton of interesting exhibits in the shipping section. In this exhibit, many types of submarines were on display from early examples to modern deep sea submersibles. One of the coolest submarines that i saw was a one seat sub that looked like absolute hell to have operated. The sub looked like a minature version of a World War I type sub. It was so tiny and cramped inside it that trying to get around in it to run or fix anything seemed to be nearly impossible, especially if it were myself being so tall. I could not imagine trying to operate that submarine by myself and having no one else to talk with or for help if it was needed.

The second submarine I spent a lot of time at was the World War I full-sized u-boat. It was displayed with sections of the hull cut out to show the interior of the sub. I never really realized how tight and cramped the sub was. The other suprising thing that the sub contained was batteries. There must have been nearly a 100 batteries stuffed into to every nook and cranny in the midship area. This was important because the ship ran on battery power underwater because the diesel engine could only be used on the surface. Because of this fact, submarines of this time period could only stay underwater for limited periods of time. Once the batteries run out, the boat needed to surface to recharge the batteries. Another fun fact I learned was that the u-boats were faster on the surface than underwater. The diesel engines that could be used on the surface were much more powerful than the electric motors that were used underwater. I found this section to be the most interesting of what I saw in the museum.