prompting him to continue.
“By
Patterson met the XO’s statement with a stony glare, but Emily Davis asked, “What’s involved in this ceremony?” Her tone implied that she expected it to be unpleasant.
Bair smiled. “His Majesty’s representative, Davy Jones, will board us tomorrow and receive the petitions of those who have not entered the frozen realm before. Then King Boreas arrives with his court after we cross the Arctic Circle. ”
“Guess who was Boreas the last time we went north?” interrupted Frank Lopez.
Bair shot him a hard look, but then smiled. He continued and his smile widened. “The exact details of the ceremony are a deep secret, known only to those trusted members of the Royal Court. But essentially, the hot- blooded neophytes will petition His Majesty to enter his domain. They will then be brought before King Boreas, who will stand in judgment over them before the Royal Court and the Captain of the Royal Guard. If they are found pure of heart, they will be baptized and then admitted to his realm. All in a politically correct and tasteful way, of course,” he added reassuringly.
Riiiiight, Jerry thought. He’d heard horror stories about line-crossing ceremonies since his Academy days. It could be a grotesque, almost revolting, ordeal. The presence of the ladies would certainly tone it down some, even if they did not participate. Jerry, however, found himself hoping they would, not only because it would make them more a part of the crew, but also because the more “petitioners” there were, the less time “the Royal Court” could spend on each one. Safety lay in numbers.
“There’s a really nice certificate,” Berg offered helpfully.
“It’s an idiotic male ritual, and I will take no part in it,” announced Patterson disapprovingly. As she rose to leave, she looked over at Davis, who said, “I guess I’ll pass as well, sir.”
As the two departed the wardroom, Lenny Berg remarked. “She’d make a fine Queen of the Snows. She already has a chilling personality.” Looking at his watch, he motioned to Jerry and said, “C’mon, Jerry, we need to go and relieve the watch.” Turning toward Hardy, he added “Excuse us, Captain.”
Hardy nodded stiffly, but said nothing.
As Jerry and Berg headed up to control, Jerry asked, “Is it my imagination or is the CO more depressed than usual?”
“Hard to say, Jerry. He has his ups and downs like everyone else. It’s just that his downs tend to significantly outnumber his ups. But if I had to guess, I’d say that the enormity of just how hosed up this mission is might be starting to sink in,” replied Berg. He started climbing the ladder to control.
Jerry followed him up and went over to Ensign Jim Porter to begin the watch turnover at the Diving Officer station. Looking around, Jerry didn’t see Chief Gilson anywhere in control. This was strange, because Gilson had the watch officially. Jerry was still standing it under instruction.
“We pumped sanitaries during the last watch, and we’re still making water with the 10K evaporator,” said Porter during turnover. “The trim appears to be good, but at sixteen knots it’s hard to tell. You’ll probably slow down during your watch to make sure that the boat has a satisfactory one-third trim.” Porter was referring to the fact that at higher speeds, a submarine can carry more water in its variable ballast tanks because of the greater hydrodynamic forces generated by the fairwater and stern planes. By slowing down, to ahead one-third, these forces are reduced considerably and Jerry could figure out whether the sub was heavy or light and if the distribution of water among the tanks was correct to maintain a good fore and aft balance.
“If you don’t have any questions, then I’m ready to be relieved,” stated Porter.
Jerry looked around the control room again; still no Gilson. “Jim, I’m sorry but I can’t assume the watch without. ”
“C–COB?” Jerry stammered, quite confused.
“I’m taking the watch for Chief Gilson. I want to see how well you can balance this boat,” replied Reynolds firmly. “I’ll be here in case something goes wrong, but you have the watch, sir.”
Surprised, Jerry just stood there and stared at the huge man. Reynolds waited a moment, then motioned toward Porter and said, “You can relieve Mr. Porter, sir.”
Jerry turned slowly to Porter and said, “I relieve you.”
“I stand relieved.”
As Jim Porter reported to the OOD that he had been properly relieved, Jerry sat down at his station and looked at the indications on the ship control panel. After a few minutes of careful watching, he couldn’t determine if the trim was good or not. Porter was right; they’d have to slow down first. Looking over his shoulder, Jerry saw Master Chief Reynolds leaning up against the bulkhead next to the plotters. He seemed far away, even though it was only about twenty feet.
After all the stations had changed over, Berg announced, “Attention in control, my intention is to slow to ahead one-third and conduct a baffle clearance maneuver to the right. Once the maneuver is completed, I’ll let the Diving Officer check the boat’s trim before we resume our transit speed. Carry on.”
Berg then informed the sonar supervisor that they were slowing and coming to the right to check the baffles, the spherical array’s blind zone behind the sub’s propeller. After he had hung up the handset, Berg ordered, “Helm, ahead one-third.”
“Ahead one-third, helm aye.” Reaching over to the engine order telegraph, the helmsman twisted the dial to ahead 1/3. Almost immediately, a second dial beneath the first moved to the same position. “Sir, maneuvering answers ahead one-third.”
“Very well, helm,” responded Berg.
Berg waited for
“Okay, Dive, check the boat’s trim. And please be quick. We need to get back on track,” said Lenny, with an unusual amount of sternness.
“Aye, aye, sir,” responded Jerry. During the turn, it became clear to him that the boat was heavy, but he couldn’t tell by how much or where. Since a submarine heels into a turn, the stern planes and the rudder interfere with each other and it’s really hard to judge just how much influence is being exerted by the stern planes to maintain depth. Once
Looking at the positions of the stern and fairwater planes, Jerry deduced that the boat was heavy overall and heavy forward. “Chief of the Watch, when was the last time that a compensation for potable water was done?” asked Jerry.
“About an hour and a half ago, sir.”
“Very well. Chief of the Watch, please compensate for one and a half hours of potable water,” ordered Jerry.
“Compensate for one and a half hours of potable water, aye, sir,” replied MM1 Anderson. Jerry watched as Anderson positioned switches on the ballast control panel that remotely opened valves and created a clear path from the variable ballast tanks inside the submarine, through the trim pump, out to sea. “Pumping, from auxiliaries to sea,” reported Anderson. Jerry acknowledged the report.
It took a few minutes for Anderson to complete the compensation. As he was repositioning the valves, he said, “Diving Officer, thirty-eight hundred pounds from auxiliaries and twelve hundred pounds from forward trim have been pumped to sea.”
“Very well, Chief of the Watch,” responded Jerry. After another ten minutes and another four thousand pounds pumped overboard, Jerry was about to announce that he had a satisfactory one-third trim when he noticed something odd. The stern planesman was holding his planes steady at five degrees down. This indicated that the boat was heavy aft and that the planes were trying to hold the stern up. Glancing at the fairwater planes, he saw that they were in the rise position and that the boat was maintaining the ordered depth of two hundred feet. I must have screwed up somewhere, Jerry thought. I’ve made her too heavy aft.
