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Negative Well
Pressure! |
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Once upon a time aboard the good ship er, submarine SEADRAGON SSN584 and this really did happen, no s--t! During a refit period several indicators and various pressure gages were replaced on several systems with new gages, mainly because the older units had been showing signs of extreme "hesteria" The old gages were placed into various containers then stacked onto a pallet up in the drydock area. One day a particular 6 inch diameter gage, found on the pallet, found its way back aboard the boat and "somehow got installed" on the bulkhead located in the scrubber/burner compartment. A copper tube was attached to the gage bottom and then attached to the bulkhead and directed into the negative tank well/bilge. The installation was very well done, the copper tube was polished to a high luster. A very "official-looking" label attached to the gage face read, "NEGATIVE WELL PRESSURE"! After the upkeep and several local ops, the Captain did a walk-thru, was really looking things over and as luck would have it, gage calibration was his focal point! By the time he had made it to the scrubber room his walk-thru report looked like a phone book in thickness with "GAGE OUT OF CALIBRATION" comments! He wasn't happy and when he saw that the NEGATIVE WELL PRESSURE gage was showing 125psi - he really came undone! So, the next upkeep found gages being sent up to Sub base for calibration. At some time later, Captain Tom was on another walk-thru and when he got to the scrubber room and "sure enuff" the NEGATIVE WELL PRESSURE gage was out of spec! It now showed "45psi and the indicating needle bent" - the yeoman wrote that down - and the Captain continued on his way! And so! prior to leaving for a SubIcex we had another walk-thru and sure as heck the suspect gage got his attention, only this time the comments were noted "NEGATIVE WELL PRESSURE gage, 'missing'!" Want to submit a humorous story? Email
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