标签： Silent Service

WHAT. WERE YOU EXPECTING TAUTOG TO COVER MY NAMESAKE? HAHAHAHAHAHA! DREAM ON! IF THERE’S ONE SUB CORNER I SHOULD TAKE, IT’LL BE THIS ONE!

Sarge! That’s V-7. Your namesake was V-7. V5 and V6 are Narwhal and Nautilus…

I-IS THAT SO?

*Ahem* Afraid so. 

Well, cripes. SO DO I DO THIS SUB CORNER OR NOT?

Since you’re here and all, why not…

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Alright! So. Listen up. Where we last left off, we were just talking about the Argonaut’s teething troubles. Big submarines are tough to make! They’re also expensive and really, really, really unwieldy.

Without getting too much into the Narwhal and Nautilus, I’m just gonna say, those boats weren’t very good. As shipgirls they’re excellent! As actual submarines? Well, let’s just say the downsides turned out to be HUGE blessings in disguise. But! But but but! For now? They weren’t popular.

The year is now 1928. Mickey Mouse just appeared on the big screen, Charles Lindbergh got his Medal of Honor, and the Japs just started up chaos up in Manchuria. In Congress? We’re busy yelling at each other.

See, one of the previous sub corners, Tautog’s talked about the V-program, right? Well, it’s now eight years later! Time to deliver results. What actually happened was that the General Board wanted to stick to the plan, and the submariners said no. If the Board would have had its way, we would have built two more Argonauts and a sub cruiser, giving us three big minelayers, three cruiser submarines, and three faster fleet submarines.

The submariners said, well, that’s well and good, but these boats take forever to build! The big submarines weren’t easy to operate either. Why don’t we make something smaller? Something that we can make faster and something that’ll be easy to make?

That something was called the U-135. Now, depending on who you read and how much they slobber over GERMAN SCIENCE, you’re gonna get people arguing different things. The general gist of a popular argument is that the US really liked what they saw in the U-135. So, this new design should be small. About 1250 tons, going 16 knots on the surface and 8 submerged. It’ll be armed modestly with a single deck gun and six torpedo tubes (for twelve torpedoes total). The guy pushing for it even hunted down old U-boat commanders trying to sell the idea that we need to be more like the Germans.

Yeah, yeah. Back in the 20s some people, particularly the submariners, had this idea that the general quality of US machinery was inferior to that of Europe. They’re always pushing for buying of _______ (like engines and parts) from the (INSERT EUROPEAN POWER HERE).

We said no. We’re gonna buy American and make things American. That basically put an end to that conversation, and we put the pencil-pushers to work. They ended up spending a good three or four months figuring out  the design.

Now, here’s the thing. The submariners had the right idea. Smaller, more agile submarines indeed worked out pretty good in the Pacific War, but that’s only because we managed to patch up all the troubles with something like the U-135. For starters, small subs means less space. If we’re gonna make a powerful engine, where the hell’s that supposed to fit?

Let’s think about actual living conditions, too. The U-135 had no space for stores. You think you gonna like Eintopf every meal? We’re going to need to add things like coolers and storage to match. Here, the “coolers” aren’t just for food. Rather, it’s to make sure that your oil can work in the relatively hot waters of the Pacific. Given the increasing emphasis on damage control and manpower, we’re going to have to have more berthing space. The submarine has to have room within itself in case of attack. It’s going to need more of everything, torpedoes included.

After about six months of back and forth, we hammered out something fairly okay. Here’s what it looked like. These are a couple of sketches I dug out. The bottom is a revision of the top.

Right off the bat, one big difference. The conning tower is tiny. It’s also arranged pretty differently. The engines are in a separate room, and the direct-drive diesel (1750 BHP) are in the big aft space reserved for machinery (it’s the biggest rectangle on the sketch). The crew would be placed immediately abaft the forward torpedo room, the officers would be abaft the control room, and it’d go about as fast as the other big cruisers.

To make this work, they had to remove a lot of gun ammo. This one had only 100 rounds for its smaller gun, and the pressure hull plating was much weaker to compensate for its size. Also, due to its size, it could only stay out for 75 days rather than 90. Still fairly impressive, but all of these would become issues when this finally became V-7, or the Dolphin.

Yes. This one looked great on paper. It was basically the sort of “mass-produced” submarine that the submariners had wanted. It was about 1500 tons, can go out for 12,000 nm (which, if you recall! That’s what Tautog said would be good for a long patrol in the Pacific), carried a big load of torpedoes (18 in total, in six tubes), and went fairly okay at about 14 knots.

Well, the thing they ended up building could only do 10 knots for 11,000 nm, but that’s alright. The experience was what mattered. This particular prototype had incorporated a lot of the concepts found in the larger cruisers such as the deck shape and the composite drive propulsion system. It also freaked the British out, since we’d just proven it to them that the Dolphin could be a functional and powerful submarine design with a comparatively small tonnage use. They did, after all, try to propose submarines be no bigger than 1800 tons, after all!

Anyways. That’s how the Dolphin came to be. How did it do?

Bad.

The design had the right ideas, but the actual performance of the ship was pretty terrible. You-know-who commented that it was a deathtrap of a boat. He’s not wrong. Despite having been built in 1932, its machinery was really bad. Oil leaks and all kinds of leaks everywhere. Parts were unreliable. Stuff just didn’t work. It was quickly tossed over to training, as the Dolphin only actually saw three war patrols during her lifetime in the Pacific War.

Still. In case you haven’t been paying attention, much like the Argonaut or even the ones that showed up earlier, we learned a lot from it. The great submarine designs like the Gato or the Balao or the Tench? All that had all of these curious ones to thank for. In this case, the Dolphin would be the last submarine before the London Naval Treaty in 1930, and it’ll always have a spot in U.S. submarine history as the first working example of the “smaller” submarines that we’d eventually head towards.

Smile, Cusk! This one’s going right into the archives!

…No.

Why?

This is dumb. It’s not going to actually fly. All we have is a perfect model of the actual thing. Except, you know, shipgirl sized.

Isn’t that a good thing?

No.

Why not?

First of all. Any attempts to apply fairy energy to mundane, non-fairy derived objects inevitably end in disaster. There’s something very inherently unstable about the particle composition of said energies that tends to result in explosions. I’ve had many, many, many long conversations with the girls and guys who’re really into this stuff. You don’t need to run any more experiments to prove that this is the case.

In context, under normal conditions, no one has yet to figure out how to get outer shell assembled without it rupturing and going the way of dead Abyssals. Then all of a sudden, boom, a proper blueprint shows up. This isn’t normal. R&D’s never, ever, ever, ever-ever this easy! Not to mention we’ve never had actual fairy blueprints. Ever.

But we have a working thingie, don’t we?

If by working you mean “the blueprint exists and we’ve coaxed the little guys into building it,” then yeah, sure. If by working you mean, “it’s literally the shell of a V-1 rocket and missing almost all of its internal electronics,” then yeah, sure.

Come on, most of the little guys are as dumb as bricks. I took this thing apart earlier myself just to check. It’s literally a shell. There’s no control compartment. No combustion chamber. No fuel tanks. No piping or wires or anything. Literally all warhead.

…Okay, not all warhead, but definitely a very large warhead. Way bigger than what you’d actually expect from a thing of this size.

So can we shoot it now?

*sigh* Very well. Though I have to warn you. It’s not going to do anything. Plus, the launch rails are designed for my Loons. Not sure how well one of these would actually work. Not like we’d have much use for a V-1 unless the fairy “variant” solves its horrendous accuracy issues anyways. Unless the Abyssals show up with some kinda continent-sized weapon or something…

Scheibenhonig! I’m pressing the button and nothing’s happening Lori!

Lemme try. You’re probably not hitting it hard enough! 

Okay. You two. First of all, gentle on my equipment. I lovingly crafted every part of that with my own two hands you know!

Second of all. Did you turn the power on? No? Here. I’ll do it. Of course nothing’s going to –

*FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH*

…

…

…Yay?

Um.

That worked, right? Man, it’s so fast! Awesome!

Uh.

ALL UNITS AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE

MISSILE LAUNCH DETECTED

REPEAT

MISSILE LAUNCH DETECTED

18° 8′ 34.8864” N
159° 6′ 1.2312” W

COURSE 30 DEGREES RELATIVE TO CURRENT LOCATION

Na, is that MERLIN broadcast? This is exciting! Is this for reals?

Um, Dracha. Cusk. Is that us?

*nods wordlessly*

… Uh oh.

… Are we in trouble?

*nods wordlessly*

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Some time later…

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Alright, Cusk. What have we learned today?

You don’t need to be an ass about it, Jer. Mike’s shut himself in the office doing paperwork. I feel bad enough already.

*taps feet* So. What have we learned today?

A significant gap in the working knowledge of fairy equipment exists in our R&D pipeline. A lot of work’ll be necessary to enhance our current understanding to acceptable levels.

Also, I can’t believe I didn’t think of it… It’s not the actual thing… It doesn’t need to work like the actual thing… I spend all that time miniaturizing fuel sources for the fairy-derived Loon, I should’ve known to check the shell itself, uugh…

And the bright side?

We received very valuable data on Avalon base’s shielding capabilities.

No materiel damage occurred.

Okie got really scared (I would be too if it looks like something was flying right at me) but she wasn’t hurt.

We can probably reconfigure the blueprint the little guys came up with and massively accelerate the Loon project.

…Can I have a moment? I just want to sulk a bit. Thanks.

Sure. 

Hello everyone! Tautog here. Since we just released that Navy Foods book (which, according to Zero, has a readership of like 90% female), I thought I’d write something on the subject too.

See, the Navy Foods book isn’t just a collection of U.S. Navy Cookbook recipes. It’s a way for our friends from across the ocean to understand America. Military food do tend to use the very same dishes in which you and I are familiar with, but what’s familiar to us is oftentimes alien and exotic to the folks over in Asia.

So, let’s begin, shall we?

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Okay. I thought really hard about how to start this up and I think it’s best that we start from the beginning. Let’s be honest. In the K-boat and S-boat days, submarine food was universally bad. This is for a few reasons, but all of them can be boiled down to one thing.

Space.

The earliest submarines had no galley to cook from like the more modern fleet-types or even the (real) modern SSBNs. Adding something like a fridge (chillbox to you old-timey folks!) was considered to be a luxury. This was because at the time the Navy didn’t think the submarine should stay out for extended periods of time anyways. As such, there was no dedicated eating area (you ate where you slept), the food was bad, and there was virtually no variation in the menu. Hope you like hardtack and beef stew because that’s all you’re going to see for days on end!

If you’re lucky enough to have either!

Then as the Navy realized that they needed the submarine to stay out longer, things changed. Even in the early designs, food preparation became an important factor. Now there are proper galleys and storerooms and even a place for submariners to eat.

Food is important. We all like to eat. In a tough environment like the submarine, food becomes very important. Probably no other thing can help boost morale if you make something good for everyone to eat. And, doing research on this particular matter, I find it very illuminating that the things crew remember the most aren’t necessarily the adrenaline-rushed combat or the thrill of danger, but rather camaraderie, fellowship, and yup, you guessed it, the banter that happens during mealtime.

So, here are three recipes, straight from my head. I know I’m a fictional character and all, but these are based on actual recipes from veterans in Morgane’s family or other verified sources. A primary reference is of course, the U.S. Navy Cookbook. All of these have been produced in one way or another by Morgane herself, and I think they’re pretty good!

Tautog’s Tomato Sauce

You’re going to need:

About half a pound of tomatos. You can get this pre-pureed, or you can cut it up yourself and squish it into small chunks for use later.

1/2 cup of hot water

1 ounce of butter or other shortening.
half an onion
1 clove of garlic
A small amount of ordinary white flour (just enough to make the initial blend a little thick)

Salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon, all ground up and in a pinch. Season to your tastes.

Okay. This one’s a simple one. It’s tomato sauce. You can use tomato sauce for everything from pizza to pasta to stews to meats. It’s super versatile and easy.

This recipe is easy too. What you’re gonna do is first, add all the salt, sugar, cayenne pepper, black pepper, cloves and cinnamon in water and mix it up.

Start off on medium heat (setting 5-7) and add your butter to the stove. Wait for it to melt. When it does, add onions and garlic. Turn to high heat (8+) and quickly saute for 2-5 minutes or whenever the onions are browned and you can smell the onion.

Now, take the flour, and add it in to thicken the greasy mix you see in the pot. This is where you add the tomatoes and water. Keep on stirring (you’re still on high heat) until the mixture starts to bubble (boiling), then reduce the heat to something like a 3-5, and stir constantly for 10-15 minutes. You’ll know it’s ready when the sauce reaches an even consistency.

You want a meaty version? Add ground beef to it and stew. You can’t really go wrong with good lean beef.

Now, beef tends to be the favorite meat of submariners. We’ve already covered the roast beef in the book, and that is the most popular form of cooking beef, bar none, on a submarine. It even beats out steak for a good reason – the steaks on a submarine is generally different from steaks on shore.

See, what makes steak delicious is the fat and the bone. When you cook it, the fat melts into the meat. It looks good and tastes good. In order to save space, when submariners get their steaks it is frequently trimmed of everything. Bones, fat, you name it. Badly frozen, spoiled, or freezer-burnt steaks are all part of life on a submarine, but the cooks quickly learned to adjust accordingly.

What else do submariners eat? Pork is very popular. Pork chops are always welcome, pork roasts are popular, and glazed or cured hams are a popular alternatives. Chicken is generally well-received. Turkey, too. Shrimp tends to be the only seafood due to (again) space, but it’s generally found in Egg Foo Youngs or pastas and not a main meal.

Now, what wasn’t common in a World War 2 submarine was fish. The U.S. supply system didn’t really carry it. It was hard to store properly. If cooked badly it had a fishy taste. That, and people just liked red meats a whole lot better.

Baked salmon was the exception to the norm. This one was well-liked by the crew, though it is generally served on shore or in port rather than underway. Here’s mine, again.

Tautog’s Baked Salmon Almondine

Two decently sized salmon (about as thick as two of your thumb nails, um… size of your hand from tip of middle finger to wrist?)

A handful of coriander or 1/4 teaspoon dried coriander.

At least 2 teaspoons of lemon juice.

1/2 cup of flour.

1/4 cup of almonds (we’ll explain what this is for later!)

1 egg, beaten.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Cooking spray or butter

Okay. This one’s actually going to be really easy. First of all, I don’t know how you get your salmon. If it’s with skin, just bake with the skin on the bottom. If it’s without skin (you don’t have to de-skin it if you don’t want to!) then read on.

Chop up the almonds into as small pieces as you’d like. What you’re going to do is first, lightly flour your salmon. Just the one side is going to be good enough if you have salmon with skin.

Then, take your salt/pepper mixture and sprinkle it all over the salmon.

Take a brush or pour the egg mixture onto your salmon. Generously add almonds. The almonds should “stick” to the fish and forming something like a coated layer. This is what we want.

Now, drizzle with lemon juice. Add coriander.

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Bake until crust hardens (depending the size of your oven).

If you don’t have an oven at home, no problems. Take a pan. Add butter or your favorite cooking oil. Put on high heat and toss the salmon in. It takes maybe 3-4 minutes for one side, and 2-3 minutes for the other. You’ll know when it’s cooked when it’s golden brown.

Now, I know you’re thinking. “Tautog! What about the Tautog! Could you bake a Tautog?”

The answer is no.

Tautog should be grilled. It is probably the best grilling fish you can get this side of the Pacific. Baking Tautog is kind of a waste of the fish, if you ask me.

So, how should you do it? Well. Here’s another one of mine. This isn’t a submarine recipe. More like a submarine base recipe. But, it’s delicious and it’s also pretty lazy!

Tautog’s Grilled Tautog

Tautog filet. IMPORTANT: LEAVE THE SKIN ON.

I repeat, leave the skin and the scale on. You’ll see why.

Tautog Marinade:

Olive oil, lemon, crushed garlic, crushed black pepper. You’re going to want enough olive oil to cover your tog (I sometimes just get a ziplock bag and fill it up and stick the fish in).

Okay. This is super easy and super simple. Notice there’s no salt in the marinade. That’s because you salt the fish after it comes out.

Toss your Tautog in the marinade. Let it sit in the fridge for a few hours. Then what you want to do in the meantime is to heat up a skillet or a wok. Use high heat.

(Yes, you don’t even need a grill for this one. Handy, isn’t it?)

Wait until your skillet is super hot. Add a tiny bit of oil to the bottom. Then, toss the Tautog in, scale-side down.

That’s it. Put the lid back on. Wait and watch the fish. The reason why we keep the scale and the skin is that the scale and skin will take the brunt of the heat, meaning that you don’t have to flip the fish or anything and you can just let the Tautog cook. If your fish is a whole fish, you probably want to flip it once. Other than that it’s exactly the same.

This doesn’t take too long. You’ll know it’s ready when the Tautog starts to “chip” as it “falls apart.” The exact time will depend on the thickness of your fish. Generally from my experience it takes anywhere from 3 to 15 minutes (Tautog are big fish!)

…You know, I’m hungry now. I’m gonna go look for food. See you next time!