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Submarines by Bill Corey Pentair Water Training Institute I said we would talk about submarines this time, and you might be wondering what submarines have to do with pumps. Good question. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a cook. Why? Because my dad was a cook in the Army; and he was a good cook. We were poor and I couldn’t go to school for cooking, so I asked around as to where I could learn how to cook. I was told the Navy Submarine Corp had the best cooks. Ten days out of high school, I was in boot camp. While in boot camp, I was told if I took the test for submarines, passed it, and had my teeth fixed - I know, why fix your teeth? When you went to submarine school they didn’t want to take time for you to get your teeth fixed, so if you had it done in boot camp you were a shoo-in for submarine school. Six hours in the dental chair, and I was sure I was going to submarine school. Graduation day came and I tore open my orders which read: You are assigned to the USS Putnam DD-757 . Yes a destroyer, which is nothing more than a 300-foot bobber in the ocean. When I reported to the Putnam, it was in dry dock where we chipped and painted for three months. In mid-December we went out to sea for a couple of days to make sure everything was working. We came back in and were given our orders. [I always ask, “It was the middle of December 1966. What were our orders?” Someone always answers, “Vietnam”.] One of the cooks said, “Vietnam. That’s a war zone. I’m retiring, I’m not going there.” And he left the ship. The captain said, “We leave in two days. Where are we going to get a cook in two days?” One of the other officers knew I wanted to be a cook and said, “Why don’t we ask that Corey guy? He said he wanted to be a cook.” So they asked if I would like to be a cook, I said yes, and became a cook. Yep, we headed to Guantanamo Bay for gunnery training. There we found only the front gun mount worked, so we were sent to the Mediterranean instead. While I never got to be on a submarine, I did learn something. When I was young, I learned if you wanted to shoot some- thing, you had to hit it. If you didn’t, it would get away. As I mentioned last time, I like movies. When I would go see the movies about the WWII Sub Chasers, I would see them listen to the subs move underwater, and thought these guys were gods. They could hear the sub and drop a depth charge right on it. Of course, when I got in the Navy I found the depth charges were more like hand grenades and horseshoes, as long as you were close enough. So how does a depth charge work? A sub runs under the ocean hundreds of feet; and at 2.31 feet of water per pound of pressure, there is a lot of pressure down there. It is also very cold. So when the depth charge explodes, it super heats the very cold water, creating a very large vapor bubble. What do you think it does, float to the surface? No, it implodes right away. As long as it is close enough to the sub, it will harden the metal and crack it; and if the pumps onboard can’t keep up with the water coming in, it will sink. When it gets to the point it can’t stay together, it implodes and everything on- board vaporizes. So what does all the death and de- struction have to do with a pump? This: Cavitation will destroy any solid surface. If you don’t stop it, you will be replacing parts. Bill Bill may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com &% ! "" * "(%$ ))) (" $( ' & $ %# # " (" $( $ ( " !" !! ! &% ! % ! (" $( & $ $ $ " ! $ $ ! ! $ ! $ # $ $ $ 45 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® JULY 2016