The curious Soviet mini-sub of South Alabama (2018) | Hacker News Reader

The curious Soviet mini-sub of South Alabama (2018)

laststandonzombieisland.com

122 pointsvinnyglennon34 comments

It's been over 20 years since I last saw it in person, but there is also a pretty decent replica of the Hunley:

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-replica-of-the-css-hunley-...

Based on the condition there, it was desperately in need of a new coat of paint by that point.

At least one of the boats for the "Pirate's of the Carribean" series was built there. My understanding is they are real boats, but the hull you see in the water isn't what gives them real sea worthiness.

Here it is on Google Street View (in 2016):

https://goo.gl/maps/Sc2nxJoyVGDQZmSN8

Similar set up here, though this one is/was available to visit on the Thames in London https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine_U-475_Black_Widow

Per wikipedia it's been awaiting restoration since 2004, so it might not be in much better shape than the one in Alabama by now.

A shame, that's a Foxtrot class diesel-electric. Much bigger than the one in the OP link. There's one in Long Beach too, but it was also allowed to deteriorate and closed to the public in 2015. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_submarine_B-427

Interesting podcast on the sub https://coldwarconversations.com/episode35/

And some video from 4 years ago https://youtu.be/nwLp0xwP9OI

So, who's ready for another hackerspace group to own a submarine... https://www.netflix.com/title/80239100

I’d be so down, but without the murder part.

That's the part of the story that kills the fun.

Haven’t watched it, but the description reminds me of what happened to Natalie Wood (famous 60s and 70s Hollywood actor). Christopher Walken on was on the boat with her. He knows the truth.

http://jpaerospace.com/ is working on one.

That thing is wildly capable. It belongs at sea.

Except...

> Mobile-native filmmaker Mike deGruy– who dived on “Titanic” with director James Cameron and for his BBC series “The Blue Planet”– took a look at the vessel in 2010 saying at the time that “a person would have to be crazy to go underwater in that contraption.”

Does he mean now, after decades of disrepair, or originally when it was actively used?

Originally. Diving to the Sesotho it could is an impressive feat.

You're looking at 40 years of degradation to the

- every (rubber, for the time) seal needing to be replaced, in every fitting and valve.

- the lower unit seems to have fractured under its own weight (this is likely the ballast tanks), this would need to be remade.

- any pressure areas need to be retested (including the crew area) and replaced (all compressed air storage).

Now, for the easy parts

- the batteries will have to be replaced, but lithium ion is going to give you better performance at smaller size, with less degradation. (You'll have to compensate the weight though)

- the motors will have to be replaced, but can use much more efficient, likely better sealed, better cooled, smaller, safer motors with pwm electric speed controllers.

- modern glass and fastening techniques could replace the viewports, possibly add more as you rebuild the negative pressure vessel.

- air management is easier to instrument.

- you can add a bunch more cameras and sensors on the cheap that are significantly better than the let's

Plus rust and corrosion. You could never be certain that pressure vessel is structurally sound without scrapping it and rebuilding.

Depending on what it was made of that might not be enough. Some metals have weird fatigue issues.

Ok. Could we get the plans and make a new one, for fun?

Yeah but by the time you do all that, you probably would have been better off just building a new submarine from scratch

Theseus’ submarine.

It's far easier to build a space ship, and outer space less dangerous to pilot through than the bottom of the ocean.

I don’t think a filmmaker is someone qualified to do this kind of judgement.

Yeah, it would make a great artificial reef.

My favorite sub in BMT though.

> Mobile-native filmmaker Mike deGruy

Sign of the times I guess, my first instinct when reading this line was that it was a term for people creating films using mobile phones/gopros rather than traditional cameras. It actually means the city of Mobile, Alabama.

The wording is a bit weird though, isn't it? Why wouldn't you write "filmmaker from Mobile, AL"?

You and Harold Ross; you are now ready to become an editor at the New Yorker.

>One of Gibbs’s rules (No. 17) offers a lucid explanation for a tenet of New Yorker style that has puzzled writers (and some editors) for generations: “I almost forgot indirection which probably maddens Mr. Ross more than anything else in the world. He objects, that is, to important objects, or places or people being dragged into things in a secretive and underhanded manner. If, for instance, a profile has never told where a man lives, Ross protests against a sentence saying, ‘His Vermont house is full of valuable paintings.’ Should say ‘He has a house in Vermont and it is full, etc.’ Rather weird point, but it will come up from time to time.” And it does.

source: https://archive.ph/RygOF

… An editor at The New Yorker in 1937.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/arena-attachments/454681/4780426217...

This is great. Thank you.

you are right, but in the writer's defense, he mentioned Mobile in the first paragraph so it's not totally out of context.

Dunno. Ohio-native, San Francisco-native, Portland-native, this is a construct that isn’t all that uncommon in headlines. “Mobile” just has an additional meaning so you need context, but you also need context for which “Portland” one might be a native to.

I think it shouldn’t be hyphenated

Also funny how you’d know the difference if you heard someone say it :)

Wordier but more accurate headline: "The Soviet mini-sub of South Alabama whose presence there is easily accounted for".

tl;dr: some guy in Alabama bought it surplus to do stuff with, then didn't do that stuff.

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