Submarine Glossary

General Terms:

• Acey deucy

  Acey deucy:
  Sailors' version of backgammon
  
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• Ash Cans

  Ash Cans:
  Depth charges.
  
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• Battle Surface

  Battle Surface:
  A surfacing operation during which the submarine is made buoyant by blowing suitable tanks and then held down by the bow and stern planes and motor power until she leaps upward. Ships thus handled come up flat, or nearly flat, instead of bow first, and suddenly.
  
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• Beach

  Beach:
  Anything that isn't sea water. In this service it frequently describes a submerged extension of the shore.
  
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• Black Gang

  Black Gang:
  The engine-room crew, although there is no record of there having been a coal-burning submarine.
  
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• Bleed In

  Bleed In:
  (To "bleed in" air or water.) To let in a small amount of air or water.
  
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• Blow Ballast

  Blow Ballast:
  To force water from tanks into sea with compressed air.
  
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• Boot

  Boot:
  As on the surface ships, a recruit.
  
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• Broach

  Broach:
  To surface without intent. To stick the bow out of the water when rising in periscope depth.
  
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• Captain

  Captain:
  The commander of a boat regardless of his real naval rank.
  
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• Chief of Boat

  Chief of Boat:
  A chief petty officer (senior enlisted man) in charge of personnel.
  
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• Crash Dive

  Crash Dive:
  A term generally out of use among submariners inasmuch as all dives nowadays are crash dives. A crash dive primarily is a dive made through the momentum of the diesel engines, which are not shut off until the ship has started under water.
  
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• Down the throat

  Down the throat:
  The most difficult of torpedo shots. Instead of firing at the side of a ship (a large target), the sub's fish are shot at the very narrow bow of the enemy as it heads directly toward the submarine.
  
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• Dove

  Dove:
  In the submarine service the past tense of the verb dive.
  
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• Fan

  Fan:
  See Spread.
  
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• Fireman

  Fireman:
  See Black Gang.
  
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• Flat

  Flat:
  (Of battery). Discharged. "The can is flat."
  
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• Flood Down

  Flood Down:
  Fill the ballast tanks until the submarine's deck is awash-just even with the surface of the sea.
  
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• Foo-Foo

  Foo-Foo:
  A pleasant smell-something submariners appreciate after weeks on patrol.
  
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• Foo-Foo Dust

  Foo-Foo Dust:
  Sweet-smelling talcum powder.
  
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• Ganomies

  Ganomies:
  Imaginary creatures blamed for troubles aboard a sub-like the gremlins blamed for trouble on an airplane.
  
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• Going Hot (Of torpedoes)

  Going Hot (Of torpedoes):
  Properly directed toward the target and, as a matter of course, hitting. "All our torpedoes went hot."
  
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• Hard Dive

  Hard Dive:
  Dive at maximum angle.
  
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• Jam Air

  Jam Air:
  Fill the compressed-air bottles while a submarine is surfaced.
  
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• Jamoke

  Jamoke:
  Coffee; also called "Joe," "Java," or "Battery Juice."
  
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• Ladder Chancre

  Ladder Chancre:
  Shin bruises caused by collisions with ladders and comings, a common ailment.
  
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• Lash-Up

  Lash-Up:
  Any kind of an arrangement or setup. "That was a bum lash-up."
  
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• Minnie the Mermaid

  Minnie the Mermaid:
  A much-discussed character who turns out to be a submerged mural in the diving tower at the New London Submarine School.
  
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• Old Man

  Old Man:
  The skipper who is generally a lieutenant commander about thirty-two years old; the captain of a submarine.
  
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• On the Coral

  On the Coral:
  On the bottom, which in most spots in the South Pacific is the same thing.
  
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• Periscope Depth

  Periscope Depth:
  The submerged level a submarine must maintain to keep the tip of her periscope above the surface.
  
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• Pogey Bait

  Pogey Bait:
  Here, as up there-candy.
  
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• Pull the Plug

  Pull the Plug:
  Submerge a submarine as quickly as possible.

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• Ride the Vents

  Ride the Vents:
  Cruise on the surface with the ballast tanks' valves already open to the sea, but the air vents still closed to prevent the water from entering the tanks. When a submarine is "riding the vents" she can dive at a moment's notice.
  
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• Ring the Bell

  Ring the Bell:
  To hit. As: "They almost rang the bell on us."
  
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• Rugged

  Rugged:
  A bit of civilian high-school slang taken over by the submarines as an all-inclusive description of anything tough, dangerous or inconvenient, from depth charges to bad weather.
  
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• The Silent Service

  The Silent Service:
  A poetic name for the submarine business.
  
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• Sitting Pigeon

  Sitting Pigeon:
  Unarmed enemy ship proceeding slowly without escort.
  
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• Skipper

  Skipper:
  The commander of a submarine.
  
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• Sound

  Sound:
  A submarine sound-device operator.
  
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• Sparks

  Sparks:
  A submarine radio operator.
  
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• Spread

  Spread:
  Several torpedoes fired in rapid succession, each at a different angle so that they spread or "fan out."
  
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• String

  String:
  A row of depth charges dropped at regular intervals.
  
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• Those Guys up There

  Those Guys up There:
  The Japanese.
  
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• Tin Can

  Tin Can:
  Slang term for a destroyer, the sub's most common enemy.
  
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• Tin Fish

  Tin Fish:
  A torpedo.
  
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• U-Boat

  U-Boat:
  A German submarine.
  
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• Up on Top

  Up on Top:
  On the surface of the water.
  
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• USS

  USS:
  United States Ship
  
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• Valve-Turners

  Valve-Turners:
  Experimenters who twist controls to find out what will happen-a short-lived race.
  
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• Walk the Periscope

  Walk the Periscope:
  Turn the periscope completely around in order to view the entire horizon.
  
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Submarine Part Terms:

• Air Manifold

  Air Manifold:
  Receives and distributes high pressure air. Can store air until it needs to be distributed through out the boat.
  
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• Amps a Side

  Amps a Side:
  ("Fourteen hundred amps a side,") A measure of motor speed by means of current consumption on older types of boats.
  
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• Boiler

  Boiler:
  Slang term for submarine
  
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• Bow Planes or Stern Planes

  Bow Planes or Stern Planes:
  Fins that determine the submarine's angle of dive.
  
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• Bulkheads

  Bulkheads:
  The walls of the submarine.
  
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• Can

  Can:
  The submarine's storage batteries; when "the can is empty," the batteries must be recharged; "filling the can" means recharging the batteries.
  
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• Eye-Port

  Eye-Port:
  A small, thick, glass window in watertight doors and also in the conning tower.
  
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• Gas Boats

  Gas Boats:
  Gasoline-driven submarines of the era before diesel engines.
  
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• The Head

  The Head:
  A highly complicated toilet.
  
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• Kingston

  Kingston:
  A valve from the bottom of a ballast tank to the sea.
  
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• Lung

  Lung:
  The Momsen rescue lung.
  
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• Pig Boat

  Pig Boat:
  An old slang term for a submarine. The term came into use because a group of submarines clustered around a tender looked like a litter of baby pigs around a sow; and also because it described the living conditions on an old-fashioned submarine.
  
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• Pressure Hull

  Pressure Hull:
  Internal hull which is cylindrical and built to withstand heavy pressure, as opposed to the thinner external hull which holds the ballast tanks.
  
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• Scuttlebutt

  Scuttlebutt:
  The drinking fountain on a vessel.
  
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• Sewer Pipe

  Sewer Pipe:
  A slang term for submarine.
  
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• Topside

  Topside:
  The deck.
  
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• Vent

  Vent:
  n opening at the top of a ballast tank.
  
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