But it is not. How long the crew can endure is a significant limit, as is how much food can be carried. Food for the crew is the bulkiest commodity in a submarine and becomes the limiting factor for patrol duration. Fresh food lasts about two weeks, then it is canned, dried, and frozen food for the rest of the patrol. When a submarine leaves on patrol, food fills every available corner.
Eating takes place in the crew's mess.
Despite the tight galley space, good meals are the rule, with the same menu for officers and enlisted men. But the mess deck also is virtually the only common space aboard a submarine for training and study, or where off-duty sailors can unwind by watching video tapes, playing games, or talking. Breech Disposing of trash, like many other activities that are relatively straightforward ashore, require special arrangements in a submarine. Trash is tightly compacted in a cylindrical steel mesh container. Since the end of the Cold War, submarines operate under stricter rules about when and where they can discharge trash overboard, and some materials, like plastics, can no longer be discharged at all.