Sailing on a nuclear sub is a remarkable experience. Older, conventional-powered subs are crammed, malodorous and claustrophobic.
Nuclear boats are relatively capacious, their air is clean and fresh, and they run almost silently.
Standing atop the conning tower, watching the sub cleave a great vee through the water, your whole body feels the enormous, throbbing power coursing from the nuclear reactors below. When SSN-708 dove to 1200ft, or twisted and turned like a porpoise, it felt like being in a jet fighter, rather than a ship. Sub crews, a very special and courageous breed of men, have learned to live with this ever-present danger. A Royal Navy submarine was sunk at its moorings by the explosion of a HTP torpedo. The sub s efforts to blow its tanks and surface failed.