Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1961-11-12
Housekeeping On A Po|aris
By PAULINE INNS
Contributing Writer

ANY time submariner's wife complains that she
IA hasn't enough closet space and can't swing cat
in the kitchen, he takes her aboard and shows her
what it is really like to be crowded
Nuclear-powered Polaris submarines are luxury
ships compared with the old diesels but space is
still their biggest problem Every inch must be put to
the best use
The galley is q good example. From an area
rather less than the kitchen Of a modern one-bed-
room apartment 132 men are provided with three
well-balanced. appetzing meals per day plus snacks
and constant coffee.
This takes some doing. especially when you con-
slider that the Poars sub cruises under water for 60
to 100 days without surfacng there is stopping
at the nearest store If you short of food II has to
be good food too. AS Ralph Turner, one Of the
P0laris cooks puts it:
81 have to feed them we'll A subs not like
surface ship where there's three things to complain
about, captain, liberty and chow. We don't get
liberty, so that leaves only captain and chow The
captain doesn't sleep with the crew but do So the
elbows got to be good or my life wouldn't be worth
living"
To get as much nourishment as possible into
limited space, ship space, not stomach spacel the
cOmmissaTy steward has to be q careful buyer. All
meat is cut and bones removed before loading Many
vegetables are dehydrated. Concentrated canned
juices and soups are stored in the hollow seats
and bulkheads, so freezers can be kept for perish
bread mix, complete with dried yeast cuts down
rising time by 90 minutes Trimmings from meats are
used to make sausages and salami empty skins being
carried aboard for the purpose.
EGGS are taken out of the shell, placed on top
Of another in buckets and frozen. Dried egg Is
used only for cakes and puddings.
I'VE did better with eggs in the old diesels,
though" the commissary steward lamentS." All you
had to do was talk the captain out Of torpedo and
fill up the tube with eggs. IT'S sort of cold down
there, with water all around, and the eggs would
last about 90 days. But haven't been able to talk
the skipper out Of Polaris missile, so we have to
stick to the frozen eggs"
On every trip, the P0laris sub takes aboard q
load Of bricks This is for the almp0rtant garbage
disposal system Garbage Is placed in plastic bags
each Of which is weighted with brick and then put
in square steel box next to the galley When the box
is filled Git holds about four bagsl lever Is pressed
and the whole lot is forcibly elected in much the
same way . torpedo. Il Immediately sinks to the
bottom Of the sea, so that no telltale traces are
left to give away the subs position.
Fresh water does not have to be carried aboard:
II Is made at the rate of 10000 gallons day. so
there Is plenty for everything. Washing machines
offset the limited locker space providing the men
with regular changes Of clothing throughout the trip
But the heart of the POlaris Ii its 10 nuclear war
heads 400 times rs powerful as the atomic bomb
dropped on Hiroshima, which must be kept always
ready for firing Though they can be launched from
the sub anywhere under the seas which cover
threeourths Of the EARTH II is believed their very
a - AmA