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Navy Uniforms

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Everyone has to have clean clothes, right? Simple, just take them downstairs to the laundry room. What if you’re a sailor on-board a nuclear powered submarine? A submarine out at sea for 30 days or more crammed full of about 150 sailors, sailors that still need to wash their uniforms. Unfortunately, due to limited space, submarines are equipped with only one washer and dryer, just like any household. Imagine being on a submarine, out in the middle of the ocean and the only washer or dryer breaks. It may seem trivial, but for the crew of a submarine having clean clothes is essential to maintaining good order and discipline, to keeping morale high, and allowing the crew to accomplish the mission. Logically, it would be prudent for the submarine …show more content…

With the proper part an electrician can easily replace the heating element or a mechanic can replace a leaking hose. On the other hand, if the part isn’t on-board the crew must now revert back to the days before electricity and wash their clothes by hand. Utilizing the deep sink is by far the easiest to wash clothes by hand, but most members of the ship will simply utilize the sinks in the bathrooms. Now, if the dryer is the victim of the casualty, the crew will have wet clothes to hang up. Space on-board a submarine is at a limited at best, finding a place to hang up laundry that would not interfere with daily operations is a challenge. By capitalizing on the ventilation system, the crew can dry their clothes in a few hours rather than to hang up clothes all over work spaces or in the racks (6x3x3 box where the sailor sleeps). The central location for all ventilation is the fan room, the largest non-working space on-board ship, it houses five industrial grade fans designed to circulate air at a rate of 1500 cubic feet per minute throughout approximately 300 yards of living/working space on-board ship. Stringing up laundry in the fan room will allow sailors the opportunity to dry their clothes without interfering too much with routine operations. But this doesn’t provide enough space for sailors to dry their clothes, so alternate locations have to be found to dry laundry. With clothes lines all over the boat, not only are daily routines are impeded, but there is also in increased chance of fire

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