Deep Strike by Rick Campbell

Author:Rick Campbell [Campbell, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, Military, Technological, Sea Stories
ISBN: 9781250164773
Google: b-BQyAEACAAJ
Amazon: B0879HDK7F
Goodreads: 51173601
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2021-03-16T05:00:00+00:00

38

BREMERTON, WASHINGTON

A light rain was falling as Captain Murray Wilson descended the concrete steps into the drydock at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, a green foul-weather jacket protecting him from the Pacific Northwest’s inclement weather. Waiting at the bottom of the drydock was Bill Sullivan, the shipyard supervisor assigned to the submarine’s repair effort. Michigan had arrived at the shipyard three months ago, after a torpedo had blown a hole in its Missile Compartment.

While in the Black Sea, Michigan had been engaged by three Russian submarines and sank two, but a Russian torpedo had returned the favor, sending Michigan to the bottom. Fortunately, Michigan sank in shallow water and none of the intact compartments had imploded. Additionally, the service and emergency air banks had been fully charged, and Wilson’s crew had pressurized the flooded compartment, blowing enough water back out of the hole for Michigan to rise from the bottom and engage the remaining Russian submarine.

The shipyard had just completed welding a hull patch, replacing the damaged section, which had been cut out, and few things made submariners queasier than having to take a submarine with a patched-up pressure hull down to Test Depth for the first time.

Sullivan escorted Wilson along the drydock, stopping amidships for a clear view of the hull patch. The coverings protecting the repair site from the elements had been kept in place, as had the scaffolding, providing the radiographers access to the welds. The hull patch hadn’t been painted yet—it was just plain metal—and would remain so until the welds had been certified.

“How’s the rest of the boat coming along?” Wilson asked.

Wilson spoke in submarine vernacular out of habit, referring to his submarine as a boat. He had learned early in his career that an easy way to insult Surface Warfare officers was to refer to their ships as boats. He’d heard the response often—It’s not a boat, it’s a ship. The only boat we have is the Captain’s gig. However, submariners used the term affectionately. Although their submarine was technically a Navy ship, to them it was just the boat.

The inside of the boat—the Missile Compartment specifically—was still in pieces. In the Black Sea, they had blown most of the water from the compartment, and the electrical cables and essential components, which were designed to withstand full submergence pressure, had worked in the critical hours while engaging the last Russian submarine. However, there had still been six feet of water in the bilges, well above the lower level deck plates, and by the time Michigan pulled into the shipyard for repair, electrical shorts had begun plaguing the submarine. The corrosive effect of the seawater had begun taking its toll.

After evaluating the damage, the Navy decided to replace all of the wetted electrical cabling and equipment utilizing spare components, much of which had been in deep stow for twenty-five years, manufactured as the Ohio class construction program wound down in the 1990s. After three months in the shipyard, the rip-out was complete and they had begun installing and testing the replacement components, which would take a few more months.

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