Comments by "Sar Jim" (@sarjim4381) on "The Drydock - Episode 021" video.
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The difference in habitability is well illustrated by conditions on US subs at the beginning and end of the war. The S Class was the most numerous class of subs available at the start of the war. They were small, noisy, had unreliable diesel engines that blew a fine film of oil over the whole interior, insufficient electrical capacity to run more than very small refrigerators, and the distilling plants were subject to frequent breakdowns and only large enough to allow a bucket of freshwater a week for a sponge bath. Canned food was the order of the day after a week or so at sea. They were nearly uninhabitable for more than a few hours submerged in the Pacific due to the heat and humidity of tropical waters. The ventilation system was undersized and subject to frequent breakdowns. Temperatures in engine rooms reached 110 F, and even 100 F in the conning tower wasn't uncommon. The humidity was near 100% and condensation caused dripping water from every horizontal surface, with short circuits and damage to radios and other electronic equipment as a result. The crew had to hot bunk since there were only enough for about half the wartime crew. Some of the most unlucky had to use hammocks strung in the torpedo rooms.
Fast forward to 1945 and the Gato class. They were positively spacious compared to the S class. Almost the whole crew had their own bunks, The entire boat was air conditioned, keeping temperatures at no higher than 80 F and humidity below 65%. Electrical capacity was large enough to not only recharge a battery bank over twice the size of the S boats, but it was enough to run meat freezers, fresh food refrigerators, and a distilling plant that provided each man with an actual shower every three or four days. They even had crew washing machines, a few had ironing machines, and boats with the most clever engineering section even rigged up ice cream freezers! Frozen meat rather than canned was available for the duration of most patrols, and refrigerated fresh food would be available for the first three weeks of a patrol. Some captains allowed enough refrigerator space that the crew could have two cold six ounce bottles Coke a week. According to some crew memoirs, this was the greatest boost to morale during even difficult patrols. Some veteran admirals viewed all this as making the crews soft, but there's no doubt Gato crews were more alert, better fed, in better health, and had better morale than any other sub crews in the war.
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