Life onboard the NR-1

by Joel Staggs, ETCM(SS), USN Retired

Life on NR-l could be alot of fun, at least for a new comer or someone riding it for a scientific mission, as I did. She was towed to and from most missions by an ASR (Auxiliary Submarine Rescue vessel). This could make for some wild rides on the end of the tow line if the surface conditions got nasty. On the trip I made, I was the only person onboard who was not wearing a sea-sickness patch. Once free from the tow, things calmed down quite a bit. With her ocean engineering suite, there isn't much that she is not capable of doing. It should be a great marriage of NR-l and Jason. That will be a very flexible, capable system with very long on station legs. Wish l could go along.

The "galley" was interesting. It was about the size of the galley on a 727. Most of the food was frozen except for potatoes and onions stored in the bilge. Everything was cooked in a large, multi-shelf convection oven. With a little creativity you learned how and how long to cook everything from hot dogs and hamburger to TV dinners to some nice cuts of steak. lt was even possible to bake a cake. The two OICs (Officer in Charge) that I knew would traditionally make a birthday cake for a crewmember's birthday if underway.

Showering was fun. You got a 5 gallon bucket of warm water and took a sponge bath over the engine room deck gratings. After you were clean, you just poured the water over yourself and into the bilge. From there it was pumped into the bilge collecting tank.

It was one of the most interesting and fun trips that I made in my 26 years of going to sea in submarines. I have been to see on everything from a WWII diesel boat, complete with a 5 inch deck gun, to a post WWII diesel fast attack boat, to a Polaris FBM, to the great Sturgeon class fast attack submarines. Any vessels other than submarines, I might add, are classified as targets!

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Revised: 3 January 1995