Monday, March 30, 2009

Please tell me you know what this is.

Yes, yes, we all know it's a submarine. I mean, specifically, please tell me you know what that part sticking up in the air is called.

See, there are some things I know that I think everyone else knows, but then it comes out that not everyone does and sometimes I'm like "Huh? How can you not know?"

I realize that a large part of this is just that we all have different areas of knowledge or interest. Murphy could post a photo of his service weapon and I would have no idea what it is. But then, I don't expect that he'd recognize a Mark-48 torpedo on sight, either.

But submarines are a bit more common knowledge than that, right? At least, their general existence & parts. I don't expect random people to know that the submarine in the picture is a 688i, or what differentiates a 688i from a "normal" 688, or even that they're all Los Angeles class submarines. But surely we know what the general parts of them are called, right?

I ask this, because as I was reading the Stars & Stripes article on the collision between the USS Hartford (which, for the record, is a 688i) & the USS New Orleans (which is a target surface ship), the author went to great pains to explain exactly what the sail is, as if this isn't common knowledge.

So what I want to know is this: Is the author an idiot, and this is common knowledge, or am I that much of a geek?

And on a side note: An 85-degree roll? Holy shit, people! That's damn near sideways. No wonder there were 15 injuries.

And on yet another, this time completely unrelated side note: that photo is of the USS Boise in the Suez Canal in 2003, on its way to help lay the smack-down on Saddam. It should have been the USS Oklahoma City on that deployment, but alas they tried to surface underneath a Norwegian Oil Tanker, & thus were in no shape to take their surge deployment.

My middle daughter was born exactly 9 months and 4 days after the Boise returned from that deployment. There's a fairly good chance that my ex-husband is in that photograph, but I can't make out who's topside in the sail.

3 comments:

Murphy said...

"Murphy could post a photo of his service weapon and I would have no idea what it is. But then, I don't expect that he'd recognize a Mach-48 torpedo on sight, either."

Snark-suppression is making me twitch...

Honestly, I had no idea what they're called (sail), other than the 'tall-pokey thing, apparently for ships'...

Unknown said...

I don't think the layman knows or would associate that part of the boat to the word "sail". Similar to knowing what a gunwale is, but can you accurately pronounce it? Google the photos of the Hartford's post-collision return to port and ask yourself, "What's wrong with this picture?" The sail is leaning over like a dolphin's dorsal.

Oh, and Sabra, I'm sure you meant Mark 48 and not the speedier MACH-48.

Sabra said...

Yeah, you're right. I'm bad at properly spelling things I have heard more than seen. (And, well, my TM ex-husband can misspell his own name, so...) I'll fix it.