Mike SSN Sub Brief

I can say from experience that 4 feet waves is a calm day in the norwegian sea, I served in the Norwegian coast guard(1995-1996), and I now work on oilriggs in the northsea, where a 4 feet wave height is a rare calm day, the norm in the northsea is about 7-10feet(2.4 - 3Meters), hence they atleast where lucky in that way! It could have been a really bad day with 78,8Feet(24m), wich I have experienced several times, but the loss of a fellow sailor is allways a sad story, and I do not wish that upon anyone!

Recent technology of membrane gas separation might be able to separate oxygen and nitrogen as they are taken onboard through a submarine's periscope. If the high pressure air had been low in oxygen (ie mostly nitrogen), the fire hazard would be reduced.

Asbestos was phased out around the time of the Mike. Was the Mike fireproofed with asbestos? As of 1959 some US Navy electrical cables were wrapped with asbestos insulation; maybe this would have prevented the spread of fire through the cable runs.

I was in Keflavik, Iceland, I'm was an OTA. I remember this. What is amazing, everyone was more concerned for the crew. I'll never forget this.

William R. Collier Jr.

I was in Keflavik, Iceland, I'm was an OTA. I remember this. What is amazing, everyone was more concerned for the crew. I'll never forget this.

William R. Collier Jr.

Very well done. Respectful yet insightful. Thank you for this great content!

The problem is not Russian engineering, the problem is the implementation. The engineer builds a ship/plane to certain specs but then either the materials are not available or techniques possible to build part exactly as designed or no budget . And they build it anyway, knowing it does not meet original design. This a big problem they have in gas turbines, electronics and any complicate system. Another problem they have, which I understand fully is the start/stop process. You design and start building something and then have to stop for a couple years, then you come back to it, sometimes 5 to 10 years later. No matter how good your notes are, you have to start a knew process and sometimes something that you thought was done and tested really wasn't. You only find out after the whole thing is integrated and and it breaks. It is actually many times as hard to build something like that than just do it in one times or productions runs.

Sounds like the kind of story Jive would say around a campfire... hard to believe anyone would survived. Russian Submariners are if any brave, more have died thought the years than anyone keeps count. In my 50 years of consciousness it seems at least 10 subs have killed their crews with either fires or torpedoes run amuck, and all this in relative peace time. Nice Video

Really a tragedy. I appreciate your detailed walkthrough of the catastrophe though. Honestly Russian engineering is always so fascinating to hear about. It is half "God Tier" absurd sci-fi engineering, and then half incredibly embarrassing mistakes and failures. (Don't even get me started on Soviet rocket engines)

Alex the social choice and voting theory nerd

Excellent narration Jive. TY for the details, with appropriate commentary from a guy that knows what he's talking about.

Joseph Orr

There are fire seals and they are water tight at high pressure and temp. But, the compartments had been on fire for so long, they eventually melted.

Aaron Amick

No, this is one of one.

Aaron Amick

Did they make any more “Mikes”?

god damn what a horror story. also aren't there fire seals in the cable runs ? or are these primarily sealed against water coming through ? i just know about this stuff because of my work, and i know what pain it is to fire seal cables in public buildings.

Spartaner 251

Gotcha.

I'm dyslexic in Russian. They are the same thing.

Aaron Amick

My guess is that PWRs are referred to as WPRs in Russian translated sources, perhaps? So Jive just used the same terminology as the sources used?

Good brief. One question though... from getting my Nuclear Energy Merit Badge as a scout, through undergraduate and graduate degrees in Physics, to recently (re)reading "Rickover and the Nuclear Navy", these types of plants were always called Pressurized Water Reactors (PWRs). Why did you choose to call them "Water-Pressurized Reactors (WPRs)"? I know it seems like a small difference, but I'm interested in what different communities call the same exact thing. Were they called WPRs on your boat?