The Champion Submarine-Killing Submarine of World War Two
 

Virtual Tour

Tour Main

Maneuvering Room

  
 
 
 
Sandwiched between the aft engine room and the aft torpedo room is a small watertight compartment called the maneuvering room.  Occupying the majority of this space is the main propulsion control cubicle, a perforated stainless steel box that measured 8 or 10 feet on a side.  The cubicle was shock-mounted; suspended by springs located at the edges and corners, to isolate the enclosed switches from the potentially disastrous effects of depth charges.  The cubicle routed electricity from each of the 4 main engines (and the dinky) and the forward and aft storage batteries to connections for the main propulsion motors.  
 
     
 
  The two large electric motors in the motor room (below the main deck) propelled the submarine both on the surface and when submerged.  Each motor drove a separate screw (propeller) through a rotary speed-reduction gear.  The motors derived their electrical power from the diesel engine-driven electrical generators while the boat was on the surface.  While submerged, power came from the electric batteries in the forward and after battery compartments.

Huge electrical switches, needed to accomplish the change-over from generator to battery power and to establish the charging of batteries by the generators, were located in the “control cubicle”.  Two controllermen actuated the switches from the “maneuvering panel” that was aft of the cubicle, at the after end of the compartment.  The controllermen adjusted individual motor speeds as ordered.