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The Fleet Type Submarine Online
21-Inch Submerged Torpedo Tubes


21-Inch Submerged Torpedo Tubes manual cover
Folks,

21-Inch Submerged Torpedo Tubes, Ordnance Pamphlet 1085, is one of a series of submarine training manuals that was completed just after WW II. The series describes the peak of WW II US submarine technology.

In this online version of the manual we have attempted to keep some flavor of the original layout while taking advantage of the Web's universal accessibility. Different browsers and fonts will cause the text to move, but the text will remain roughly where it is in the original manual. O.P. 1085 is typeset in a more complex way than the other manuals of this series. This has lead to many more compromises between retaining that original flavor and remaining comprehensible on in the web version. In addition to errors we have attempted to preserve from the original (for example, it was H.L. Hunley, not CS Huntley), this text was captured by optical character recognition. This process creates errors that are compounded while encoding for the Web. Please report any typos, or particularly annoying layout issues for correction.

Our thanks to IKON Office Solutions for scanning services.

For information about the development of U.S. Navy Torpedoes, see: A Brief History of U.S. Navy Torpedo Development, by E.W. Jolie

Richard Pekelney
Webmaster


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RECORD OF CHANGES           O. P. 1085

Empty table of changes entered into the manual.
 
ii

RESTRICTED ORDNANCE PAMPHLET 1085

21-INCH SUBMERGED TORPEDO TUBES
MARKS 32 TO 39 AND MODIFICATIONS AS IN SS198 AND UP, JUNE 1944


A BUREAU OF ORDNANCE PUBLICATION - UNITED STATES NAVY

THIS PUBLICATION IS RESTRICTED AND SHOULD BE HANDLED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE 76, U.S. NAVY REGULATIONS, 1920

 
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For Victory Buy United States War Bonds and Stamps N. Ord. 6

IN REPLY ADDRESS
BUREAU OF ORDNANCE, NAVY DEPARTMENT
AND REFER TO NO.

(Re6a)

NAVY DEPARTMENT
BUREAU OF ORDNANCE
WASHINGTON, D. C.

 
RESTRICTED          June 1944
 
 
ORDNANCE PAMPHLET 1085

21" SUBMERGED TORPEDO TUBES MARK 32 TO 39 INCLUSIVE.

1. Ordnance Pamphlet 1085 is issued for the guidance of the Naval Service in the operation and maintenance of the subject tubes.

2. The instructions are specific as to operation and maintenance, and supplement the instructions contained in the Bureau of Ordnance Manual.

3. This publication supersedes that portion of Ordnance Pamphlet 586 (1st Revision) pertaining to 21" Submerged Torpedo Tubes Mark 32 to 39 inclusive.

4. This publication is RESTRICTED and should be handled in accordance with Article 76, U. S. Navy Regulations, 1920.
 

G. F. HUSSEY, JR., Rear Admiral, U.S. Navy, Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance
 
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CONTENTS
 
Record of Changes ii
Promulgating Letter 3
Preface 6
Plate 1 Opposite 23
Plate 2 Opposite 37
Plate 3 Opposite 46
Distribution 145
CHAPTER 1. GENERAL DESCRIPTION 9
PART 1-The Torpedo Tube Is a Gun 10
PART 2-How a Torpedo Tube Works 12
CHAPTER 2. THE BARREL 15
The Building of a Torpedo Tube Begins with the Barrel 16
The Mechanisms which Convert the Barrel into a Torpedo Tube 19
CHAPTER 3. THE BREECH AND MUZZLE DOORS 23
The Breech Door-the Loading End of the Torpedo Tube 24
The Torpedo Tail Stop 27
Breech Door Operation 28
The Muzzle Door and Its Mechanism 29
Manual Operation 30
Power Operation 32
 
CHAPTER 4. INTERLOCKING MECHANISM'S 37
Breech and Muzzle Door Interlock 38
Tube Drain Valve and Muzzle Door Interlocking Mechanism 42
Firing Interlocking Mechanism 44
Interlock Disconnect 46
CHAPTER 5. THE FIRING MECHANISM 47
General Description 48
The Solenoid 50
The Stop Cylinder Valve 51
The Torpedo Stop Cylinder 52
The Pilot Valve 52
The Stop Valve 55
The Firing Valve 56
The Check Valve 58
The Interlocking Mechanism 60
Schematic Diagram of Tube Firing System 144
CHAPTER 6. THE POPPET VALVE SYSTEM 61
General Description 62
The Poppet Valve 64
The Operating Unit 66
The Roller Crank 67
Operation of the Poppet Valve 68
 
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The Poppet Valve Drain 68
The Poppet Valve Controls 70
CHAPTER 7. THE TORPEDO SETTING MECHANISMS 75
The Depth Setting Mechanisms 76
The Gyro Setting Mechanism 83
The Speed Setting Mechanisms 91
CHAPTER 8. THE TRIPPING LATCH AND THE TORPEDO STOP BOLT 105
The Tripping Latch Mechanism 106
The Torpedo Stop Bolt 109
CHAPTER 9. THE TUBE FLOOD AND DRAIN SYSTEM 115
General 116
Flooding the Tube 118
Draining the Tube 119
Roller Bracket Drains 120
CHAPTER 10. THE ELECTRIC FIRING AND INDICATING SYSTEM 121-122
CHAPTER 11. OPERATING AND TEST PROCEDURES 123
Operating Procedures 124
1. Torpedoes (U.S.) 124
2. Torpedoes (British) 126
3. Firing Procedure, Live Torpedoes 126
4. Firing Procedure, Mines 128
5. Firing Procedure, Dummy Torpedoes 128
6. Firing Procedure, Water Slugs 129
7. Firing Procedure, Air Charge, Inboard 130
8. Notes Pertaining to Mark 15 Torpedoes 130
 
9. Impulse Pressures and Firing Valve Setting 131
Test Procedures 132
A. General 132
B. Firing Tests 133
C. Bore Gaging 133
D. Use of the Barrel Center Line Gage 134
E. Bore Sighting 134
CHAPTER 12. MAINTENANCE INSTRUCTIONS AND OPERATING SUGGESTIONS 135
1. General 136
2. Lubrication 136
3. Wear or Deformation 136
4. Adjustments 136
5. Stuffing Boxes 136
6. Pressure Gages 137
7. Gaskets 137
8. Valves 138
9. Automatic Drain Valve 138
10. Solenoid Actuated Firing Valve 138
11. The Pilot Valve 138
12. Barrel Rollers 139
13. Tail Stop 140
14. Firing Valve 140
15. Drain Grids 141
16. Breech Door Locking Ring 141
17. Muzzle Door Gasket 141
18. Springs 141
19. Electrical Interlock 141
20. Electrical Circuits 141
21. Drainage System 142
22. Torpedo Stop Mechanism 142
23. Setting Spindles 143
24. Power-Operated Muzzle Doors 143
Distribution 145
Notes 146-149
 
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P R E F A C E
 
Photo of tube, manned and standing by to fire.
 
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STAND BY TO FIRE THE PURPORSE of this publication is to describe, illustrate, and explain the basic construction and operation of submerged torpedo tubes in submarines of the latest classes. In other words, this is a submarine torpedo tube PRIMER.

Torpedo tubes in all U. S. submarines numbered SS170 et seq. are fundamentally similar, but few installations are exactly alike. Submarines vary in general design according to where they are constructed, and also according to changes and improvements that may be made in individual vessels between the laying of their keels and their commissioning. Some change may be ordered in a mechanism and included in all vessels then under construction or on order. If experience should prove that the change was unnecessary, or that no important operating advantages were gained through its installation, it might be discontinued. In the meantime, however, the change would have been included in several vessels which were under construction at the time the change was recommended. In any case, it is obviously impossible to cover all variations from basic torpedo tube design in a single publication, hence this pamphlet, in its text and illustrations, confines itself to the torpedo tube installations existing in SS198 and up. The general principles which are discussed in Chapter 1 apply to all U. S. NAVY submarines. Most of the mechanisms pictured and described herein are identical with, or are evolved from, those as far back as SS170, and considerable similarity exists also to the installations in SS167, 168 and 169. For descriptions applying specifically to those older submarines, however, see O.P. 281 for the tubes in SS167, 168 and 169, and O.P. 586 for the tubes in SS 170 and up.

 
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Study of this pamphlet will equip submarine personnel with full general understanding of what a submarine torpedo tube is, what it does, and how and why it does it. But knowledge of individual differences between the torpedo tube installations in one vessel as against another must wait upon experience with the one or the other, as well as upon access to the construction drawings applicable to a particular submarine. Each submarine is provided with copies of the drawings, and these show any changes from basic design which have been made in its operating mechanism, or in any other feature of its construction.

Generally speaking, anyone with a reasonable degree of mechanical knack, after thorough study of this pamphlet, should find such variations in torpedo tube construction and operation as he may encounter relatively easy to understand. There is, in fact, nothing very difficult to grasp about any part of a submarine torpedo tube, if those who study them do not attempt to understand them all at once.

This pamphlet, as has been said, is a torpedo tube primer, and not an engineering treatise; it includes nothing "over the head" of the beginning student of submarine torpedo tubes.

 
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