Sorry for the test post. I am having real problems with my system eating posts but I am going to try one more time. For the people warning me about OPSEC, nothing in this post is not freely available on the web or in press releases from the forces.
1. for the people asking for clarification about the hatches, the URL in the post above will take you to the DND website and a cut away drawing of the Victoria class sub.If you expand the drawing and examine the fin area the conning tower is labeled. The upper and lower conning tower hatches are the ones being discussed. The conning tower itself is a watertight chamber that can be used as a lockout chamber when running shut down on the surface or both hatches are left open when running opened up on the surface. If you look at the drawing you can see how the conning tower and fin are designed as a series of baffles to prevent sea water from getting sucked down into the control room. It does not always work.
2. Running opened up on the surface is not done on a whim of the captain. There are good operational and technical reasons. Having a big hole open in the pressure hull of a submarine at sea is not something submariners are comfortable with. Sometimes it is necessary and there are laid out procedures and regulations to cover it.
3. For Blue Max, the Oberons did not have bad ventilation systems. The improved Super O's like Onondaga and Okanagan had an upgraded system from the original design Oberons like Ojibwa, but all three had good systems. You have to remember, once a sub dives it has a finite air supply onboard. The nuclear boats have plants to cleanse the air and make oxygen, but those plants are massive and power hungry. Not an option for a diesel electric boat. The conventional boats can extend the air supply with oxygen generators and CO2 absorption units, but realistically the battery will run out of juice before the air supply gets lethal. Charging the battery means running the diesel generators. That means either snorting or surfacing. The ventilation systems could have the air through out the entire boat changed with just a few minutes running of the diesels. And yes, the first blast of fresh air after a few days dived stunk and could make you nauseous.
4. Now, having said all that , let me explain why the submariners are annoyed. All this fuss about the hatches and the shower down the tower is irrelevent. Let me emphasize that as loudly and rudely as I can. IT IS IRRELEVENT. It does not matter how much water came down that tower, the main power cables should not have shorted out. Does the transformers and wiring to your house short out and burn every time it rains? Now I have to admit, it is not quite the same, the transformers and wiring to your house are built to civilian CSA standards. The cables on the sub are supposed to be insulated to the much tougher MILSPEC standards.This is not a bloody cruise ship running away from storms in the Caribbean. This is supposed to be a submarine that can stand up to the North Atlantic and combat damage. The question we want answered is how a minor ingress of water could take out the main power system and kill a man.
5. As for the gentleman who was scandalized at the idea that politics might be involved in the inquiry and Ottawa might scapegoat an officer to prevent further investigation, grow up, willya.