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Submarine Alert!

The "Scorpion" theater, exhibit and gift shop areas are completely accessible to all guests, and the views of the exterior of the submarine from the wharf are terrific.

However, your experience aboard "Scorpion" will be much like completing an obstacle course! You will encounter steep ladders, small hatches (doorways) between compartments, narrow corridors, raised thresholds, and lowered ceilings.

In order to maneuver the passageways, you must remain continually alert, and your arms and hands must be free at all times. Children must be at least 48" tall and may not be carried by another person.

The submarine is not accessible to baby strollers.The tour is not accessible to wheel chairs and is not recommended for pregnant women or those who are subject to claustrophobia or motion sickness.

Life in a Soviet Sub

• 78 crew shared 2 showers and 3 toilets, for up to 3 months at sea.
• Only officers had their own bunks. Ordinary sailors "hot bunked." 27 bunks inthe aft torpedo room were shared by 54 crew! 3 shifts per day: duty, maintenanceand sleep.
• Galley produced 4 cooked meals per day. Crew were allowed a daily glass of white wine.
• Submariners were closely-screened volunteers, an elite group in the largely-conscript Soviet Navy. They spent 10 of their 30 days shore leave convalescing in a sanatorium.

Strategy and Tactics

• Foxtrot class was the largest conventional (diesel-electric, non-nuclear) Soviet sub.
• It searched for and tracked enemy forces during the Cold War, extensively in the Pacific Ocean.
• Its nuclear-tipped torpedoes could destroy a port or a battle group.
• 79 Foxtrots were built between 1958-1984 for both the Soviet Navy and others countries including India, Libya, Cuba and Poland.

Dive...Dive!

• 3 diesel engines generate power for electric motors that drive the 3 propellers. At periscope depth, air for the diesels can be sucked from the surface using a snorkel. Below that, 4 gigantic battery banks take over.
• To dive, the ballast tanks are flooded with water (negative buoyancy). To surface, compressed air from 56 bottles expels the water (positive buoyancy).
• The Foxtrot dives and surfaces quite horizontally. At more that 30 degrees it loses control!
• Crew could evacuate in survival suits via torpedo tubes, the conning tower or the aft escape hatch. Even from 820 feet down, they had a reasonable chance of reaching the surface alive.

In 1989, Scorpion was returning to Vladivostok from Vietnam when it ran into a typhoon. A mechanical breakdown which could not be fixed in time prevented the sub from diving. The storm battered the boat mercilessly, destroying the light hull and damaging the ballast tanks and high pressure air bottles. It limped back to Vladivostok where it was repaired and refitted with a new light hull.

Food scraps and other kitchen refuse were disposed of in a large tube in the kitchen, which, similar to a torpedo tube, would fire the waste into the ocean.

While larger Soviet submarines had the luxury of a bakery, Foxtrots solved the problem of supplying fresh bread in a more inventive way. The bread was pre-baked and stored unrefrigerated either in tins or plastic bags, together with alcohol. When the bread was heated prior to eating, the alcohol would evaporate and freshen the bread.

For additional information, please visit: www.russiansublongbeach.com.