Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: the next step in drug traffic cut short. Subs!

[Gregc02@ibm.net]

If you wanted to put the "cargo" into the outer hull space it would need pressure compensation 
or you would have to make them all "hard" tanks. (like the aux. tanks on a fleet boat). 
Even then, figuring on a 8 ft inner hull and a 11 ft outer, there is only room for 140 tons of "cargo" 
in the outer hull, even if you don't use any of it for ballast tanks. If you used about 25% of the 
total displacement for ballast tanks and reserve bouyancy (296 tons total displacement x .25 = 
74 tons) there would be only about 66 tons left for "cargo" in the outer tanks. Loading and 
unloading from external "saddle" tanks would be troublesome as well.
If they stuck to the usual fleet boat design, the outer hull will be "soft tanks" for ballast and fuel 
(although if I were building such a sub, I'd make the fuel tanks hard, and skip all the 
compensating water system problems) and the "cargo" will be inside the pressure hull where it's 
safe and easy to load/unload. Even 20 tons per trip is nothing to sneeze at (sorry, bad pun).


From:           	Gregc02@ibm.net
To:             	personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Date sent:      	Sat, 9 Sep 2000 00:42:39 -0500
Subject:        	Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Re: the next step in drug traffic cut short.  Subs!
Send reply to:  	personal_submersibles@psubs.org

> As usual, the war on drugs types are hyperventilating about how much cocaine (200 tons) the 
> thing could haul. (You know, the $2,000,000.00 per kilo "street value" they like to trumpet)!
> 
> From the pictures, the pressure hull is about 8 ft in diameter and 100 ft long. That's about 5,000 
> cubic feet of TOTAL interior space. even if you filled the ENTIRE space with cocaine, like it was 
> a silo, and you had it compressed to the same weight per cubic foot as water (62.5 lbs/cu ft.), it 
> would only hold about 157 tons. This doesn't allow for engines, batteries, crew or equipment, not 
> to mention breathing space. The figure quoted for the total diameter, of what looked like a WWII 
> diesel boat cross section, was 11 feet.
> 
> At least one of the pictures of the interior had what looked like staggered battery racks in it. It 
> appeared to be built in flanged sections that could then be bolted together when it was at the 
> ocean. From what I could see, it looked very much like what I had designed, for when I win the 
> lottery (any day now)!