THE CONN

Jack Hunter (LT)

The term 'Conn' is an abbreviation for the 'Conning Tower', a cylindrical section about 8 feet high and 20 feet long packed with large pieces of equipment. The Conn was mounted on the hull over the Control Room. It was through the Conn that all traffic flowed to and from the bridge. The Conn had two accesses - one from the bridge through the Upper Conning Tower hatch, the other to the Control Room via the Lower Conning Tower hatch. When the submarine was surfaced, the Conn was the watch station for the Helmsman, Radar operator and Quartermaster of the Watch. The Officer of the Deck (OOD) was an added watch stander in the Conn when the ship was submerged.

At the forward end of the Conn was the Helmsman's watch station. A large wheel was used by the Helmsman to position the ship's rudder. The Helmsman used two motor order telegraphs to signal Manuevering of the desired direction and speed of the main motors. The Helmsman had access to the sound powered telephone system and the 1 MC (General Announcing system) and 7 MC (Ship Control system) microphones. Also mounted near the Helm station were the Diving, General and Collision alarms.

Located on the port side aft of the Helm station and above the hatch going down to the Control Room was the microphone and controls for the underwater telephone system. This system was used to communicate with other submarines and surface ships by using one of the hydrophones located in the sail or on the keel. Also in this area above the hatch was the Torpedo Firing Panel. This panel had indicator lights that showed the readiness condition of each tube for firing and also held the electric firing key for each tube.

In the center of the Conn were the two periscopes, the eyes of the ship. Levers for hydraulically raising and lowering the scopes were located near each scope. The forward, Type 8B scope had a larger diameter at its top and was shorter in length than the after, Type 2 scope. In addition to optics, the 8B contained a stub UHF radio antenna used to communicate with ships and aircraft while submerged, a wave guide which permitted use of the ship's radar when submerged, and an Electronic CounterMeasures (ECM) receiver which provided an aural warning when the scope was swept by a radar beam. The aft 'attack' scope had a narrow top section which left a smaller wake than the Type 8B scope and so was favored when making an approach on a surface target in good weather and relatively flat sea conditions.

On the starboard side of the Conn outboard of the scopes was the SS-2 Radar Console. This radar was used primarily for navigation. It was also used for tracking surface contacts, fire control, and for warning of low flying aircraft.

On the port side of the Conn outboard of the scopes was the Torpeod Data Computer (TDC). It consisted of two main sections - the Position Keeper (where target course, speed, bearing and range data was input and a target tracking solution was generated) and the Angle Solver (where torpedo gyro angle was computed and manually entered modifications to the gyro angle were made to 'spread' the torpedoes out along the length of the target). The TDC could also be used to track surface contacts to determine their Closest Point of Approach (CPA).

Two radio handsets and receivers were located in the Conn for use in communicating with other ships and aircraft. The Radio Room in Control would set up the desired frequencies and make the required 'patch' between the transmitter and antenna before giving control of the radio circuit to the Conn.

The after starboard corner of the Conn contained the Dead Reckoning Tracker (DRT). This device had a motor driven light (referred to as the 'bug') which moved in the direction and at the speed of own ship. The DRT was used during an approach to help the fire control party determine target course, speed and range. The DRT could also be used for navigation and to determine surface contact CPA's.

As noted above, the normal surface watch station complement in the Conn consisted of the Helmsman, Radar operator, and a Quartermaster. The OOD was added for normal submerged operations. The Conn became a lot more crowded during a submerged approach when, in addition to those four watch standers, there would be added the Approach Officer, Periscope Assistant, Fire Control Coordinator, TDC operator, Angle Solver operator, Recorder, Strip Plotter, and Firing Panel operator.

Jack Hunter <hunter5982@earthlink.net>