• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
What happens when you need to evacuate a submarine while underwater is terrifying

Home> News

Published 14:00 28 Feb 2024 GMT

What happens when you need to evacuate a submarine while underwater is terrifying

The modern suits can be used as a floating raft.

Rebekah Jordan

Rebekah Jordan

Even those of us who would never step foot inside a submarine have probably wondered what the exit procedure is - and whether there only one way out.

If you have ever wondered what happens if you need to get out of a submarine - your questions have been answered.

The story started back in 1851, when German submarine inventor Wilhelm Bauer and his crew were trapped inside their submarine, Brandtaucher.

Advert

The Brandtaucher plummeted unexpectedly to the seafloor, 16 metres deep, and had the crew waiting hours for rescue.

In an attempt to evacuate, Bauer reached up to a valve which resulted in water pouring in and flooding the submarine.

Submarines have a different evacuation method nowadays / imaginima/Getty
Submarines have a different evacuation method nowadays / imaginima/Getty

The risky move turned out to be the trio's ticket to freedom as they all propelled out through the hatch door, like 'the corks of champagne bottles,' as put by Bauer.

Advert

The event recorded Bauer, Witt, and Thomsen as the first three submariners ever to successfully escape a submarine.

Thankfully nowadays, submarines provide a means of escape in a semi-organised manner, i.e. they don't need to flood the entire boat in order to get out.

Instead, submariners can escape through inner doors or hatches that seal tightly behind them. After swimming out, the outer hatch is sealed against the ocean and the escape trunk is drained, allowing another group of submariners to follow suit.

According to Wired.com, submariners today wear full-body waterproof suits called SEIE suits, which is an acronym for Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment.

Advert

Bauer described him and his crew rocketing like 'the corks of champagne bottles' /Antonio Busiello/Getty
Bauer described him and his crew rocketing like 'the corks of champagne bottles' /Antonio Busiello/Getty

The equipment - pronounced 'sigh' - are brightly coloured fabric pods that allow submariners to break free from their plunged vehicle. Each sailor is paired with a partner, and clear plastic panels act as viewports.

Submariners can pop up to the water surface and the suit makes like a flotation raft, provided they can reach a hatch among the wreckage. These suits are an essential piece of kit to prevent death from high levels of CO2.

The road to today's submarine escape solutions wasn't always straightforward, but the experiences and close calls of past submariners that have led to the solutions of today.

Advert

Later retrieved from its mud hole in the ocean, the Brandtaucher is conserved in a museum in Germany where it's recorded as the oldest submarine ever recovered.

Featured Image Credit: imaginima/Antonio Busiello/Getty
Science

Advert

Advert

Advert

Choose your content:

20 mins ago
2 hours ago
3 hours ago
  • 20 mins ago

    Crypto boss issues brutal public response to hackers after they demand $20,000,000 ransom

    The head of Coinbase revealed the company will not be paying up

    News
  • 2 hours ago

    World's biggest lithium reservoir with $1,500,000,000,000,000 worth of the precious metal hiding in supervolcano

    This could turn the US into a leading global supplier of the valuable metal

    Science
  • 3 hours ago

    Trump reignites bid to take over Greenland following stunning discovery beneath the ice

    Greenland could become a crucial territory in the potential World War III

    News
  • 3 hours ago

    College student demanded her tuition fees back after she caught her professor doing the one thing he asked students not to

    It shouldn't be one rule for one, one for another

    News
  • Gruesome simulation that shows what happens to a person's body when a submarine implodes described as 'comforting'
  • What happens inside your mind as you're dying is terrifying
  • Disturbing simulation shows exactly what happens to your body when you inhale a cigarette
  • Sobering simulation reveals exactly what happens to your body when you vape