Mechanical Monochrome Monday

My son and I have a really good interest in anything mechanical, and I think that's such a wonderful thing to have, especially in a boy these days. There are a lot of challenges in the world, and one of them is that people, particularly men, don't have as much of a mechanical interest as they used to, and I think that's going to cause a whole host of issues in the future.

Thankfully when it comes to my son though, he's an oldschool boy and loves all types of mechanical shit! We drove past the submarine a few months back, and he asked if we could go in and visit it. We didn't have time to do it then but we promised him that we would take him back, so we did!

The submarine is really cool, especially for him and I. there is so many buttons, levers, gauges, things to press and all that. Thankfully it's not life or death in this situation because I can imagine this gets stressful! I bet there were 2 or 3 people on a submarine who were familiar with the specific functionalities and things behind these various buttons and stuff. That way when someone is sleeping or eating, there is someone else who can cover for them. That only makes sense. These days, I don't know how any of that works but I would hope it's the same..

The crazy thing about the sub is that this one is really old! It's from the 70's and as you can imagine, it's got 50 year old technology in it. I really wonder what the things these days have got for mechanical stuff. I know there are some veterans on the platform, but I don't know if they are navy or what. I think this stuff if fascinating for sure!

I couldn't imagine having to use a toilet that was so small, but at the same time completely filled with so many other different functions lol. Again, it makes sense that they would do this but it's still wild to think about. Dropping a chocolate loaf and you've got a valve next to you that could go nuts and then you'll have to figure out what the hell is going on after you wipe your ass. I guess it keeps you on your toes LOL in an insane way!

These things are certainly efficiency though. With a submarine, and many of the ships and things of the ocean, you have to conserve every square inch of space and that means things are cramped up, especially for the non-officers on the sub.

My son and I went in and out of the submarine twice on that day, to the chagrin of my wife hahaha. She does not like enclosed spaces like this and is obviously not a candidate for doing a tour on a sub! That's okay, because she went to do other stuff while the little man and I were going around exploring.

I've got a lot more photos that I haven't fully reviewed. Some of them are similar to last time but I tried to take different pictures so that it wasn't lame. The cool thing about it is that all of the pictures that I turned into black and white just completely remind me of old times. Old war movies, my grandfathers war stories and anything like that. I love the history that you can see in each of the pictures. There were dozens or hundreds of different men sitting at those very stations in actual work efforts over the years. This was wonderful stuff that's for sure! It almost takes some of the negativity away that this was used for a template for other machines of war that are still in use today.