How to Use the Head (Toilet) on a WWII Submarine

Watching this while on the toilet. Toilet inception.

Thanks, Paul. Good presentation. The reason there are officer and enlisted heads is because enlisted s**t stinks and the ossifers wouldn't appreciate walking into a stinky head. During my first cruise, my day job was swabbing the decks and cleaning the head in an officer's area. One time, I had to go, so, rather than take all the time to go to my berthing and then come back, I used one of the officer's commodes. One of them came in, saw my dungarees below the door, and had me write my name, service number and division on a piece of paper. He wrote me up. Fortunately, when it got to my Division, LT(jg) Bob Bergeron, he tore it up. We met a few years ago during a ship's reunion in SF. It was the highlight of my reunion. Bob was then in mid-stage Alzheimer's. He passed away about 4 years ago.

Nothing like being in Patrol Quiet and someone slams the stainless steel shitter door. Next thing you hear on the 1MC, " The next time I hear that shitter door slam, I will have all the doors removed." Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

One of ‘The Best’ reasons to become an officer on any Navy vessel.

Hey the COD invented the Squatty Potty 😂

never seen the detail procedure. But did see the movie when the Niuses were informed how to use the head. Operation Petticoat as I recall.

I spend the night on the Silversides in 1978 or 1979, with my son, when it was in Chicago.

At least you had a door giving you some privacy. Us Army guys had open bay latrines with five or ten thrones that could be used all at once. It was handy if you ran out of TP. All you had to do was ask the guy next to you to pass over his roll when he was done. Let's not even talk about field sanitation, cat holes and slit trenches and waste burning detail. Ah the fond memories of military service, how I wouldn't give anything to live them again. LOL!...

Always wondered about this... Worthy of watching on the Throne😂

I got to tour USS Cheyenne (SSN 773) circa 1998 or 1999 when I was first in the Army and on exercises on Oahu. They told a bunch of us from Wyoming that if you were from the state or town that a Navy ship/boat was named for you had preference for a tour if it was in port, so we all went! We pointedly DIDN'T get to use the head (nor enter the reactor compartment). 😄

I couldn't make heads or tails out of that, but thank you for sharing your throne room with us. Many years ago pleasure boats had a similar rig (before the laws against direct discharge), using the same kind of manual rocker arm pump but no air tank pressure. Its 3 valves had to be manipulated in sequence and it was a nightmare. Also, the through-hulls were a common fail point that could lead to sinking. All in all pumping out at a honey barge is much safer and better for the environment.

The USS Monitor turret and guns and other artifacts are located at the Mariners Museum In Newport News Virginia.

I'm sure I missed our host mentioning it, but I recall that one of the U-Boats sunk due to a poorly executed flush.

Thank you for fulfilling my request for a video on this topic. I must say my head is full of interesting facts.

Knowing about the Head is a pretty smart thing!You sure know your business when in comes to the use of a Head down under. 👍

Those very important little things that you don't think about.

As the neck with it ! I'm volunteering for "Tin Can" duty !!!! Great video.

This is great talking about "shit"!!!!

"That did happen on some boats where the officers were jokers" Well that's one descriptor for them.

Took me about five years after I left the Navy to learn to say "close" instead of "shut".

Monitor turret is at the Mariners Museum in Newport News Virginia.

better video than ryan's hot seat

Thanks for the "Heads up" Paul. Good info buddy.

@21:30 perfect "rijsttafel" Well done Paul! :D

There is a classic scene in Operation Petticoat about using the head.

Very informative. Never served aboard a boat with an air expulsion head. Even so, there were from time to time "accidents" with the gravity flush heads.

I wonder if that is the origin of “shit storm”

It was a true mark of saltiness to spend time on the crapper wearing an EAB at test depth. Many stories of blowing sanitary tanks and some NUB getting sprayed with the contents when someone forgot to hang the chains in the head. Interesting that the stainless steel bowls look the same as what we had. Rather than a flapper there was a ball valve that dropped your deposit in a San tank below which, when full, was pressurized with air to discharge overboard. If you used the toilet when the tank was pressurized the results were pretty ugly.

If you have problems on the toilet in a sub, is that considered a headache?

Let’s get a nice tight slow Zoom on that toilet bowl😅😂🎉🚽

probably the most important video he every made!

Either booby trapping the flapper valve or leaving the can full and pressurized, or getting the sequence wrong, you could end up sitting on a column of water and detritus at sea pressure. We called it the "submariner's bidet" or "diver's douche". Hilarity reigned. I, of course, never participated in such shenanigans, I heard it from a shipmate.

This videos shows that on a WWII fleet submarine, S hitting the fan is a real and legitimate possibility.

Paul, this video is for Shots and Giggles😮. Still, important to document how everything works since the knowledge will be lost in time. On a lighter note, I would love to see a video about working a simpler mechanism than the head.. how about the TDC?

You got to take good care of the sailors intake and outlet - good food and good sanitary facilities make sailors happy!

I’ll just wait till I’m home thanks

What if you do all the “pre” work and realize you gravely mistook your um calculations. And realized you should’ve used option for #2 but you chose option #1? Do you hold the lava flow as you start over or could you just add more water to be the correct amount for #2

On occasion you would get a blockage between the trap and the gravity tank we would have to plastic sheet the whole of the head with the door's closed and back blow the sewage tanks this would result in many gallons of crap coating the inside of the head space the job of clearing out fell to the greenhornes

Never knew how they worked, thanks. But I could tell you how to use the head on the space shuttle.

Thank you, great job,,,I think.👍👍🇺🇸🇺🇸

And no handwashing facility?

That was very interesting, now I can see why there are some stories about toilet horrors on submarines. I do have a question though. Were the holding tanks for the gravity flush toilets big enough to contain the waste for an entire patrol, or did they also have a procedure for emptying them while underway? If so, was there a manual of emptying for the tanks as well?

Very interesting! 👍

How did a fleet submarine smell after a patrol?

Did Cod have a connection to pump sewage ashore when she was docked?

Curious why they didn't add a toilet seat cover. At least any reverse pressure would keep it off your face, the overhead, etc.

Paul, thanks for this. Have you ever heard of the red toilet? I'd never heard of it until a few years back. Asked my dad about it, (W.W.II) vet, and he said he'd never heard of it either. Seems the seat was painted red for those that had contracted a venereal disease. I know, seems like an antiquated thought, but in the 1940s medicine was still in an experimental state, especially regarding the transmission of VD. Probably on larger vessels as a sub couldn't accommodate such an inconvenience.

did you seriously give us a virtual swirley

@06:40 ahahah.... look at the size and number of the bolts on that baby compared to your at home!

Did Evan get a new camera? I see there are resolution levels above 1080p now.

Simpler than modern composting toilets.

Ha!!! I hope modern subs aren’t that complicated.

That was some pretty tame reading material. More likely it was GQ, Tijuana bibles or Esquire. Back then, they were far, far racier than the watered-down versions of today.

LOL, pressurized crap bomb!

Well this the probably the smelliest on yet.

Don’t ask me why Im here, I seen the title and clicked.

I don’t think that’s funny at all…the washers on the flapper😮

Whale of a video. Thar she blows!

informative lol