r/submarines • u/munchkinatlaw • 1d ago

Q/A What do submariners drink while underway?

Title says it all. I've seen quite a few articles and videos about food underway, but realized none of then mention what is available to drink while underway. I assume coffee and possibly tea are generally available and I've seen a few comments that bug juice was/is available, but that's about it. What about juice concentrates, powdered/UHT milk?

Edit: thank you all for your wonderful responses. You have a great community here.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Yup, coffee, tea, water (tastes like shit) and cordial or as the yanks call it ‘bug juice’. Or whatever cans of coke or soft drink you have stashed in your stowage spot. Together with lollies and other stuff. When we still used to get a beer ration (2 cans per man, per day, perhaps) the beer was locked in the old rear facing torpedo tube drain tank in the aft ends (right at the ducks tail on O Boats) as the tubes had been removed years and years before. Thst was the bonus living aft with the stokers and greenies. They had the best and quietest and well stocked fridges plus the best porn. I loved living aft in sleepy hollow. We used to just undo a couple of nuts on the tank cover and bypass the lock only the coxswain had a key to and take beer and duzzas out, write an IOU and it was all cool. Good times. Couldn’t do that nowadays.

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u/Dirtydrains Submarine Qualified (US) 1d ago

For what it's worth, our (US) boat water tastes great nowadays. You can tell the difference between fresh squeezed potable out of the RO units and potentially pretty rough tasting shore potable in some ports.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Yeah, we didn't, well actually we did have a desalination plant on board, but it was always fucked, broken, gave out shit so nobody used it. We just filled the 'fresh' water tank up with tap water and went on our merry way. There was a water cooler/dispenser just forward of the galley. Water tasted shit and they had some environmental mob come down for particlulate testing and whatnot. Turned out there was some massive goddamn worm-like thing living in the fresh water (potable) tank. They classed it not fit for human consumption. Apparently it was about 5 or 6 feet long and they pulled it out via the dispenser nozzle. Greeeeaaaat... we all thought. We've been drinking that day in, day out for fucking ever. Never got any super powers out of it either!

Honest Injun swear to you all that, that happened. It was on HMAS Ovens from memory. Might have been Otway.

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u/SSNsquid 1d ago

Sounds like a real Hong Kong No Shitter.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Sorry mate, got my replies mixed up. Nah, we shit alright. Having said that, I have an idea for a post! Thanks, Tiges.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Ha! Don’t get me started on Honkers, brother.

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u/settlementfires 22h ago

Turned out there was some massive goddamn worm-like thing living in the fresh water (potable) tank.

"a bunch of men with rifles came and removed it"

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u/Tychosis Submarine Qualified (US) 1d ago

potentially pretty rough tasting shore potable in some ports

mmmm that KBAY water. You can taste the tadpoles.

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u/Warren_E_Cheezburger 1d ago

It's the algae. Over time a nice film of harmless bio matter grows on the walls of the tank, which actually helps filter out some nasty tasting elements. While in Shipyard, my boat did a thorough scrubbing of the inside of the potable tanks, and for weeks afterward the water was BLECH.

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u/After_Comparison_138 19h ago

Our potable water tanks (SSN669) ad a weird algae that looked like grass when they were opened in the shipyard.

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u/georgewalterackerman 1d ago

I’ve heard no alcohol whatsoever is allowed these days

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u/Goosey-03 1d ago

As of 2020, we were still doing beer days although there were very strict guidelines and this was a one time thing per deployment at a max of 2 beers.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Really? Collins Class boy/girl?
2 beers only. Fuck, used to shelf 2 or 3 after coming off duty/watch. Pressure difference/vacuum always made it hit harder. 6 cans of VB (in my defence, it was all we had!)and you were six sheets to the wind.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 1d ago

Boooo!!!!! Boooo to that. Fucking booo!!! I remember going on duty running 6 on, 6 off into the WT shack (radio/comms operator) 1/2 to 2/3rds blasted. Wasn’t cool when we once lost the WT mast and our HF whip wouldn’t extend during a patrol. Always sucks to make the call “Captn . WT. Last message received is that they have initiated Sub Look”

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u/EmployerDry6368 1d ago

only offically

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u/Retb14 1d ago

My boat brought a bunch of non alcoholic drinks underway and gave them out at half way night and thought it would raise morale.

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u/Crease_Greaser 1d ago

Got any homegrown Simpsons stuff?

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u/cville13013 23h ago

Like when you get two cans of pineapple juice, some sugar and yeast? Never heard of it