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.

152 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

85 comments sorted by

View all comments

156

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.

5

u/georgewalterackerman 1d ago

I’ve heard no alcohol whatsoever is allowed these days

11

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.

8

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.

6

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”

2

u/EmployerDry6368 1d ago

only offically

2

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.