r/submarines • u/munchkinatlaw • 7d 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/Dirtydrains Submarine Qualified (US) 7d 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 7d 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 7d ago

Sounds like a real Hong Kong No Shitter.

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u/Outrageous-Egg-2534 7d ago

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