Analyzing Red October - Stealth Submarine Breakdown

[@ussrshill721]

Spacedock has become... Dock!

[@Demolitiondude]

No. Drydock.

[@akizeta]

Sub-dock.

[@knickohr01]

I always knew that Spacedock is down-to-earth

[@Persian-Immortal]

the Dockmaster!

[@roastpuff]

WaterdocK?

[@quentinking4351]

"One ping, Vasily. One ping only."

[@LordCastigator]

"Reverify our range to target. One. Ping. Only..."

[@BlackHawkBallistic]

One ping Vaschily

[@josephtaylor3857]

"Careful Ryan. Mosht things in here don't react well to bulletsh...."

[@teehasheestower]

"Ryan, shome things in here don't react well to bulletsh."

[@thecheesedip]

"Yeah, like me! I don't react well to bullets."

[@manwiththemachinegun]

Finest of Russian accents Comrade.

[@TheMugbearer]

"One more ping, pleash"

[@goshaid]

we get shome... Buckaroo...

[@3Rayfire]

@@TheMugbearer "Give me a Ping Vashily, One Ping Only Pleash."

[@CommissarTommy22]

40 years at sea, a war at sea, a war with no battles no monuments, only casualties.

[@NeilPower]

I widowed her the day I married her. My wife died while I was at sea, you know. 😞

[@templarw20]

Hunt for Red October is one of the examples I hold up of an adaptation not needing to be accurate to be really, REALLY good. Also, an interesting take on the action/thriller stars, since NONE of the "hero' ships (Red October, Dallas) fire a single shot, ever. Dom Noble did a Lost in Adaptation a while back that goes into greater detail. Also, Kamorov, badass navigator. "Give me a stopwatch and a map and I'll fly the Alps in a plane with no windows."

[@Del_S]

_Kamorov flies into a mountainside_ "A GOOD MAP!"

[@darthhodges]

"If the map is accurate enough."

[@Skuggihestur]

Most of Clancy and crition books did well as movies

[@guspaz]

@@SkuggihesturQuantum foam makes me roam.

[@jamesday1295]

I was surprised how much variation there is from the source material. It was nice to read the novel and find surprises. Great tales, the OG and adaption.

[@seanwolslau-holdren6731]

The Hunt for Red October is one of my favorite movies.

[@goshaid]

+1

[@SuwinTzi]

I remember that the argument for why space fiction uses nautical terms and settings, is that a surface vessel already has to operate close to how a spaceship does, while a submarine is quite literally what a spaceship is like, minus the gravity. What I mean is that a ship has to be self contained and sufficient for a decent amount of time; able to house and provide amenities for its crew in a hostile environment. A submarine is operating in complete isolation, relying only on passive sonar, and where a hull breach could spell instant death.

[@KannabisMajoris]

Aviation already borrows a lot of nautical terms and concepts, it makes sense it would happen with spacecraft too!

[@colormedubious4747]

Technically, no. A nuclear-powered sub extracts oxygen from the seawater via electrolysis and also distills fresh water from it. Try that in space and tell me how it went!

[@afrophoenix3111]

Aerospace and naval cultures and industries have rubbed off on each other quite a bit. Quite a bit of history wrapped up in that relationship, which is pretty fun. NASA turned to the Navy and their SUBSAFE program for guidance following the Challenger disaster, looking to prevent any repeats. Modern submarines actually use a fly-by-wire system, not so dissimilar to what you'd find in an aircraft cockpit. And as mentioned before, a ton (most?) of aviation terminology is borrowed directly from sailing and naval terminology. I'm sure several, several more examples exist.

[@D.M.S.]

​@@colormedubious4747we have dwarf planets in our solar system that have on their own more water than earth. So technically possible

[@colormedubious4747]

@@D.M.S. You are correct. It's quite possible to MINE air and water from icy masses in orbit or from beneath the surface of celestial bodies like planets and moons, but spacecraft do not travel THROUGH such environments the way submarines travel through water. These are VERY different things.

[@Vespuchian]

Honestly, tHfRO has one of the best openings in cinema. That long helicopter shot of the full-scale prop as the choir builds is just as good now as it ever was.

[@razorfett147]

The scary thing is that the "full size" prop barge...wasnt actually full sized. It was actually only a little bigger than half the size of a real Akula/Typhoon 😳

[@dansands8140]

Wanting to hear the opening song again in the era before internet music was pain. Had to wait like 6 years for Napster to exist.

[@emptycaster4905]

"I said speak your mind Jack, but Jesus." 😅

[@cmdraftbrn]

next time right a damned memo

[@Soundwave119]

That was a great line and that was from Jack Ryan right? I remember the first officer of the Red October saying: I wanted to see Montana.

[@Fordo007]

@@Soundwave119Greer said it I believe.

[@Talon19]

“You wish to add something to our discussion, DOCTOR Ryan??”

[@cmdraftbrn]

@@Fordo007 he did. its as they are leaving and pelt "asks" ryan to stay.

[@DrakeAurum]

One really neat bit of misdirection from the novel that doesn't make it into the movie: After the saboteur is taken down, they jettison the missile he was messing with as a precaution. Then later, a US salvage ship sends drone subs down the trench, finds where the missile ended up, and they stage them 'finding' the missile among the wreckage of the Alfa in front of a Russian observer, confirming that it was definitely a missile sub that got destroyed, not just an attack sub.

[@g.williams2047]

My only confusion with the book was how they got away with having three Soviet subs sink: the red October (not really), the Alfa and the one that gets rammed by the Red October and sinks.

[@fxgilang9508]

@@g.williams2047 Well, the Soviet already positively knowing with the first two (Red October due to their observer at DSRV seeing the missile, and Politovsky due to one cook survivor), so no need to cover it. And given that two of their sub already have reactor problem (Politovsky literally have reactor meltdown), why not Konovalov also? Anybody would think maybe their sub fleet really needs some work up.

[@g.williams2047]

@@fxgilang9508 The Политвоский is lost at sea except for the cook, they take them to the wreck of it and show it off as the Red October along with the missile to prove it. Then they have two missing subs, one with a confirmed survivor and one lost with all hands on deck. I feel like there would be some suspicion about the Коновалов?

[@fxgilang9508]

@@g.williams2047 Politovsky is not the 'stand in' wreckage showed for Red October. The US sacrificed one of their old, near decommissioned sub Ethan Allen for that. IIRC, the missile discovery in the trench is purely coincidence, the plan is only using the Red October depth gauge as the only 'proof'. So the Soviet would have 2 wreckage with confirmation for Politovsky and Red October, with Konovalov as the only true missing sub.

[@fxgilang9508]

@@g.williams2047 Politovsky is not the 'stand in' wreckage showed for Red October. The US sacrificed one of their old, near decommissioned sub Ethan Allen for that. IIRC, the missile discovery is purely coincidence, the plan is only using the Red October depth gauge as 'proof'. So the Soviet would have 2 wreckage with confirmation for Politovsky and Red October, with Konovalov as the only true missing sub.

[@BlackEpyon]

It should be remembered that when Tom Clancy wrote The Hunt for Red October, very little of the Typhoon class sub was known in the west that wasn't top secret classified intelligence. Although what WAS known, people like Skip Tyler in the book would be one of the few in the know since he'd be one of the people doing analyses of classified intel on Soviet boats in order to figure out what they were really capable of. But Clancy had no way of knowing that the interior was quite spacious (the book describes the opposite), that there were two reactors instead of one, and that the void space between the missile tubes was flooded.

[@vorlon010]

I think it's worth noting that - so far as I understand - we didn't know that the Typhoon's missile tubes were in the wet part of the hull until more than 15 years after the book was written

[@rorythomas9469]

We meaning the public in the west, presumably. Possibly, given the installation of the Cat Tunnels, which are presumably outside the pressure hulls, that could have necessitated a redesign and instead of 2 parallel pressure hulls there’s only room for one central pressure hull through which the silos protrude. Possibly?

[@vorlon010]

@@rorythomas9469 Sorry, yeah, I should've been more clear. It would be easy to justify the addition of another pressure hull., or extending one into that space., particularly to make up for the lost volume taken by the caterpillar drive. It wouldn't be wasted space, for sure

[@rorythomas9469]

@@vorlon010 no need to apologise, it’s a good point.

[@BlackEpyon]

@@rorythomas9469 That would make sense, except that her construction was "interrupted" to incorporate the caterpillar drive. You can't just interrupt that kind of construction, you need to start from scratch.

[@SergeyPRKL]

@@BlackEpyon also it was mentioned it was lot wider than standard hull. SO the system came on top of the standard pressure hull? :)

[@falconwind00]

“You're afraid of our fleet. Well, you should be. Personally, I'd give us one chance in three. More tea anyone?”

[@treyhelms5282]

More tea? No thanks. I saw what happened to the last guy to have some.

[@VergilArcanis]

One in three is pretty solid odds, all things considered

[@Saukko31]

"Andrei, you've lost another submarine?"

[@ignaciomoreno9655]

😂

[@bobjones-ey5gl]

JOSS ACKLAND 1928 to 2023 - Ambassador Andrei Lysenko in Hunt for Red October, Marshal Zelentsov in K-19 The Widowmaker.

[@Vulpine407]

The Hunt for Red October was full of great quips. But that one at the end was the best.

[@Rimasta1]

“Next time Jack put it in a goddamn memo.”

[@toddkes5890]

Thanks to his experience in that plane, he was able to sleep in a passenger plane afterwards.

[@TheSaneHatter]

"That's all right, Mr Ryan. My Morse is so rusty, I could be sending him dimensions on Playmate of the Month."

[@davidlewis5312]

heck you can easily imagine the conversation between the Dallas's captain and sonar tech being a conversation between Picard and Data. Professional, insightful, and open minded.

[@Talon19]

And including references to composers and opera singers.

[@JunkPhubeta]

...Then I will live in Montana, and I will marry a large American woman, and raise rabbits, and she will cook them for me. And I will have a pick-up truck, or... -er... a recreational vehicle. And drive from state to state... Do they let you do that? Oh yes. No papers? No papers. The XO's lines here and what he says later always stuck with me since I was a teen watching this. Its the realization that what I, an American, thought was so normal was boring, but for others could be insanely idealistic.

[@Tayvin4042]

He would've liked to have seen Montana...

[@TukaihaHithlec]

⁠@@Tayvin4042 Hell, I would have liked for him to see Montana. That bit always felt strangely real.

[@thrall1342]

100%

[@3Rayfire]

Sam Neill was my guy after this. Part of why I love Grant in the Jurassic Park films so much. _"And in the winter I will live in...Arizona. You know, I may need two wives."_ Borodin had such a simple dream. He wanted to marry him a big girl, eat good food, travel, and live under a big free sky.

[@derrickbillings8654]

The irony is they're starting to check papers for people traveling from red states to blue states for reproductive medicine. The authoritarianism is coming from inside the building

[@BroadwayJoe99]

FUN FACT: When they filmed the THFRO movie, they came to the town I live in (Port Angeles, WA) to film the scene where the Red October's crew abandoned ship in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Port Angeles and Victoria, BC. Several friends of mine from high school were hired as extras to serve as the crew members. They all got their buzz-cuts and waited eagerly for the cameras to roll. There was just one little problem - the weather refused to cooperate. They wanted the scene to be filmed under stormy conditions, but the weather wound up being unusually calm. My friends spent a day and a half working on their tans (a rare opportunity in this part of the world at that time of the year) and picked up USD $105 each (standard pay for extras then being $70/day) before the producers called BS and moved production to Oregon - IIRC, this particular scene was filmed off of Coos Bay, OR.

[@Keiranful]

The spaceship comparison is even more apt when you know how they shot the external views of the sub underwater. They took a warehouse, covered all windows, filled it with smoke, created diffused blue lighting, and carried a scale mockup through the scenes on wires. In effect, the sub was flying...

[@deanlawson6880]

Hunt for Red October was such a well done movie. Aside from the few technical inconsistencies with the tech, they made the tech advance the story nicely. Very well done movie. Suspenseful and just good fun story-telling! Nicely Done - Thanks for this Hooji!

[@MrGhjkl63]

"I would liked to have seen Montana"

[@akizeta]

😢

[@cupidstunt22]

Hannah?

[@90lancaster]

Not the Far Cry New Dawn version hopefully.

[@BullGator-kd6ge]

He did see Montana. He used his newfound freedom and became an archeologist where his Velociraptor dig site was interrupted by the arrival of business tycoon John Hammond. The rest is history.

[@akizeta]

@@BullGator-kd6ge Went off the rails a bit when he joined that experimental starship crew.

[@dmac7128]

The Hunt For Red October is a classic. Its comes across looking like a spaceship from the inside, quite appropriate for this channel.

[@Restilia_ch]

One of the best movies ever and, even with the Cold War over, still has a lot of relevancy. The Red October herself is an amazing practical model and is part of why the film holds up so well.

[@Raptorx911]

A Spacedock video about a submarine... CON. SONAR, CRAZY IVAN!

[@3Rayfire]

"All Stop Good Quiet!"

[@logicplague]

Be careful, Alec, most things in here don't react well to bullets...

[@3Rayfire]

Oof. Too soon.

[@shocktnc]

​@@3Rayfireits never too soon to make fun of a gun control nutjob who managed to kill someone with a gun by ignoring all basic rules of gun safety

[@kaylinhendrich4673]

I adore this movie, glad to see it getting some love from SpaceDock!

[@dakkonfury]

This movie is still in my top 3, and that’s mainly because of the incredible audio.

[@flippinkamikaze8738]

I KNOW THAT SILENT HUNTER III BACKGROUND MUSIC ANYWHERE! Fantastic choice of music for this presentation!

[@Mosquitobomber1]

That was such a throwback 😅

[@falconwind00]

“Next time, Jack, write a goddamn memo.”

[@nomar5spaulding]

Hunt for Red October is a great movie. I have seen it many times, and it's one of the few movies that if I see it is on TV, I will deffinitely watch it.

[@ShaunRF]

"Aw, this is nothing! You should've been with us five, six months ago! Whoa! You talk about puke! We ran into a hailstorm over the Sea of Japan. Everybody's retching their guts out! The pilot shot his lunch all over the windshield, and I barfed on the radio! Shorted it out completely! And it wasn't that lightweight stuff either, it was that chunky industrial weight puke!"

[@merafirewing6591]

I know this series is oddly considered as sci-fi but with ww2 warships, but I think the Destroyermen series would be worth your time. And also sci-fi doesn't necessarily need to far off and with advanced high tech.

[@ctw30002000]

Definitely agree. Just sifting through that beautiful crazy mix of ship types and designations from multiple universes and timelines would be juicy indeed. Dom battlewagons, League submarines, sail-powered destroyers, Lemurian homes, Grik Indiamen, paddlewheel steam frigates...

[@mikemcghin5394]

And how The Squall works and it's considered a mix of alt history and sci-fi

[@davidbirr2718]

@@mikemcghin5394 Add also the fact that in the last book two unexplained LARGE explosions, a couple of days apart, are reported from Japan, as if somehow some of the energy from the atom bombs "leaked" into the books' universe.

[@robertdrexel2043]

Agreed. Followed the series since the third or fourth book of the series where I got the first book at a sale somewhere around 2010 or so. Been a fan since then. Shame that the main series is over, it was one of the few book series I actually followed and got the new book when it first came out. I know that Anderson is doing another series which follows the formation of one of the other nations, the New United States, that got formed from people coming through the Squall, but that storyline is not my cup of tea currently. Sigh.

[@sylquinn4075]

Yeah, I lost interest in Purgatory's Shore (the sequel series) a while ago. But I found Destroyermen really cool. My guess with the explosions is that the Squash was in the area, but I don't think they were stormy days.

[@orrinfreeman5672]

I appreciate that he calls it "boat" instead of "ship throughout the video.

[@LordBloodraven]

Several of the crewman aboard the USS Dallas were played by actual submariners. It allowed them to get the disciplined dialogue between the officers and ratings to feel authentic: They actually knew the jargon in the orders and reacted accordingly.

[@arioch2112]

This was my job from 1985-1989 aboard the USS Kinkaid (DD-965), my first 3 years aboard, we spent average of 8 1/2 months at sea out of 12. My aunt was associated with Annapolis Press and had an advance copy of this book in 1984 that helped me choose my rating after graduation the next year.

[@jc441-i3q]

"A GREAT DAY COMRADES! WE SHAIL INTO HISTORY!!"

[@qdaniele97]

About the magnetic signature of submarines, the USSR even add special "docks" for periodically de-magnetizing the hulls of its submarines that naturally become slightly magnetized over time just by moving through water. They did this by basically wrapping a giant cable around the entire hull multiple times and passing a current through it to create an opposing magnetic field, then letting it sit there until the entire hull is demagnetized. Regular typhoons-class submarines shouldn't need that as they have titanium hulls kif I remember correctly). But in case of the Red October the magnetic signature would definitely be a problem.

[@898792]

"you arrogant ass! You've killed us!"

[@TheBloodypete]

Also the movie was during the ear of large scale models, some of the behind the scenes photos are fantastic seeing them using the models in giant tanks!

[@thestanleys3657]

"one ping only"

[@Adam3343]

I've watched that film more times then i can count. i love it so much

[@iKvetch558]

Always fun to see these kinds of videos that analyze things from fictional movies or books. And even though I have seen Hunt for Red October at least 100 times in my life, I NEVER noticed that the scene between two rows of missiles could NOT have happened! Of COURSE there could not be two rows of missiles like that...with the missiles in between the pressure hulls on Red October, there could only be a row of missile tube access hatches down the side of each of the two missile compartments. I am flabbergasted that I never noticed that mistake before....wow! 😮😁

[@The31stcenturyfox]

You can see them on most submarines as the Typhoon Multiple pressure hulls is unique to my knowledge in modern submarine designs, while similar big boats like the Ohio has rows you can travel through like that. Though other soviet designs like the Oscar, has side mounted missile tubes that are also inaccessible being in the outer hull.

[@iKvetch558]

@@The31stcenturyfox I am well aware...I have been a student of submarine warfare for most of my life...that is why I am so dumbfounded that I never realized it was wrong in the movie. LOL

[@The31stcenturyfox]

@@iKvetch558 Ah fair. Sometimes we can know things but they don't click till much later. XD

[@phoenixqwertz]

With the autor of the book being American and the plans of the Typhoon maybe not open to public in 1984, I can live with this small plot derivation from reality

[@iKvetch558]

@@phoenixqwertz I don't believe the error is in the book...I would have to check to make sure, but I am pretty sure Clancy got it right or he did not specify. It is only the movie that gets it wrong.

[@Kat_Oran]

In the novel, Tom Clancy wrote the scene around the missile tubes as he only had knowledge of the US equivalent, and that did have access to the tubes like in the book and movie. Real Typhoon class subs don't have any access to the missile tubes like that.

[@Tomyironmane]

The reason that scene in the missile room happened was because the movie was based off the Tom Clancy book. In the book, the Red October's drive systems were described markedly differently than in the movie, and in both the movie and the book, and I can't stress this enough, NO ONE in the west actually knew the internal configuration of a typhoon class at the time. Or if they did that data was classified as hell so the soviets didn't know we knew. These days, you can go watch a documentary about them scrapping one of these leviathans, but at the time, no one knew that little drawing about where the pressure hull or hulls were inside the ship. All they had was a lot of guesswork and some very classified documents that neither Clancy nor Hollywood had access to. As I recall, the book ascribed the width of the sub as being because of battery banks and heavy equipment located outside the main pressure hull, but it's been a good number of years since I read it. So they guessed, and based it loosely off an Ohio class or other western boomer, where those tubes definitely run through the pressure hull.

[@Wolfman053a]

That magnetic field is why various navies degauss their submarines, to make that particular form of detection much more difficult…

[@The31stcenturyfox]

Yeah, but this wouldn't be magnetism of metal in the submarine's construction it would be generating a magnetic fields as part of the propulsion. I know there are rumors the columbia class could feature a magnetic rim driven propulsor, but that would increase detection by MAD.

[@ikosabre]

Huh, a strange coincidence. I've just started playing Cold Waters again on the 1984 campaign and was marveling at the various submarine designs of the cold war - especially the typhoon. And lo and behold, this video drops.

[@UD503J]

I had the cool opportunity to tour the US equivalent to the Typhoon, an Ohio-class (specifically the USS Nebraska), years ago. The set decorators for the Dallas did a phenomenal job, because it looks and feels just like a real US submarine. Granted the Dallas was a 688 and not a boomer, but still.

[@kabuki_kitten7129]

imagine drowning in a submarine but its not because there was some crazy accident but you got stuck in the swimming pool

[@angmordagnithil7127]

"It'sh just... to die from shomething as petty as shlipping on tea..."

[@BogeyTheBear]

There's a stand-up comedy routine about how embarassing it would be to drown in the pool on a cruise liner. Surrounded by hundreds of miles of ocean, and in the middle of that tiny little metal island sailing through the sea, a speck of shallow blue water.

[@Wolfpack345]

Great video!

[@Jayjay-qe6um]

At the 63rd Academy Awards, the film was honored with the Academy Award for Best Sound Editing, along with nominations for Best Sound Mixing and Best Film Editing.

[@Coolman13355]

I immediately checked if Spacedock has done the SeaQuest.

[@347Jimmy]

Have they??

[@robertdrexel2043]

Jeez. Haven't heard that since my teenaged years. That brings back memories!

[@Coolman13355]

@@347Jimmy I'm not seeing it.

[@347Jimmy]

@@Coolman13355 bummer

[@3Rayfire]

Oooh! Now that's a great idea! A truly gorgeous ship, And basically Star Trek underwater from the pitch if I recall correctly.

[@chazsutherland]

Great video as usual. Btw, from an old cold war submariner to all to land lubbers and surface pukes, those spinny things are called screws, not propellers.

[@andyf4292]

interesting fact,,,,, the 'crazy ivan' isn't to smash a torpedo against the hull before it arms. its to line up a shot for Skval- and we had no idea that it existed at the time. the sting missile from Stingray- basically.

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

I'm surprised this isn't one of those movies you see referenced and parodied more often. You know how sometimes tv shows will parody famous movies, like Kids Next Door had an entire series of episodes parodying the original Star Wars trilogy?

[@hoojiwana]

Family Guy did it! "Red October, standing by." - hoojiwana from Spacedock

[@mitwhitgaming7722]

@@hoojiwana that's right, I forgot about that.

[@msb3235]

"I'm a politician, which means I'm a cheat and a liar, when I'm not kissing babies, I'm stealing their lollipops." the most sincere and true quote in Hollywood movies ever!

[@pauljensen5699]

Fun fact about the "Hunt for Red October" movie, the ship models were reused as the "Mars Defense Perimeter" in Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Best of Both Worlds".

[@UD503J]

The crew called them the "Blue-Grey Octobers" because of the paint color on the models.

[@neilbodwell9172]

That film is amazing. The book just as much. The only thing that threw the whole matter off was Sir Sean Connery's "slavic accent" or lack thereof. Still a wonderful film and I mean no disrespect to the man. He'sright up there with John Wayne, and the comedian Craig Fergusonhas bit regarding that. Great actors just, don't ask them to do any accent past how they normally talk. If there is ever a remake, all I ask for is someone whose got the on screen presence as Sir Sean Connery but can do an actual Slavic accent. Love the channel, love the videos, keep it up, and yeah you're right. Most spaceships will likely be built like skyscrapers and give a submarine vibe.

[@Soundwave119]

Well I totally forget about Hunt for the Red October by Tom Clancy. It probably has been 10 years since I watched the movie and 16-20 years since I listened to the audio book of it. Keep up the great job in analyzing space ships and occasionally submarines! 😊

[@CatOfSchroedinger]

It's interesting to see how many books and movies about the Cold War (apart from 1983's WarGames) rely on the premise that the Sovjet Union would change their nuclear doctrine from reactive to first strike like the US. Getting "wait, are WE the baddies here?"-vibes, like in that British sketch.

[@HamletTwin]

One of the coolest sci-fi ships in one of the best sub movies ever made. Love the Red October! Such an iconic looking ship.

[@peadarr]

“What are those power plants like?” “They’re Ok”

[@Celphied13]

"I thought I heard singing, sir."

[@TerranceChilds-ui8nh]

I have seen this movie so many times and I love it so much

[@fishindabox]

Thanks Spacedock for analysing this submarine

[@cesarespinozaspain]

"Who's Stanley"..... "Stanley's a bear"..... And a drink cup...

[@tuxedotservo]

I remember reading an article in Discover magazine (remember those things?) in the late 80's talking about sub stealth. Apparently there was a war games exercise with surface ships from the Pacific (in whole or part) vs. 5 (I think) of the nuclear subs. The fleet found 4 of the subs fairly easily - but they missed one. In simulation, that sub sank half the fleet. Wish I still had that magazine so I could give better numbers, but that stuck with me.

[@ImperatorZor]

The H. L. Hunley was an early submarine built by the Confederate States of America during the US Civil War. It was composed of a long iron tube 12 meters and was propelled by a team of six men turning a large centrally mounted crank to drive a prop. It was made to try to break the US Navy's blockade of the CSA, allowing for the importation of more weapons and materiel from Europe. It was notable for killing two crews of Confederate Sailors by suffocation in testing and a third during it's only operational deployment. The Hunley sailed out to the union sloop USS Housatonic and impacted it with a spar torpedo, basically a bomb on a pole on the front which it rammed into the Housatonic's hull, blowing a hole below the water line and sinking it. While succesful, the Hunley sunk with it's target.

[@georgemiller2129]

So glad you covered this. Hunt for Red October should be required viewing for any sci fi writer.

[@The-Ink-Dragon97]

What blows my mind about the movie is that is was BASED on true events. Look it up! The story is mind blowing. Be warned, its not a happy ending sadly.

[@dmac7128]

True, it was based on a mutiny. It was one that took place on a new Soviet surface combatant back the the 70's.

[@scottishscott3504]

It's loosely based on two different incidents. The first was a happy ending, the second less so.

[@UD503J]

Equally interesting, the US operation to recover the K-129 (so called Project Jennifer or Project Azorian.) They had Howard Hughes build a huge ship to recover the submarine under the cover of a mining vessel. Hughes was crazy enough that the cover wasn't even questioned, it was just something you could see him doing. I think it was to mine manganese nodules.

[@Mecca4BA]

As a submariner, I appreciate your video.

[@knight907]

Red October is one of my favorite movies, and used to be my favorite submarine movie until I finally watched “Run Silent, Run Deep.” If you want realism, that movie nails **every** detail, and it’s a good story, somewhat surprisingly based on a true story. Thanks for making this video. 👍

[@L8ugh1ngm8n1]

Das Boat is still the best.

[@knight907]

@@L8ugh1ngm8n1 Next on my list. Thanks for the recommendation. 👍

[@shaggycan]

I've seen this film 50 times. It's amazing.

[@dstovell]

Naval tradition holds that the name of ships should not be preceded by "the", this is reflected in the name of the movie "The Hunt for Red October", so the boat is referred to as "Red October" as opposed to "the Red October". Also, I loved the use of "boat" instead of ship when talking about a submarine 💜

[@3Rayfire]

Submarines are referred to as boats.

[@dstovell]

@@3Rayfire Yes, that is why I loved it...

[@lucasyoung8437]

Fantastic! Thanks for the submarine representation! Hoo-yah! Buffalo! You should do one on all submarine classes. My boat was SSN715. Some people don't even know we still exist.

[@timbauer399]

SSN 22. Double Deuce.

[@earthknight60]

You should take a look at the submarine in Martin Caidin's 1978 book Aquarius Mission

[@thundercactus]

So just prior to the Oscar and Typhoon classes being built, the soviet navy was using ballistic missiles fuelled by UDMH (hydrazine) and N2O4. Hypergolic propellants (burn when mixed), each particularly nasty and highly energetic chemicals on their own. As you might imagine, one of the worst possible environments imaginable for storing such highly reactive chemicals is just below a nuclear warhead, in a corrosive and often high pressure salt water environment, underwater, on a poorly maintained submarine. Predictably, they had a few accidents directly related to the N2O4 (neat funfact, when mixed with sea water turns into both nitric and nitrous acid, the latter speeding up how fast the former eats through metal!) Subsequently, they came up with the genius idea of putting the missiles tubes OUTSIDE of the people and machinery tubes! So that if anything happened to the missile tubes (like say the propellant leaking and eating through the missile tube), it wouldn't immediately cause a catastrophic casualty. Ironically, the soviet union actually saw the error of its ways at the same time and decided the best course of action was to develop way safer solid rocket propellants (like the US was using), making the positioning of the missiles tubes rather redundant. "Newer" classes like the Yasen and Borei have their missiles tubes intersecting the people tube again.

[@TheRealCodeBlack]

This one got me thinking: has Spacedock done an episode on stealth spaceships in sci-fi and their relative effectiveness / design rationale? Deep diving into Spacedock's library is one of my favorite kinds of rainy day video picks, so if they've done it I got to put it on my to-watch list.

[@robertdrexel2043]

Yes they have. I think it was several months ago? It was part of the series of Space Combat Videos.

[@michaelkantner6420]

This is my favorite sub movie! I love Sean Connery in this movie, he plays his part so well.

[@L8ugh1ngm8n1]

Yes the size of the Typhoon is a result of the internal dual hull design but the core reason for the size of the Typhoon class was because the R-39 missiles they carried were significantly larger than the missiles carried by the US Ohio class. Russia wanted an SSBN that could deliver an equal if not greater payload than the Ohios and the only way they could achieve this was to make a boat that large.

[@Methazar]

Love the film and book. Great choice of subject where reality and sci-fi blend well

[@NoBudjetFilms]

Hunt for the Red October is one of those perfect movies. So great!

[@warpig6459]

"Red October standing by"

[@TheMalootrager]

I love The Hunt for The Red October movie, i watched it every chance I got 😊

[@3Rayfire]

I wore the magnetic tape on that VHS out.

[@TheMugbearer]

God this is my all time childhood favorite, I adore this movie. Also, the music by Starship Troopers composer Basil Poledouris!

[@AlexKasper]

‘Give Me a Ping, Spacedock. One Ping Only’

[@QuintonMurdock]

I have been on blueback. She is docked in Portland Oregon

[@thecheesedip]

As a Scifi fan, this is literally my favorite movie of ALL TIME.

[@joshmccalip6053]

"A good day, comrades. We sail into history."

[@MjolnirFeaw]

unexpectedly relevant. nice job.

[@padawanmage71]

“…my Morse is so rusty, I’m probably sending the dimensions of Playmate of the Year.”😊

[@lyianx]

Month.

[@sheldonpetrie3706]

This is one of my favorite movies

[@hurricaneace143]

I can't with you using the SH3 music😂😊

[@3Rayfire]

I've been waiting thirty years for people to talk about my favorite movie as it deserves to be. First Time Reactors are watching it, and now Spacedock is doing a piece on the big boomer herself.

[@RobertGracie]

Fun fact about the Red October, there was going to be a Typhoon class ship called "Red October" it was hull number TK-210 but it was unfinished and scrapped after 1986!

[@The31stcenturyfox]

That's really cool.

[@Jorjgasm]

I'd like to see a breakdown of the Kapisi and the Ahsoka from Homeworld Deserts of Kharak. Land carriers and other large land vehicles are underrepresented. I would also like to see more breakdowns from Eve Online.. Plenty of lore and technical details on them, as well as nice shots in cinematics or gameplay videos, but you only had one.

[@georgew5014]

I just bought your audiobook sojourn on Audible😊

[@g.williams2047]

A fantastic book!

[@lucasdeaver9192]

The Hunt for Red October is one of the best Star Trek movies.

[@falconwind00]

“Well, if you like borscht perhaps, but I've eaten better in an oiler's galley. My wife said to the waiter, "where did this man learn to cook? Afghanistan?!"