Flooding holes/ Valves of French Surcouf submarine

[Kawasaki Monota]

Hi there, I have never seen any plans of blueprints showing the flooding holes or valves at bottom of that boat , the Surcouf. Does anyone knows that?

M

[Albacore 569]

You likely find good images of Surcouf t some degree if as I mention in the Suffern modeling thread, used google translate and paste the French search words into the yahoo mage search.

Americans are not the center of the universe so don't expect always the best research stuff on a foreign submarine to be American, Try the submarines builder's native language for starters. If many Americans in more ignorant circles think the world it still flat, the rest of the world at least knows the world is a sphere still thank God. Alot of information bias out there.

Like the line in 'All the President's Men', 'Follow the money' as an analogy, "follow the ballast tanks" lol. In the bottom. Photo of Surcouf taken at the Portsmouth New Hampshire Navy yard in 1942 in the center of the image seems what appears to be a ballast tank vent. The French like most Navies use saddle ballast tanks. It's likely the flood drains, and the top vents are in these vicinities. The physics - the mass of this enormous sub with her 8-inch gun turret, would indicate requiring large ballast tanks too

I'll check my French drawings of the Minelayer Rubis from the same period. The French would likely have standard designs for all their subs whether small or huge boats on thing like Vents.

[Albacore 569]

The drawings of Saphir (Rubis class mine layer) are enormous (68 MB an image) but reveal nothing on the vents and drains. Sorry.

[Kawasaki Monota]

The drawings of Saphir (Rubis class mine layer) are enormous (68 MB an image) but reveal nothing on the vents and drains. Sorry.

I tried my best to search, search and search.... However I get nothing but some pics showing Surcouf in the drydock and I found it difficult to find the holes/valves at the bottom of that boat.


M

[Albacore 569]

Thanks for the photo, adding t my files.

Here is the rest I have good luck. Hope it helps. These images are 13% of the original file size. the bottom 2 because of the website are practically useless, Best I can send within web site program here without it refusing to post.

[jphatton]

There are also some of the general arrangement drawings at the following website, but unfortunately nothing showing details on the underside of the hull. However, the sections do give some details of the arrangement of the ballast tanks, which might gives some clues to the likely location of valves etc;

http://3dhistory.de/wordpress/warship-drawings-warship-blue-prints-warship-plans/french-submarine-drawingsplan-sets/french-submarine-surcouf-as-build-1929/

There is also some photos of a sectioned 1/50 scale model in French Musée Nationale de la Marine, but again with no details of flood grates etc.

https://mnm.webmuseo.com:8443/ws/musee-national-marine/app/collection/record/9768

Concerning general reference material the L'Association des Amis de Musée de la Marine (AAMM) has a monograph on the Surcouf which includes 1/100 model building plans available here which might be of interest.

https://boutique.aamm.fr/monographies/plan-sous-marin-surcouf

and here is a build log of a model which appears to have been built using these plans;

https://www.laroyale-modelisme.net/t27640-sous-marin-de-croisiere-surcouf-plan-aamm-bois-laiton-1-100-de-michgir-chantier