The Recirc Pump

It should come as no surprise that space is extremely limited aboard a sub, even a monster like a Trident. If there is a choice between some new gadget for the forward ETs or something to make life easier for the crew, the gadget always wins. But there is one odd exception: The CO’s Recirc Pump.

This pump exists solely so the CO and XO (who share a private bathroom) will have hot water the instant they turn on a faucet, rather than having to wait a second for it to warm up like us common folk. Sure, it probably saves a half-gallon or two of water, but its real purpose is to re-enforce their superiority.

The problem is not the pump as much as where they put it – right next to the hallway where you have to wait with fifty other guys for every meal. While you stand there, thinking about all the mistakes in your life that led you to this point, there’s that pump, mocking you. And the switch is right there, too.

So it should also come as no surprise that the recirc pump is often mysteriously shut off, usually right around meal times. It got so bad on my first boat that they actually caution-tagged it on. When that failed, they posted a watch. You heard me right – some poor cone got to spend the entire watch making sure no one made the CO wait for hot water. It’s not just a job, after all.

Even more mysterious, around the time that cones were grumbling about this situation, one of the overloads on the switch for the pump failed, and couldn’t be fixed until we pulled back in. No point in the watch, when the pump had to stay tagged out for a few weeks. They never stationed it again after it was fixed, but they did relocate the chow line down to lower level and away from temptation.