How Eggs Give Away the Location of Nuclear Submarines

Here's why submarines are frightened by eggs. Nuclear submarines carry on board hundreds of dozens of eggs. And a very well known fact among submariners is you don't mess with The Egg.

Watch more videos:

The Unseen Tech That Makes Aircraft Carriers More Powerful:

-----------------------

Note: "The appearance of U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) visual information does not imply or constitute DoD endorsement."

[onebridge]

As a submarine veteran, I can attest the eggs never lasted long enough to spoil. Plus, the U.S. Navy does not store our trash. We deep six it through the TDU while underway.

[stevendevonside]

I served in the Royal Navy as a Sonar operator. Out of all the sounds we were taught to identify, I was never taught how to identify the proximity of a submarine by the cracking of eggs. There are a lot louder things than eggs imploding on a Nuke Boat. Maybe this vid should only be shown on April 1st. 😂😂😂

[rcsontag]

This was not an issue during the cold war. Eggs were preserved by irradiation, a wax coating, and refrigeration. We always ran out of eggs long before any could go bad.

[kevintaylor]

Hold up.. So the hydraulic pump that that drives the trash compactor on a sub is QUIETER than eggs breaking???

[javiercastro]

It has been some years since I served onboard a submarine as a sonar tech, and this is a first, so don't know how much faith I can put in this video. We had a number of things going that were much louder from air compressors to steam turbines and more without issue. Aside from a sound short, I have to wonder. I did notice in the video that trash is separated and wonder if the disposal procedure has also changed.

[jamesmeyer]

Being a former submariner myself, I would say that the toughest job in the Navy might be working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or something like that. Life on a submarine is relatively peaceful, quiet and safe, although it can be tough on the psyche. But there are ways to deal with that, like keeping busy. And the great chow helps - until you run out of fresh eggs!

[markharnitchek]

spent lots of time in submarines ... we didn't have enough reefer/freezer space, so we stored all the eggs in the bilges of the torpedo room ... they stayed cool throughout the deployment and i recall having fresh eggs for 2-3 months.

[maj]

Great story. Urban mith, I'm afraid. The sound of a cracking egg isn't going to escape the soundproofing of a modern submarine 😅. Think about it . Over a hundred men and women talking operating machinery, dropping tools, and such . Yet an egg can give away its location 🤔. I don't think so.

[CP-]

This shows just how important and dangerous navy cooks can be. Never underestimate a navy cook, remember Casey Ryback, lead cook on the USS Missouri.

[ssmt]

I did six patrols and one DASO on a FBM in the early eighties. I don’t know who wrote the script for this video but they don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.

[radamus]

I gotta ask my buddy about this. He spent some time underwater. When they were hunting, there's a lot of things they couldn't do.

[Markevans]

This is intriguing in that back in my day we never saw an egg go bad. We had fresh eggs for 3 - 4 weeks and it was on to powered eggs.

[jackfrost]

After reading comments from so many submariners, I think this video has imploded loudly!

[AmsterdamHeavy]

If a sub was worried about running silent, they wouldnt be running the gd trash compactor.

[alkhmyst]

Eggs that haven't had their protective wax layer washed off with hot water can keep for weeks unrefrigerated. Eggs aren't refrigerated in Europe, where eggs are processed naturally. My Grandma had chickens at her home in Virginia, and the eggs I ate there were never refrigerated. I think the USDA should reevaluate egg processing standards.

[haroldmedalen]

I am happy to see that many of the submariners are wearing camouflage clothing. I am sure that this helps with the stealth.

[Wrathlon]

Can we just appreciate that in the entirety of the earths ocean in all 3 dimensions and the 2 submarines still managed to hit each other.

[radamus]

I called my buddy, he laughed an said well, I guess I could see that. He was in propulsion/nuke/ electrical engineer. Asked him about the trash compactor, "Oh yeah, used the hell out of it but shot it out most of the time unless they were on a mission or maneuvers then they stowed it. Told me a fun story sitting in a port where a civil war was going on gathering intel. So yeah, quiet is a big deal. I looked at the port, and that's balls to sit there, really narrow.

[DannyB-csvx]

On surface ships, after about a week we were out of fresh eggs. From then on the joke was how do you want your eggs. They would be scrambled made from powdered eggs.

[KSarah]

I was a seaman for a while.
We had a cook that looks like Salvador Dali.
The hair, the mustache, the crazy eyes, the flamboyant behavior.
It was fun.