Second World War submarines were crude affairs when compared with today’s vessels, but the old ones a new ones share a common problem – what to do with what gets flushed down the toilet?
It can’t be flushed directly into the ocean because the external pressure will make it travel the other way. Yuk. Mostly, the waste is sent into a holding tank and disposed of later.
New Deep Water Head Developed
For several hundred years, toilets on ships have been called heads, possibly because early sailing ships had toilets in the prow, sometimes called the ship’s head, where waves provided a flushing function.
When the German submarine U-1206 was built in 1943 she was equipped with a new head. It used a complicated arrangement of high-pressure valves that allowed the device to be used in deep water. The problem was that the head was so complicated to use that a specially trained operator had to be on hand to supervise the flushing.
U-1206 Runs into Trouble
Under the command of Captain Karl-Adolph Schlitt, U-1206 was sent to do some spying off the east coast of Britain.
According to uboat.net, “On April 14, 1945, only 8-10 miles off the British coast line, the boat was safely cruising at 200 feet,” when the skipper decided to answer a call of nature. He also decided to do so without the attendant expert. Poor choice.
A correspondent at worldwarmilitaria.com picks up the story by saying the captain claimed a break down of the system. A second, more widely reported account, says that Capt. Schlitt “got the order of valves wrong. The result, whether through misadventure or malfunction, was that Schlitt was showered with high-pressure sewage and sea water.”
Seeing their captain emerge from the head decorated in poo would have prompted much ribald humour, but the accident had much more serious consequences.
Submarine Forced to Surface
The vessel’s large battery compartment was located underneath the head. Tony Long, writing for Wired.com tells of the unfortunate result of this design: “When the water reached the batteries…the boat began filling with chlorine gas, forcing Schlitt to order U-1206 surfaced. “Unfortunately for the Germans, the boat was only 10 miles off the Scottish coast, and it was quickly spotted by the British.”
Attacked from the air, the submarine was so badly damaged that she could not dive while four of her crew were killed. Capt. Schlitt ordered the vessel scuttled and abandoned. All the surviving submariners were captured.
In the 1970s, U-1206’s wreck was found in 230 feet of water off the coast of Scotland.
Sources
- “April 14, 1945: Tweaky Toilet Costs Skipper His Sub.” Tony Long, Wired.com, April 14, 2011.
- uboat.net, accessed August 12, 2011.
- worldwarmilitaria.com, accessed August 12, 2011.
Rupert Taylor - Rupert Taylor is the editor of a magazine that provides background to current events.
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