Submarine Relativity Facts - Did You Realize?
Submarines offer only about one-third the living space per person of a destroyer with similar tonnage per the Smithsonian Institution.
From Submarine FAQ:
Where do Submariners sleep? On U.S. Navy submarines, living quarters are called "berthing areas" that provide no more than 15 square feet of space per man for sleep and personal belongings. On most submarines, each crewman's bed (called a bunk, berth or rack) has a reading light, a ventilation duct, an earphone jack for the ship's audio entertainment system, and a curtain to provide a small (but welcome) measure of privacy. Only the captain and executive officer of the submarine have private rooms, called staterooms.
When engaged in light work in a submarine, adults give off an average of about 500 BTUs per hour (20% more than two, 60-watt light bulbs at 205 BTUs each). A person takes in somewhat more than 3 pounds of water per day, in beverages and food. (Source: Submarine Online Refrigeration)
Living conditions on board a submarine are extreme. For example: 110 men must share two showers, four toilets, one urinal. Sometimes they must also share bunks. The main course in every meal usually has 25 fat grams. (source: Living Conditions)
Absence of sunlight: The importance of solar-produced vitamin D was underscored in a study that evaluated vitamin-D status in a submarine crew after two months of acute sun deprivation. Although the crew consumed a vitamin-D fortified diet, their levels of this nutrient plummeted.
(source: SUNLIGHT, VITAMIN D & HEALTH)
Why address facts of little concern to submariners? Everything is relative. You be the judge:
Colorado's ADX Supermax Prison THE LAST WORST PLACE :
The isolation at Colorado's ADX prison is brutal beyond compare. ...Among its current 400 residents, the ADX also houses a handful of high-profile prisoners, among them Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, serving four life sentences plus 30 years. ...it is the only prison specifically designed to keep every occupant in near-total solitary confinement, rarely allowing inmates to see other prisoners. ...
Florence is the leader in a nationwide trend toward supermax prisons: in the past few years, 36 states have built strongbox facilities to house their most dangerous inmates. In California, the most notorious are the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay and Corcoran, already the subjects of numerous lawsuits and investigations into alleged cruel and unusual punishment...
Prisoners get a 12-by-7- foot cell (84 square feet), individual beds, desks, stools, toilets, sinks and a 42-inch window, 4 inches wide looking on their exercise areas. Like submariners prisoners get books and food. A 12- inch black-and-white TV in each cell shows closed-circuit classes in psychology, education, anger management, parenting, literacy, and religious services for various faiths.
Supermax is the name used to describe "control-unit" prisons or units within prisons, representing the most secure and austere levels of custody in the prison systems of the United States and other countries. ...in 1996, a United Nations team assigned to investigate torture described SHU conditions as “inhuman and degrading.” ...the Federal ADMAX, or administrative maximum security, prison in Florence, Colorado, west of Pueblo. ...furniture is made almost entirely out of poured concrete, including a desk, stool, and bed covered by a thin mattress.
Now, convicted terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui will inhabit ADMAX for life. Like submariners, he volunteered for what he did, and he will have little chance of escape from his confined space. At least Moussaoui will see the sun when it shines every day in the fresh air, not have to imagine it from under tons of seawater.