PURPOSE

4.1 We start this relatively brief chapter with an explanation of its purpose, because it is different in character from the other technical considerations involved in submarine design. In some ways it is not especially technical at all, but rather akin in nature to the debates on spatial design which architects indulge in. The issues which arise in consideration of the weight/space relationship for submarines might appear at first sight to be simple – they certainly are very basic – but that is deceptive because they become progressively more complicated as the relationship is explored in greater detail. Although the subject of weight and space and how they are related in submarine design is associated with hydrostatics, it goes beyond what can properly be treated under that heading because of the somewhat intangible nature of the relationship and its consequences in some regards as compared with the more matter of fact nature of hydrostatics.

The chapter is ultimately about ‘what determines the size of a submarine’? In a particular submarine design, does it have to be of a certain size to provide enough buoyancy to support its weight or does it have to be of that size to provide enough space for its contents, so that it then has more than enough buoyancy to support its weight? If the former, there would be some space to spare, so how could the extra space be utilised?