That's pretty cool. I found my father's sub, USS Cavalla hull 244. A "leap year" Sub -- Commissioned 2/29/44. He served on board in 1953 after it had been recommissioned as a "hunter killer" from a "Gato."
The sub actually still exists; it's embedded in sand at Pelican Island in Texas at a museum, though a film clip I saw on a History Channel documentary shows it to be in bad condition.
I had the opportunity to go aboard the Cavalla while it was docked at the U.S. Navy sub pen in Connecticut back in the 1960s.
From what I recall the problems with torpedos back then were traced back to using an incorrectly weighted dummy warhead during tests. When the torpedoes were loaded with the real warheads they traveled at a deeper depth than programmed and went underneath enemy ships.
My father once told me that the torpedoes used alcohol in the propulsion system and some of the sailors would drink it, refering to it as "torpedo juice." The response was to put epicac in the alcohol to make the imbibing sailors throw up. They retaliated by straining the epicac out with bread.
Navy life.
