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The accommodation space stretches between the fore-ends and the Control Room. The messes were extremely crowded and the bunks were short but men were quick to adapt and there were few complaints. There are various tanks and stores underneath this area but much of the space is taken up by No1 main battery comprising half of the total 112 huge lead-acid cells which powered the submarine submerged and supplied the numerous auxiliary circuits. Some of these cells can be seen through a glass panel let into the deck of the Stokers’ mess.

Accommodation space passageway

Although the Chief Petty Officers and Petty Officers had their own bunks, mostly in their messes, some of the Junior Ratings had to adopt the “Hot Bunk” system. This meant that the man coming off watch found his opposite number’s bunk already warm! Newly joined submariners quickly learned not to be fastidious about this kind of sharing; anyway, everybody was tainted with the same all-pervading smell of diesel fuel, which clung to clothing even

when ashore.

Artificers' mess

The Captain’s cabin, a small watertight cylinder, was entered from the conning tower. In theory it enabled him to gain access to the bridge or Control Room equally quickly. In practice, the Captain found himself remote from both and he usually preferred to live in the Wardroom with the other officers, next to the Control Room where he could be fully in touch with all that was going on.Nobody expected much undisturbed sleep on patrol, the Captain least of all. On the surface the diving klaxon would bring the whole crew racing to diving stations at any time of the day or night; Alliance was able to dive in less than one minute so there was no time to dress and the crew normally slept fully clothed.

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