World war 2 submarine sonar question

[tigerwillow1]

With all the old-timers here, maybe somebody knows this. I've been binge-watching The Silent Service. In almost every episode, the sonar operator in the conning tower is almost constantly pushing a lever back and forth with his right hand. What is this lever and what is he doing?

The USS Pampanito web site has really good conning tower photos, and links to the sonar operating manuals. I can't find this lever anywhere there, yet it's in almost every Silent Service episode.

 

[mat200]

With all the old-timers here, maybe somebody knows this. I've been binge-watching The Silent Service. In almost every episode, the sonar operator in the conning tower is almost constantly pushing a lever back and forth with his right hand. What is this lever and what is he doing?

The USS Pampanito web site has really good conning tower photos, and links to the sonar operating manuals. I can't find this lever anywhere there, yet it's in almost every Silent Service episode.

hmmmm one of these levers pictured here ? .. ( based on the Gato class )









Perhaps this helps move the direction of the sonar to get the direction ??

USS Gato
Eleventh and twelfth war patrols, January – June 1945
On her 11th war patrol (28 January – 13 March 1945), Gato patrolled the Yellow Sea as a unit of a coordinated attack group (called a "wolf pack"), with Jallao (SS-368) and Sunfish (SS-281). She sank a coast defense ship on 14 February and cargo ship Tairiku Maru on 21 February, then returned to Guam. She departed on her 12th war patrol 12 April 1945, taking lifeguard station in support of the invasion of Okinawa. On the night of 22 – 23 April she had a brief contest with two Japanese submarines and narrowly missed destruction as well-aimed torpedoes came close. Between 27 and 30 April she rescued 10 Army aviators from shallow water near the beaches of Cape Toi Misaki, Kyūshū. She returned to Pearl Harbor 3 June 1945.

 

[biggen]

Yeah I think this was to move the directional hydrophone to zero in on contacts.

 

[tigerwillow1]

hmmmm one of these levers pictured here ?

Yes, and thank you!!! Now that I got my nose pointed, I'm finding it easily. Part of my problem is unfamiliar terminology. In Navy-speak, the lever is part of the sonar remote control unit, used to point the projectors (hydrophones, sensors, microphones in more familiar terms). It looks to me like 180 degrees of the handle turns the projector 360 degrees. The actual projector pointing mechanisms are in the torpedo rooms and there are round handles to manually turn them. What got my curiosity going is, in the TV show, the sonar operator seems to always be flopping the lever back and forth like crazy. I can understand this for a quick sweep, but it makes no sense to me when homing in on a single target. Overall, I'm finding the technical aspects of the show to be fairly accurate. The hollywood soap opera part is another story. Sometimes I follow up watching an episode by reading from a history site, to find some of the higher level details are the typical hollywood "based on a true story", kinda-sorta, but sometimes not very close to the true story.

Another clip from the TV show where the operator is flipping the lever like crazy:


USS Pampanito conning tower. The lever is clearly there if you know where to look:


Sonar training manual: