The B stands for bolshaya, which means "large"... this class of old-war sub was among the largest diesel-electric designs ever.

But a tour of this vessel gives an idea of how confining it could feel...  especially with a crew of 78!!

Inside the bow torpedo room... a bewildering array of valves, switches, and gauges, in an amazing jumble of pipes and conduit.
But I'm sure the clever color-coding made it easier to learn how to operate all this stuff.

     


The captain's berth; sheer luxury compared to the wire cots with blankets on them in the aft torpedo room. A tour on this boat was not for sissies.

     



This is the helm. No, I haven't figured it out yet, either...

     


Typical head on board this sub: note the apparent Russian obsession with gauges. Gauges everywhere!! And there must be a valve or switch near each gauge... 


     


Part of the electrical control room.

Rifleman wrote on Oct 9^th, 2007 at 1:37am:


It's the same one I showed earlier... but the tower is off-limits.

I've always wondered how Sub captains/crews figure out where the heck they are...And how do they know if something is ahead of them...LOL...They're just sitting there steering blind...I've got a lot of respect for these guys...

Oh and very nice shots Rotty

I would be miserable enough being stuck on a sub, but that one just looks like a pile of knobs and switches, how depressing!!  As said before, tons of respect for those submariners, even modern day ones, I joined the Marines cause at least I know I get to go to shore eventually!  lol