Question: When Mancuso is sending morse code to Ramius, why does Ramius need to use a sonar ping to communicate back (possibly raising the suspicions of his crew) instead of discreetly flashing his periscope light back?
Captain Defenestrator
13th Oct 2014
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
26th May 2014
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
Question: Why does the Red October take the difficult way through the canyons? Is it faster/shorter? If so, how can the Dallas be at the end of the canyons and wait for Red October? The Dallas might be faster, but would it not have to take a considerable detour in order to avoid detection by the Red October?
Answer: It's red route 1: Almost all Soviet subs were detected by the SOSUS net between Greenland, Iceland and Norway. To break that contact they'd run through the canyon, too dangerous for US subs to follow. The catch is that after years of watching, US subs learned the exit to that route, and would run to the end and wait, hoping to pickup the contact again.
Answer: Red October is taking the deeper route ostensibly to deter pursuit, but in reality, it's so that once the plan goes through and they "scuttle the ship" it will be in waters too deep to make a search for the wreckage (that won't be there) practical.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Answer: It's faster than clicking out a response in morse code, and the captain suddenly flipping the periscope light on and off repeatedly would be just as suspicious to the bridge crew, so why not save time?
Captain Defenestrator