Hi Tumblr long time no nothing. Have some fruity bois
I moved. From one end of the country to the other. In 3-4 days. Driving. I'm out of my element. Out of familiarity. On the edge of anxiety BUT
Trying.
Been doodling Kai and Nolan through the whole thing cause they are a comfort spot, easy to sketch, and I like their dynamic even if this isn't canon in my story, rn. I've clearly thought about it tho.
Anyway, sorry I, you know. Died. But I'm hoping to get back into some sketching at least. Hopefully.
I wanted to create what I feel is a realistic layout for The Polar Tang and this is what I came up with. Some extra research, references, and info below the cut if you're interested.
You can download the annotated pdf or png files and the clean/un-annotated pdf or png files here if you'd like
What Type of Submarine is the Polar Tang?
So the first thing I wanted to determine, is what type of Submarine The Polar Tang is in the first place. I looked into both diesel-electric and nuclear powered subs. While diesel-electric engines are smaller and would allow for more space in the Tang, I didn't feel that it could accommodate for the canonical speed of the Tang. Not to mention diesel-electric engines aren't designed for long journeys while nuclear engines are.
As a nuclear sub, The Polar Tang would have more speed, attack capabilities, stealth, and the ability to go underway for longer stints.
Once I determined that The Polar Tang was a nuclear submarine, I started looking into the build and interior of nuclear subs. I didn't base the interior design for the Tang off any one sub, but some of my major references were the HMS Sceptre, the HMS Vigilant, the Swedish A-11A, and the American NR-1. (I also took quite a bit of information from Rick Campbell's site).
I particularly liked the NR-1 design as a starting point since it was the smallest nuclear sub the US built and it held a crew about half the size of the Heart Pirates. It was also a spy vessel and therefore had a similar level of stealth that the Tang seems to have.
How big is the Polar Tang?
This is a question that has bothered me for a long time. I feel like most people either grossly over or under estimate the size of the Polar Tang so, to try to solve this mystery I went through and collected as many screen caps as I could find that had the Tang next to other vessels (namely the Thousand Sunny) to compare it's size.
And I came to one conclusion: The Polar Tang and The Thousand Sunny are roughly the same size.
Oda has already given a fully layout of the Sunny (if you'd like to see that I have it in pdf form here). So keeping that in mind, when drawing up the floorplans/blueprints, I tried to make sure that the Polar Tang wasn't any larger than the Sunny.
Additional References and Info about the interior design of The Polar Tang
So I wanted to include some miscellaneous information that I may not have included in the main images of the layout as well as some reference photos for what some of the interior might look like to give people a better idea.
Intercoms
The entire sub is outfitted with an intercom system. There are intercoms in every room, hallway, and in several sections of the engineering deck. These intercoms can be used to call specific rooms or decks as well as to make ship wide announcement and alerts. Every intercom can both send and receive messages and alert sounds.
Crew Quarters and Bathrooms/Showers
The crew Quarters and bathrooms/showers are co-ed (I say co-ed, but I like to think that Ikkaku is the only female Heart Pirate because I find it amusing and she's the only female crew member we canonically know of). For a better idea of what the crew's bunks look like, I was thinking something like these:
I mentioned above that the bathrooms are also co-ed and shared (yes this includes Law, he doesn't have a private bathroom or shower, just a sink vanity. A shower would take up too much space imo). I do think that (assuming Ikkaku is the only woman on the crew) Ikkaku would have a designated shower stall that none of the guys use, to insure her privacy and a clean shower. (look it's me cramming in my own hcs lol)
Helm Controls
I also wanted to include a reference photo for the Helm control since we only get to see the control on the Tang from one perspective with Hakugan at the Helm.
Engineering Deck
While the engineering deck doesn't have rooms, it is still a walk-able space, but is very tight with some spaces only being accessible if you were to crawl into them to work on those sections of the engine.
Similar to the Galley, the engineering deck would have a fail safe system in case of a fire. The deck is split into sections separated by fire doors. If a fire is detected, an alert will sound (accompanied by flashing lights) and crewmen will have a finite amount of time to vacate the area before the fire door seal it off and suck all the oxygen out to extinguish the fire and prevent an explosion
For more real life photos of Nuclear Submarine interior spaces I have a link to a google docs folder here (because tumblr limits how many photos you can have on one post).
For more reference screencaps of The Polar Tang, I've put them all in another google docs folder here.
I would love to know what everyone thinks of my layout design! I put a lot of thought into it so I hope you all like it 😊
idk at some point i feel like people dont know how to be insane about two characters dynamic without making it romantic. like emotional closeness and complicated relationships and like doing basic acts of caring about each other/protecting each other automatically gets turned into a romantic thing by many people and im just like. sighs in aro. platonic relationships can be just as deep and interesting! sometimes it being platonic makes it BETTER, even! to do so much for someone that is truly your friend and not anything else... is a really lovely thing to tell and emphasizes how important friendships can be
Only on the darkest arctic nights can you encounter this Primordial Pokémon. It manifests as aurora and ice, gently towering over the pole's frigid denizens... ✨❄️🧊
(There are 12 kinds of Pokémon in this #art! Can you find 'em all? Some are well hidden... Have fun, open your mind, & don't give away answers! 💕)
Image on Bluesky~
Tumblr is good for creative types because the tag system lets you be truly deranged about how much you like it without feeling as Exposed as a Comment Section