I noticed there were several answers already in place for this question, because there are several reasons for coming to DIW, which means dead in the water in the middle of an ocean or any body water. We stopped once when I was chief engineer on a submarine rescue and salvage vessel USS Tringa, ASR-16, operating in the north Atlantic.

We had lobster trap line wrapped around our screw. A large number of our crew are certified navy divers, so we put a couple divers over. They cut the line free of the screw. We then patched up the line to the lobster trap and put the lobster trap back on the bottom.

Another time while operating on a top-secret mission, towing the nuclear research submarine NR-1, there was a slack time while the NR-1 was detached from us doing some operations. So the captain authorized swim call.

I was the officer the deck at that time and also assume the duties is the shark watch with an M 14. Once I was sure the water was clear of any sharks I gave permission over the 1 1MC to commence swim call. So about 20 of our brave souls, buck naked, went over the side, and shortly thereafter started screaming, and scrambling for the cargo style net which we had put over the side.

As it turned out, there was no sharks, but we had stopped in a school of jellyfish, which we could not see. The Corpsman had to treat some of the crew for stings, but other than that it was a good lesson.

Apart from involuntary stop tex breakdown or the authorities’ ban on continued travel ships may stop in the middle of the ocean on purpose to perform certain work that is fixed/tied to a certain location either in the water or on the bottom. The most common task is (oil) exploration, rescue, salvage.

A more unusual and delicate task was the salvage of Soviet Submarine K-129.

A ship disguised as an oil exploration ship has salvaged the wrecked Soviet submarine K-129