#or flaws

The biggest subs in the US Navy are Ohio-class nuclear submarines.

Ohio-class sub compared to my proposed Normandy

170m long (24m less than my proposed SR-2 hull-length.)

13 m wide (10m less than SR-2)

10.8m tall (7m less than SR-2)

Crew of 155; almost twice my proposed crew

There is so much more space in the Normandy. I ended up using submarines as my lower bound for standard-of-living. And it's very low. I mean, according to my favorite source for shipboard and submarine life, sub crews shower once a week. Speaking of which...

My favorite source for shipboard and submarine life

It's people complaining on reddit!

Dimensions are easy: find the company selling the thing! Navy rack sizes came from a place that sells sheets*. Furniture lists from contractors complete with part #s. No problem.

For questions about what it's actually like, I put my weird question into a search engine and find at least six reddit threads with current-and-former US Navy sailors explaining, joking, and complaining!

A usual sample includes:

Replies that answer the question, sometimes with pictures!

Complaint-brag about how good the questioner has it (thread progresses into comparison of smaller and smaller or older and older vessels)

Complaint about That One Shipmate

Brag about how much ridiculous stuff the writer has gotten away with, with (usually hilarious) examples

Joking complaint about how the actual experience compares to the official Dept. of Defense PR, a la "You think you'll be getting one of those fancy new racks? Those are on like one ship, you'll have the ones from 1960 they pulled out of the last ship they scrapped."

Nostalgia in three flavors ("truly an honor"/"Oh the hijinks we got up to"/"Glad to be done with that but let me go on")

... and if you ask about how clothing, how much you can/should pack, etc] at least one quip about jerking off into a sock.

For a nice little bit of comparative writing analysis, you usually also get at least one official PR blog post or webpage about the same question, but painted in a rather different light. ;)

(Oddly, none of my friends or relatives who were in the military were navy. There are also very, very few to whom I'd be comfortable saying 'Hi, I've got some awkward questions, it's for a spaceship floor-plan I'm working on —" so I haven't attempted that route).

I have thoughts on conflict avoidance (space! rec areas! keeping people busy!) and resolution (depends), but I'm late for a meatspace thing.