Torpor

Lethargy; sluggishness (n.)

All the men aboard the Nazi submarine () called Hans "Dwarf" even though he was of normal height and build. They called the torpedo gunner this because he had several characteristics in common with Snow White's seven dwarfs.

He was dopey: He was known to read certain meters backwards, leave levers unpulled or pull the wrong levers at the wrong time, and, famously, to push doors that everyone knew you had to pull to open. He was also careless with his private slug collection, letting the slugs crawl freely throughout the submarine. Hans had gotten into some trouble with these quirky pets. One night, while the () was deep in supposedly safe Atlantic waters, there was word from the communications room that an enemy sub was extremely close. The crew readied themselves for an encounter with an Allied submarine. They were about to fire a torpedo into a mysterious dark cavern that emitted motor-like sounds until Georg, one of the communications men, called a false alarm. He had found a slug leaving its sticky trail over an auditory-sensor wire behind the radar console--the little slug had been lapping the wire with its jawless mouth with the rhythm of an engine.

He was happy: prone to chuckling at any joke, which won him a special place in the crew's heart (it's good to have someone around who laughs at your jokes, especially when you are employed by a fascist regime miles under the ocean). Though this quality got him into trouble initially with the commander, in whose commands Hans detected comedy. For this he was severely punished, but no matter how much he was punished he continued to laugh when given orders. The commander realized that the crew still respected him as a commanding officer despite Hans' laughter, and accepted Hans as a strange but light-hearted character that brought some shine to an otherwise gloomy existence. (After a few weeks, the commander couldn't help but smile at Hans also. And after he got to know Hans, he made an executive decision to keep him on board the ship for the crew's morale.)

Finally, Hans was sleepy: he could sleep for days like a hibernating bear and wake with a phlegmy torpor that lasted several hours. During his training in Germany, Hans was known to take leave in his bed and sleep through his time off while everyone else danced and drank with women.

Eventually, Hans' dwarfness cost the () an unforgivable setback off the coast of Ireland when, on a routine patrol, the the crew actually encountered an American sub rapidly approaching them. The men readied themselves for a long interaction with the enemy--the commander's plan was to lead the Americans close to the Irish coast to reduce their enemy's fuel and hopefully strike with a torpedo after the long chase.
Hans took his position in his gunner's chair, awaiting orders to fire.
The chase lasted five hours, but the Germans finally lured the Americans to the coast line. They had successfully scurried, and finally the enemy sub seemed tired and in range. The time came for a torpedo. The commander sent a call down to Hans.
"Dwarf, ready number three!"
Instead of the expected a fit of obedient chuckling, there was silence in the torpedo room. Hans had fallen deeply asleep in his chair during the chase.
"Dwarf?" called the radio.
Still no answer.
Then Georg, the communications man, yelled to the commander that the Americans had fired first. There was a loud beep echoing through the sub as the crew tried to steer their submarine away from the enemy's torpedo. The men were screaming over the intercom, but Hans slept through it. He woke a few seconds later, though, to a huge metallic sound. And just before Hans blacked out from the pressure of rushing ocean water spewing through the walls he saw a slug crawling on his console, leaving a sticky trail across the dials.