30 years ago

[Chewbacca]

Well, it was 30 years ago last week that this happened (I meant to post it last Tuesday but ran out of time):

 

 

Full video (shot from HNlMS ABRAHAM CRIJNSSEN who was in the waiting station waiting to come in on PRESERVER's port side once she'd finished that RAS) here:

 

Most dramatic shake I ever got.  I was the Flight Observer in PENELOPE and we'd been night flying the night before.  I knew we were RASing that morning and so I knew the CO and XO would be busy on the bridge so I decided to have a lie in.  Mistake!  Woke up to find my cabin at about degrees and the sound of rushing water beneath me.

 

One of these days I'm going to try to recreate that scene in 1/600 scale

[Courageous]

Very dramatic but worse things can happen a sea...hold-on, that was the sea. I remember a number of bumpety-bumps when submerged on subs, not a very pleasant experience I can tell you .

 

2 hours ago, Chewbacca said:

One of these days I'm going to try to recreate that scene in 1/600 scale

Best of luck...will you be including the collision damage 

 

Stuart

[Darby]

I wonder how many red openings were closed before the inevitable. A lot more dramatic than my 30yrs ago last week; I was on watch at Culdrose. Fast forward 30 yrs; I was on watch at Culdrose. A lot has happened in between though.

[Chewbacca]

On ‎17‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 20:56, Courageous said:

Very dramatic but worse things can happen a sea...hold-on, that was the sea. I remember a number of bumpety-bumps when submerged on subs, not a very pleasant experience I can tell you .

 

Best of luck...will you be including the collision damage 

 

Stuart

You're indeed correct there.  I think what made this scary was the fact that we were in a fjord so not really moving at all and then bang, over we went coupled with the sound of running water (which turned out to be the firemain which was breached on the port side by PRESERVER's anchor!). 

 

I think the damage is obligatory!

 

On ‎17‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 21:59, Darby said:

I wonder how many red openings were closed before the inevitable. A lot more dramatic than my 30yrs ago last week; I was on watch at Culdrose. Fast forward 30 yrs; I was on watch at Culdrose. A lot has happened in between though.

Probably none.  As far as I can recollect no pipes were made before we came around the other side and steadied up.  I know talking to the poor chap who was the OOW and had the con for the RAS approach, who was an aviator chum of mine on board for 6 months to get his watchkeeping ticket, he said that the CO took the conscious decision not to hit the main broadcast alarm or pipe emergency stations as we were rolling around her bow because the risk of injury of people moving around the ship was greater than leaving it until things steadied up.  With hindsight, it was a sensible call.  Again, if I remember correctly we only had one casualty and that was the Leading Regulator who was on the wheel and who went into severe shock thinking it was his fault (which it wasn't, it was pure mechanical failure at just the wrong moment).

[Darby]

21 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

  Again, if I remember correctly we only had one casualty and that was the Leading Regulator who was on the wheel and who went into severe shock thinking it was his fault

There's irony for you. Of all the MBDD's and for it to happen on this occasion. What was the cause of the MBD in the end?

[Chewbacca]

We'd completed a near text book fast back down with speed perfectly aligned and RAS points within about 5 feet of longitudinal separation of one another.  The OOW ordered Half Ahead and the Bosun's Mate pushed the telegraph levers forward.  Unfortunately his hand slipped and he inadvertently pushed the stbd lever into the Full Ahead position.  He realised his mistake instantly and pulled it back to Half Ahead.  The subsequent Board of Inquiry determined that it was in the wrong position for probably less than a second.  But as he pulled it back, as luck would have it, that was the exact moment that the telegraph repeater relay failed and so although we had both engines Half Ahead of the bridge, in the MCR they were showing Full Ahead on the outboard shaft.  And so with Full Ahead being an emergency order, the engineers did exactly what was asked of them and gave us maximum power on the stbd shaft.  You can see exactly the point that that happened on the video at about 16 seconds when the large plume of smoke erupts from the stbd uptake

[spaddad]

Was anybody nailed up?

[Devo]

Took those blokes refuelling on the port side long enough to get  rid of that span wire during their emergency breakaway.....🤔

[Darby]

2 hours ago, Devo said:

Took those blokes refuelling on the port side long enough to get  rid of that span wire during their emergency breakaway.....🤔

I did think that when watching the clip

[Chewbacca]

On ‎19‎/‎09‎/‎2018 at 07:52, spaddad said:

Was anybody nailed up?

No, it was just one of those things.  That failure could have happened at any other time and it would have caused no issue whatsoever.  It was just bad luck on timing.

 

I seem to remember that the CO was commended by the BOI for his handling of the situation.