NAVY NEWS, FEBRUARY 2008 15
KAAOT
● Descending into KAAOT... The sun sets over the KAAOT platform
and (below) a Royal Navy/Royal Marines ‘interaction patrol’ chats
with the crew of a dhow
Pictures: LA (Phots) Jannine Hartmann and Kelly Whybrow, FRPU Whale Island
‘I am just h
elpin
g to
re-b
uild m
y country
Enterprise scores
...’
ALI IS an interpr
eter with th
T
e Na
eam. He is curr
val Tr
ansition
ently a
pplyin
W
g f
est to esca
or asylum in th
pe the daily thr
e
ea
face to th
t he an
d his f
eir liv
amily
es. This is his story of lif
for the Coalition.
e workin
g
chart success
BEFORE the war
, I ran a small restaurant in Al F
mainly
fi sh, making good money com
aw,
people.
pared with man
y
Then came the war
. Fellow Iraqis destro
restaurant. They took ev
yed my
erything. I spent the next f
IT TAKES more than just
Basra and beyond). “You see some real impressive 3D image by state-
fi ve months at home, no job. I drov
our or
months until working as an interpreter f
e a taxi f
or a couple of
security for KAAOT and
Already Enterprise weather phenomena of-the-art software aboard the
Basra in 2005 – it was pretty good money
or the police in
ABOT to fl ourish. It takes
has fi xed tidal gauges here. Outfl ow from the survey ship.
to both terminals – they rivers mixed with the What that graphic did not
One day
, $400 a month.
, 17 of m
y colleagues w
safety too. tell mariners what wind means you convey was scale – the wreck within half an hour
ere kidnapped and killed
. Their bodies w
For months now, the Survey tidal stream to cannot launch the was 300 metres long – or the
Basra.
ere dum
ped around
Motor Boat Pioneer and her expect when they boat. Move half a importance of the work.
I was luc
mother ship HMS Enterprise
ky
come alongside the mile and you can,” Previous research showed
. I was in a dif
ferent car
quit f
. But af
have been moving laboriously, platforms. Lt Cdr Tabeart the top of the hulk lay 2.6 metres
or fear of assassination.
ter that da
y, I
methodically through the waters And like Echo explains. beneath the surface of the sea;
So I spent another six months at home, no job, f
around the two terminals, before her, her But when the it’s actually nearly double that,
that the militia would come in and kill m
earing
steadily gathering reams of sonar kit is providing sonar scanners are fi ve metres.
One da
y f
y two militia dressed in blac
amily.
data. stunning images of working, boy do they Such accuracy is what
nasty f
k, with long beards,
aces, drov
e past m
y house f
Enterprise’s sister Echo laid
our times in 1
the seabed; beyond work. mariners value. After that I did not sleep f
5 minutes.
the groundwork. The information looking pretty, they allow The multi-beam side “Tanker crews trust Admiralty
or three nights. I spent three
nights on the roof with m
she collected has already been the UK Hydrographic Offi ce scanners on Echo sweep 65° Charts,” says Lt Cdr Tabeart
y AK47 waiting f
I have done nothing wrong. I am just helping to re-build
or them.
used to update charts of the back in Taunton to improve the either side of the hull of the ship succinctly.
my countr
region. Admiralty Charts so respected and her motor boat. “What we do is pretty much
y. But the militia consider us as ag
But confi ned and limited by the world’s sailors. Enterprise generally works unique. We are at the forefront
forces.
ents of enem
y
though the waters of the “Echo helped enormously by in waters 20 metres down to of survey work not just in the
The life of an interpreter in Iraq is nothing. When I go
northern Arabian Gulf are, that’s updating the charts. We hope 400 metres in depth, Pioneer Royal Navy, but also across the
home I do not f
eel safe. It is lik
e sitting in a g
only relatively speaking. we’re providing the icing on – launched daily between 7am world.
I never go out.
angster’s den.
Echo could only cover some the cake,” says Enterprise’s and 4pm – in waters between “We’re very much cutting All interpreters f
ace the same dif
of these waters. Enterprise is Executive Offi cer Lt Cdr George fi ve and 50 metres deep. edge.” we kno
fi culty
w w
. Sooner or later
e will be killed.
plugging the gaps. Tabeart. The scanner takes references
Why do w
e still work? If I q
These waters shift. And sometimes it’s diffi cult from 128 different data points.
uit tomor
● A fast patrol craft of US Navy
Satellite wizardry provides applying that icing. Think of the In a sweep in waters 20 metres
Inshore Boat Unit 22 races past
home, f
ro
acing the same dang
w, I would be at
er – but I wouldn’t ha
stunning images of the sediment Gulf and you imagine sun, sun, deep, that means it’s recording
HMS Enterprise as she conducts
money. So I might as w
ve the
ell work.
carried into the northern Gulf by and yet more sun. parts of the seabed roughly
a survey of the northern Gulf
So this is m
y life. W
e are waiting f
the waters which dissect the There are thunderstorms every 60cms.
Picture: ‘Magic’ Woodward, HMS Argyll
kno
or hope, but w
w what hope is an
e don’t
y more.
Al Faw peninsula, especially out here. Sandstorms. It can In our December 2007 issue,
the vast amounts carried by be chilly. And there are some we featured the wreck of a
the Khawr abd Allah (into Umm peculiar, very local conditions to tanker captured by Enterprise’s
Qasr) and the Shatt al Arab (to contend with. sonar and turned into an
013-015_NN_Feb.indd 3 10/1/08 14:51:48
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