24 NAVY NEWS, APRIL 2008
Chart and shoal of RN
I
N MANY ways, it was
“Great visits, great ships, great skills. I ships could move closer in, reducing
something of a minor miracle
think it’s a fantastic way to go. helicopter flight times by ten minutes and
that so many men o’war
“Our ships haven’t got the missile speeding up the airborne assault.
systems – they do not look like frigates or Roebuck later went on to clear the
managed to negotiate Spithead or destroyers – but they are warships. route to Umm Qasr for humanitarian
the Hamoaze in the days of sail.
“These are military people doing aid, and surveyed the port itself – the first
For the surveyors who charted
military jobs – a vital part of the warfare such work carried out in 40 years.
the safe passages through shoals and
environment.” Even in the 21st century some RN
around headlands were not
Recognition of that fact came when the survey work is pioneering in nature – no
old Surveying Squadron colour survey data has been gathered for sections
formally trained; they
scheme of white hulls and of the African coast, for example, and part
were taught their vital
buff funnels was replaced by of the task of HMS Endurance is to probe
skills at sea by their elders Pusser’s grey, bringing them the waters around Antarctica for hidden
(though not necessarily visibly into line with the rest of dangers, providing safe routes for the
betters).
the Fleet. burgeoning deep-south cruise market.
If you were lucky enough
The role of hydrography has The key to military success is
to have been tutored by
been strengthened by the RN preparation, and Lt Cdr David Wyatt, who
James Cook or one of
overhaul of amphibious is head of the Hydrographic Unit at the
his talented proteges
capability over the past HMTG, cites the Australian experience
then there was a fair
decade or so, allowing in East Timor as a classic example of the
chance that the charts
surveyors to prove their important role his students will one day
you produced would
worth over and over play in their navy.
endure.
again in recent times. “Going into East Timor was described
After all, some of
For example, in 2003 as ‘the biggest Australian amphibious
Cook’s charts of the
veteran coastal survey operation since D-Day’ by one of their
South Pacific were still
ship HMS Roebuck was admirals,” said Lt Cdr Wyatt.
in use in the mid-20th
approaching the end of a “They did all the planning, then checked
century.
three-month deployment to the preferred beach and discovered that
But the duffers at the other
the southern Gulf, and facing they could not use it.
end of the scale might have better
the axe on her return to the UK. “In just one night they found an
been left to plumb lines in the deep
But as war loomed in the region, alternative beach, surveyed it and allowed
oceans, where they could not have caused
she was diverted to the northern Gulf and the amphibious force to go in without
much damage, rather than passing on
her deployment extended. incident.”
their poor grasp of a complex subject.
In less than six weeks the little ship Apart from Endurance in the Southern
The knowledge gained on an ad hoc
surveyed the main amphibious landing Ocean, almost all the efforts of the rest of
basis by these budding hydrographers
zone – an area larger than Hampshire the survey ships are directly in support
was limited compared to that possible
– and plotted everything on the sea bed of military tasks, so newly-trained sailors
in today’s Hydrographic, Meteorological
larger than a coffee table. and officers are genuinely one step from
and Oceanographic Training Group
Her crew continued to gather data until vital front-line duty when they emerge
(HMTG), and the technology available
the day before the invasion, and with the from the doors of the HMTG.
to modern surveyors would astonish
ship able to produce her own paperwork, But it is not all about humming
Cook and his colleagues – indeed, the
new sets of charts were printed on board number-crunching computers in calm
capability of a ship like HMS Scott in
and distributed to Allied warships as soon ‘mission spaces’ – lean-manned ships
terms of data-gathering is astonishing
as the data had been analysed. such as Echo and Enterprise still require
whatever your perspective.
Hydrographers discovered deeper water some more traditional sailor skills such
The deep ocean survey ship can cover
inshore than older charts indicated, which as watchkeeping, machine gunner and
150 square kilometres an hour, following
meant that aircraft carriers and assault boat crew.
precise satellite-plotted survey lines
hundreds of miles long before wheeling
round to double back on a parallel path.
The value of the work done by Scott
and her various sister ships to the Royal
Navy, as well as the merchant fleets of
the world, has always been immense, and
that remains the case in 2008.
It was as a result of advances in
technology during World War 2 that formal
classroom training came into favour,
allowing students to learn the theory
before testing themselves on the water.
● (Above) Surveyor recorders set up a tide pole just off a shallow beach in
Hydrography is the measurement,
Antarctica; HMS Endurance’s motor boat James Caird can be seen in the
study and analysis of bodies of water and
background Picture: PO(Phot) Chris Brick
the margins of land, particularly with
regard to safe navigation.
● (Left) Pictured on Nimrod, one of Endurance’s motor boats, LS(SR) Kerry
Generally it includes the gathering of
Collins (left), LET ‘Robbie’ Robinson and AB(HM) Lee Churchill took data on
data about water depth, tides, currents,
tidal fl ows over a two-day period at the tricky entrance to Deception Island
the nature of the sea bed and the
at the beginning of this year Picture: LA(Phot) Kelly Whybrow
measurement of prominent and relevant
features ashore, either for navigational or
● (Below) CPO Dave Sharp carries out survey work at the British Antarctic
military purposes.
Research Base Rothera earlier this year, with HMS Endurance far left of
Or, as Lt Cdr Pat Mowatt,
the picture Picture: LA(Phot) Kelly Whybrow
Hydrographic Training Officer,
put it: “This is a vital warfare
specialisation. It is about gathering
environmental data to optimise
sensors and weapons.”
He continued: “This is a very
very useful skill, not just in a warfare
sense, but generally.
“They are skills useful in military
and wider aspects. And because we
all speak the same language we
can understand each other – these
people are very employable outside.
“It is very attractive for a young
person coming in from outside the
branch – here is an opportunity to
gain an excellent skill and external
qualifications and spend some time in
the RN and put it all into practice.
“Then, looking ahead, they can say:
‘I am being provided with something
which I could use further on in my
life’ – and many people do.
“A high proportion of surveyors
and HMs leave and go to work
for civilian organisations in similar
fields.
“And look at the ships we have.
Crews are rotated, they spend
a lot of time away, it’s very hi-
tech, very comfortable, there are
fantastic programmes, and you are
right at the tip of exercises and
operations.”
Lt Cdr Mowatt added that he
was not advocating training up then
swiftly jumping ship.
“I cannot for the life of me
understand why people want to
leave – this branch offers everything
that someone could want from the
Navy,” he said.
Next month
– Looking to
the skies
0024_NN_apr.indd 124_NN_apr.indd 1 118/3/08 16:04:478/3/08 16:04:47
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