NAVY NEWS, MAY 2007 5
Divers’ bravery
Quorn WECs
her appetite
IT’S been a spring of firsts for
ONE subject has dominated
the good ship Quorn, the first
media coverage of the Senior
small ship to receive the RN’s hi-
Service this past month: Iran.
commended
tech electronic navigation charts
We will, however, begin our tour
and the first vessel to receive the
d’horizon elsewhere...
freedom of Melton (see page 28).
In the space of five weeks,
FALKLANDS veterans say
engineers fitted three WECDIS
they are getting no help
(Warfare ElectroniC Display and
from the government to
Information System) terminals to
relieve their suffering.
the Hunt-class warship, blazing a
The Falklands Veterans
trail for the rest of minehunting
Foundation wants
and patrol ship fleet.
£200,000 of lottery
The aim is for electronic maps
money to build a refuge
to replace the scores of Admiralty
so veterans can face their
charts stored in tables on the
demons.
bridge or chart room in most
While the London
Senior Service vessels.
Olympics gets billions of
In Quorn, two terminals sit on
pounds, the FVF hasn’t
the bridge, allowing the team to
received a single penny.
see the ship’s present position,
“The real sadness is course, speed and distance to the
that the majority of the next waypoint. A third system can
people who fought in the be found in the navigator’s cabin
Falklands feel abandoned,” allowing him/her to plan or edit
said Dr Morgan O’Connell, routes and ‘ping’ that information
the task force psychiatrist electronically to the bridge.
in 1982.” Hi-tech software also
– Portsmouth News allows extra information to be
incorporated in the digital chart,
such as real-time tide data, or
THE UK no longer has a
overlaid on the screen, such as
military hospital on its
Quorn’s radar picture.
shores after a flag-lowering
Quorn passed trials with a
ceremony that marked
team from the Flag Officer Sea
the moment CO Surg Capt
Training, which means she can
James Campbell handed
set the standard for the remaining
control of Royal Hospital
Hunt and Sandown-class vessels
Haslar to the NHS.
and the fishery protection fleet.
At times Surg Capt
“This alleviates the need to
Campbell appeared to be
carry hundreds of paper charts
fighting back tears as he
– and spend hours applying
watched the ceremony.
corrections to them and checking
– Portsmouth News
them,” said a delighted Lt Cdr
Mark Taylor, Quorn’s CO.
Iran’s detention of 15 sailors
and Royal Marines was
NAVAL divers tried in
“But it also allows us to fuse
● Silent witness... The upturned hull of the tug Bourbon Dolphin as seen from the divers’ salvage
the tactical situation – be that
understandably the story of the
vain to rescue the crew
vessel Picture: WO Steve Strange, NDG
minehunting or pursuing a
month. At the end of the crisis,
of the oil rig support tug With the hull moving violently was far too difficult.” experience with the vessel. Four fishing vessel – with the ship’s
The Sun was scathing:
Bourbon Dolphin which
up and down in the heavy swell, Five people died in the tragedy, days after capsizing, Bourbon geographical position, and other
capsized off the Shetland
there was a great danger of the including the son of the tug’s Dolphin defeated salvage efforts external factors such as other
THE sight of the illegally- frogmen being sucked into the shipping and tidal conditions.”
detained British forces
Islands.
skipper, who was on work and sank.
ship.
thanking Iranian tyrants
A four-strong team from
They managed to get inside
for their freedom will
Northern Diving Group battled
the Bourbon Dolphin’s bridge
sicken the nation.
horrendous conditions to try to
– where there was no sign of the
But nobody emerges
get inside the upturned hull of
missing crew – but after three
from this crisis with credit.
the vessel, which capsized while
dives, the team decided it was too
The Royal Navy failed to
working with the rig Transocean
dangerous to continue.
protect the patrol — or spot Rather. “This was not a run-of-the-mill
boatloads of heavily-armed Five crew from the support ship job – this was extreme diving. My
Republican Guards racing were still unaccounted for as the team did a bloody amazing job,”
to ambush it. NDG team arrived from Faslane, said Lt Cdr Andy ‘Sharkey’ Ward,
Britain’s official via RAF Lossiemouth. NDG’s Commanding Officer.
response was at times They had barely arrived back “Swell makes things tricky and
uncertain and, in the at HM Naval Base Clyde from a the currents were intense. You’ve
case of Foreign Secretary call-out dealing with suspected got an upturned hull, water being
Margaret Beckett, unexploded ordnance when the sucked in and out, doors opening
downright embarrassing. SOS came from the rig in the and closing.”
The UN emerged in its Rosebank oil field, roughly 75 All the time there was the threat
true colours — divided and miles west of the Shetlands. of the tug sinking, taking any
ineffectual. At first the divers tried to divers down with her to the bed
– The Sun manoeuvre a robot submarine of the ocean, one thousand metres
inside the stricken vessel. below.
Currents and Atlantic swell “There was still some hope that
THERE should be no
made it impossible for the there might be someone alive in
recriminations over
submarine to enter, so it was an air pocket – if it had not been
the broadcasts and
left to the NDG divers – WO a question of saving lives, then my
“confessions” made by the
Steve Strange, CPO Willie Sharp, team would not have gone in,” Lt
For Your Ears Only
captives.
LD ‘Faz’ Farrell and D1 John Cdr Ward added.
It was patently clear
Anderson – to do it manually. “In the end, they realised that it
that they acted under
It’s your i-pod, and our ‘Right Dress’ Kit &
huge duress — and until a
detailed debriefing, their
actions must neither be
Torpedo tests for Trenchant
Contents policy aims to keep it that way.
Our personal effects section covers most things that
judged nor condemned.
What they do say,
HUNTER-killer submarine HMS gathered data from the torpedo’s
you own, without extra charge... television, watch,
however, must be central
Trenchant has been stalking the run.
lap-top, hi-fi, camera, jewellery, playstation. Last year,
to an analysis of military
lochs of Scotland as she tested her Trenchant fi red a number of
policy in the Gulf.
profi ciency with the torpedo. these modifi ed torpedoes on the
we paid over 1000 claims for theft and accidental
Are the patrols of the
The Devonport-based Trafalgar- BUTEC range against a mixture damage to laptops, mobiles and bicycles alone.
disputed waterway safe,
class submarine headed to the of targets above and below the
necessary and properly co-
BUTEC – British Underwater Test waves, demonstrating that both With premiums starting at just £10 per month, over
ordinated? Are the terms
and Evaluation Centre – ranges her crew and her weapons systems
10 monthly instalments, do you really want to take the
of engagement for British
at the Kyle of Lochalsh to fi re were fi t for front-line duties.
frigates and Marines
a number of specially-modifi ed The boat spent 2006 in
risk yourself?
appropriate?
‘fi sh’. Devonport undergoing an
– The Times
Warheads were removed from overhaul, but is making up for
For a quote or immediate cover
Spearfi sh torpedoes – the standard the time alongside in 2007 with
wire-guided weapon used by Fleet strenuous activity, most recently
And, for a refreshingly hype-free
call: 0116 240 7777 (ref. NN-05) or
submarines against surface and hosting Perisher students for
and unemotional analysis of the
sub-surface targets – and replaced ‘attacks’ against HMS St Albans
captives’ plight, David Sexton in
visit: www.towergatewilsons.co.uk
with ‘recording devices’ which and Kent in the North Channel.
the Evening Standard wrote:
WE should give Leading
Seaman Faye Turney our
Five-star deployment
respect, not pity her.
LS Turney is serving in
A FIVE-strong RN/RFA force is bound for the Mediterranean and
our Armed Forces on the
Black Sea to work with a clutch of Allied nations in blowing up aged
basis of equality.
ordnance.
The reason she was
Sister minehunters HMS Hurworth and Atherstone will be away
captured was not because
from Portsmouth and Sandown-class vessels Shoreham and Walney
she is a young mum but
won’t see Faslane again until August under the banner of Exercise
because she was there on
Orion07.
our behalf as a leading
They are joined on the four-month tour of duty by their ‘mother
seaman – and that’s what
ship’, new landing support vessel RFA Cardigan Bay.
we should do the honour of
The quintet will work alongside comrades from Greece, Turkey,
Specialist providers of insurance to HM Forces for over 60 years
Towergate Wilsons is a trading name of Towergate Underwriting Group Limited. Registered Address: Towergate House, 2 County Gate, Staceys Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1ST
calling her.
Bulgaria, Romania and Italy among others in honing minehunting
Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. Calls may be recorded to help improve standards of service and monitor accuracy of information
– Evening Standard
techniques and ridding the seas of discarded ordnance from
previous conflicts.
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