The Silent Deep

by James Jinks

  Garrett, Halton and Ramsey naturally have taken and passed Perisher in their time. It’s a rite of passage no successful Perisher forgets and it is recognized by, and has a cachet well known to, all the other navies of the world which operate submarines. How did they see themselves and the course that had eventually propelled them into positions of command?

  Ramsey: ‘The pressure is always self-induced to start with. They keep taking over as Captain. It’s amazing to participate in, to do and to watch [Ramsey did Perisher in 2000 on HMS Splendid and HMS Triumph].’

  Garrett: ‘You have between ten and fifteen years of experience. You’ll know tactics and doctrine. It’s about learning your strengths and weaknesses … Commanders see massive potential in them. But it’s the technical capacity … Some come onto the course too early. Now we say “You’re not quite there. Go and get some more experience.” ’

  Hennessy: ‘What’s special about submarine command?’

  Ramsey: ‘You’re on your own.’

  Garrett: ‘Independence. We give an independence to our Commanders that’s quite unique – like an eighteenth-century frigate going round the world – particularly if you’re commanding an SSBN [Trident boat]. We can’t tell Northwood what’s broken or what we’re doing tactically because of radio silence.’10

  Ramsey: ‘It’s almost the last bastion of mission command.’

  Hennessy: ‘Does that make it easier or more difficult to command? Don’t you have more responsibility than anyone else in their thirties?’

  Ramsey: ‘Yes. It’s how you handle it.’

  Garrett: ‘It’s the environment of the submarine. As a CO you always have in the back of your mind that you’re in a hostile environment.’

  Halton: ‘There is a paranoia that can be used constructively. The good submariner, if he hears the ship transmitting on sonar, thinks “He’s got you.” ’

  Garrett: ‘It’s continuous risk assessment – all the things going on around you. Some guys will get their risk assessment blatantly wrong to achieve the mission. The aim is to live to fight another day.’

  Halton: ‘Sometimes you have to ask “Why is it too dangerous? Are they being too wet?” ’

  Garrett: ‘You need to know what rests on the mission – the whole war or is it just something that would be nice to know?’

  Halton: ‘Ultimately it’s people and leadership. This weekend, they are still a fairly raw product – just two weeks into their sea phase. We’re looking at how they conduct themselves; the standards they set.’

  Hennessy: ‘Is it a case of you don’t know you can do it till you’ve done it?’

  Halton: ‘Absolutely … it’s extremely difficult.’

  Garrett: ‘You add complexity … to go or no go. They often get wrapped up in that complexity.’

  The conversation turns to Perisher itself.

  Ramsey: ‘I really didn’t want to fail that course.’

  Halton: ‘When I passed it, I thought, “I’ve made it” … it’s such a pivotal thing in the Submarine Service; part of the ethos.’

  Garrett: ‘The course takes place in front of the junior rates. That’s the reason why it’s irrecoverable. But you need them to help you pass – you can’t slave-drive them. If you’re shouting at everybody you’re not doing it properly.’

  Hennessy: ‘Is there any psychological testing involved?’

  Garrett: ‘There’s no real psychological profiling before becoming a submariner. But it’s how adapted you are. Perisher does a lot of things. Self-education on stress management. They have presentations on that. Teacher did it. I think it should be done a lot earlier. Ideally, it makes people honest with themselves. We do it by teaching people how to operate within the rules – how fast and deep; what you do if a frigate is at hand. It also makes it quite clear that there are the boundaries. In the last phase, Teacher will let them operate outside these rules.’

  The lunchtime conversation carries into the 107-mile drive to Campbeltown, towards the Mull of Kintyre, where the party will spend the night before an early-morning rendezvous at sea with a ‘Trafalgar’ class SSN, HMS Tireless. Captain Halton explains that the Submarine Service needs eight Lieutenant Commanders to take Perisher each year and six of them, if possible, to pass. There were four starters (all Brits) on this Perisher and all four are still there. The Dutch and Norwegians are doing their versions of Perisher simultaneously, so three submarines will be prowling around Arran at the same time, but all the Brits will be on board Tireless. Ideally the Royal Navy needs to mount two Perishers a year but there won’t be enough submarines available to do that until the new ‘Astute’ class SSNs start coming into service. Tireless is the second oldest of the remaining ‘Trafalgar’ class submarines; her older sister, HMS Turbulent, will be decommissioned in July.

  It’s still sparklingly bright and clear as we travel down the Kintyre peninsula. To the west we see the two Type 23 frigates that will be hunting us tomorrow, HMS St Albans and HMS Monmouth. Tireless will be between them trying to do a periscope reconnaissance of an island off the Mull of Kintyre without the frigates finding her. The beautifully clear weather converts into awful conditions for the submarine, as the bright sun will glint off the periscope as soon as it breaks the surface.

  Over dinner in Campbeltown talk ranges widely. Garrett says it’s the first time the three navies have done Perisher together. Norway has six diesel submarines, down from fifteen in the Cold War. Ramsey talks about the return of board games on the boats (surprising in the age of DVDs, iPods and iPads). On his Turbulent patrol East of Suez they became obsessed with Uckers, the naval version of ludo.

  ‘I, my XO and two key Chiefs started playing again – it became our thing; obsessive. The messes became more talkative. It’s spread to other boats – the resurgence of board games in submarine life. There’s a special acoustics man who specializes in making Uckers boards.’

  Ramsey’s Turbulent patrol lasted 286 days. On his last night on board he had a steak dinner and later a game of Uckers. ‘It really is addictive,’ says Halton, ‘a spectator sport.’

  Saturday, 14 April 2012, SS Oronsay, Campbeltown Harbour, 7.30 a.m.

  It’s bright and clear and the water is gleaming as we eat breakfast at the Craigard House Hotel in Campbeltown. Halton says, ‘It’s usually dark, wet, windy and early’ when they do the boat transfers. ‘I’m not sure why we do it to ourselves.’

  We can see the two frigates lying outside the mouth of Campbeltown inlet. ‘Typical Perisher,’ says Halton. ‘Frigates are there to make life difficult.’ On the way out to rendezvous with Tireless, Oronsay passes the NATO fuelling jetty, Davarr Island and its lighthouse to the right and the great rock of Ailsa Craig rising out of the sea to the southeast.

  Tireless comes into view silhouetted against Arran. She looks a bit battered now but still exudes a certain swagger. The ‘Trafalgar’ class, after all, was the most sophisticated and highest achievement of the UK’s Cold War submarine construction and engineering enterprises – world-beaters in their time. Tireless is one of the so-called ‘special fit’ boats used to carry out the most sensitive of clandestine intelligence missions.

  HMS Tireless, 8.00 a.m.

  As you come alongside, with the backdrop of Arran, the old cliché of the sea monster seems very much not a cliché. We’re piped aboard and welcomed on the casing by her Captain, ‘Griff’ Griffiths, and by Teacher, Commander Andy Bower. We go down out of the chilly morning and into the cramped and womb-like warmth.

  First chat in the Wardroom. Griffiths says: ‘As a new CO, it’s a little counter-intuitive to be hands off. This is my fifth time on Perisher, including my own in 2004.’ The boat is, I think, still on the surface, its movement scarcely perceptible. Griffiths says:

  ‘There is a very important relationship between me and Teacher. We’ve known each other for years. The Inshore Weekend takes place either side of Joint Warrior [NATO Exercise] so we’ll have two frigates, a minesweeper and helicopters – our own private
war over the weekend. It’s a relatively challenging environment operationally. Teacher and I are very well used to the area, which mitigates some of the apparent risk. The risk of collision and grounding if you don’t know what you’re doing is quite significant.’

  Overnight they had been doing surveillance. The Perishers will finish two weeks today, ‘after being actively hunted’.

  Bower, asked what surprised him about the job of Teacher, replies: ‘The realization that for you, unlike the students, hours off to plan and sleep don’t happen.’

  Griffiths plainly adores Tireless, which is due to go out of service in December 2013. (In fact, the boat survived until June 2014, see here.) ‘Tireless is a wonderful old girl, operating extremely well for me, but she does definitely need a refit.’

  0730Z

  We’re now running southwest towards the Mull of Kintyre. We turn our watches to Zulu time, the Coordinated Universal Time used by the military, so it’s just after 0730.

  0745Z

  We’re doing a periscope reconnaissance in the vicinity of Sanda Island. Griffiths explains that he has two watch leaders who routinely run the submarine for twenty-four hours a day on six-hour shifts.

  Griffiths: ‘Above them is the XO. One of us is available twenty-four hours a day. The Perisher students are practising our jobs. I will be on the chart [i.e. navigating]. I’m responsible for everything that happens on board. I do delegate conduct of the boat. I delegate conduct to Teacher. He will take conduct of much of the stressful element. I gave him conduct today just before the boat transfer. We have two parallel navigation operations to maintain safety.’

  Halton: ‘On our submarines we have two command qualified officers [CO and XO] to enable continuing intensity of operations. Other NATO navies don’t and the CO can be worn out. You can sit somewhere hostile for twenty-four hours a day. It’s especially important for intelligence gathering.’

  Garrett: ‘That can be maintained for months at a time.’

  Griffiths: ‘The strength is in the people. Manpower, equipment, training and stability are the four pillars. But the key thing is the people. It’s very much a family.’

  Halton: ‘Risks and pressures are quite difficult for a submarine. The human condition deals with it in different ways.’

  Dan Knight (Tireless’s Executive Officer): ‘It’s a team trying to keep the platform safe.’

  Griffiths: ‘A hundred and thirty men stuck inside a steel tube have to be massively tolerant of each other.’

  Garrett: ‘There’s rarely a lot of shouting on board or barking of orders.’

  Halton: ‘Professionalism transcends rank on board. Rank is there and exists but professionalism is all-important.’

  Griffiths: ‘It’s a hugely technical beast. You just inhale this knowledge and it sits in you. It’s built over time. The indefinable sixth sense.’

  Knight: ‘It’s hairs on the back of the neck.’

  Griffiths: ‘There is a feel to the boat. Fifteen minutes ago we looked up at the speedometer as the movement of the boat changed suddenly. It’s seat of the pants.’

  Halton: ‘Subconscious activity is going on all the time.’

  Knight: ‘You can walk into the Control Room and know something is not quite right.’

  Griffiths: ‘It’s an instinct – a feel about the boat. You can feel when something’s changed and it’s not right. Particularly when we’re in close proximity to shipping. I always look at the eyes of the guy who’s on the periscope.’

  Garrett: ‘You feel the boat change … It’s almost an internal clock. It might be thirty seconds or several hours or the absence of a piece of information.’

  Halton: ‘Ninety-five per cent is drills that make you reasonably good. But, in this business, success or failure is in small margins. The hairs on the back of the neck make all the difference.’

  Griffiths: ‘I learn stuff almost every day when the young men take me through the equipment. This is the best job I’m ever going to have.’

  We talk about money. Tireless cost £380m [coming into service in 1985]. The figure now for delivering an SSN is about a billion pounds. It costs about £3.5bn a year to be a submarine nation. By 2020 it will be about £5bn.

  Halton: ‘It’s a measure of our kudos as a nation.’

  Griffiths: ‘We maintain an SSN at very high state of readiness to protect the integrity of the UK at all times. Tireless gave it to Turbulent four days ago.’

  Being at high-level readiness involves a ship, a submarine, a tanker and four Merlin helicopters.

  We talk about the capabilities of a Royal Navy SSN. The only thing that limits the duration of a patrol is the amount of food on board – so global reach (ninety days’ food – additional dry provisions to get the patrol to 110 days, maximum; fresh water is distilled from sea water). It is capable of carrying out a number of roles, ranging from intelligence gathering and surveillance, land attacks using Tomahawk Cruise Missiles, deployment of Special Forces, force protection of a surface task group, anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare and counter-piracy operations.

  Halton: ‘An SSN gives tremendous political choice and freedom of manoeuvre. Astute is going to be able to use all those capacities together with no external support. It’s almost the only platform that can deliver strategic effect without going nuclear.’

  0820Z. Control Room

  Tireless’s vents have just been opened. We’re diving. The planesman [responsible for driving the submarine] is at the controls, operating what legend has it is the same steering column that was used on Wellington bombers during the Second World War.

  One of the Perishers, Lieutenant Commander Andy Reeves, is in the Captain’s seat. We’re diving just off the Mull of Kintyre at a 6-degree angle. HMS Monmouth and the minesweeper HMS Brocklesby are hunting us. We’re at periscope depth – 18 metres. We’re going down to between 25 and 30 metres and then up to periscope depth. Leak checks made (all fine: no surprise but a mild relief). We dive quickly, but there’s no such thing as a crash dive, as in the Second World War films. It takes between seven and eight minutes. That time could be halved during an emergency using the speed of the boat.

  Griffiths tells me: ‘My job is to maintain the safety of the platform. That sixth sense and experience. I have in the back of my mind at all times, what I will do if this happens? – the “so what”.’

  We’re in the North Channel between Northern Ireland and Scotland. It’s ‘a two-lane motorway’.

  Tireless’s immediate task is to gain intelligence and any indications of activity centred on Sanda Island (a ‘perirecce’) to the south of the Mull of Kintyre.

  0840Z

  Periscope up. An anti-submarine Merlin helicopter is sighted. The Control Room is very crowded (crew, Perishers, visitors, Halton, Garrett, Ramsey). The ship’s company is a core of 110. There are 130 on board today.

  Halton: ‘The Perishers will be very aware we’re here. They’ll think we’re watching them more than we are.’

  I ask Halton about Tireless’s and now Turbulent’s role in protecting the Trident-carrying ‘Vanguard’ class as the submarine at high readiness. ‘It’s layered defence,’ he says. ‘Deterrence is the number one priority. It trumps everything else. It’s in support of CASD [Continuous at-Sea Deterrence; see here]. It’s layered intelligence and support … we do feel the loss of the Nimrods [RAF Maritime Patrol Aircraft designed to hunt submarines]. The Merlins don’t have the legs.’

  We have a brief chat about Tireless’s armaments:

  The submarine carries torpedoes and missiles. The torpedoes are called Spearfish. They weigh 2 tons and are equivalent to a 550 lb bomb. They explode underneath the target creating a bubble of gas which will break the back of a 50,000 ton ship.

  The missiles are Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAM), each with a range of 1000 nautical miles. Given the near ubiquity of the sea, that means you can strike about 90 per cent of the world. The accuracy is measured in yards. The strike authority is Northwood
. A Spearfish and a Tomahawk are about a million pounds each.

  We talk about the previous phase of the course when the frigates race at the subs. It was done off Norway this time. A Royal Navy surface ship, a Type 42 destroyer, races in at 30 knots. It’s well controlled. The ships spin out at 300 yards.

  Inshore is the most perilous – 5000 tons of submarine in 45 metres of water being chased by frigates and helicopters.

  There’s squeaking on the casing as the helicopter finds us with its powerful dipping sonar, known as 2089, which is lowered into the sea while the helicopter hovers above. You can hear the squeaking above the hum and the hiss of the air conditioning. Just before I’d heard a couple of muffled bangs. Simulated depth charges, I’m told.

  Ramsey says, ‘We’ll be attacked quite a lot today. It’s not a nice moment being detected, particularly if they can classify you as a UK SSN.’

  The Merlin attacked us as soon as we dived. Depth 21 metres, speed 8 knots.

  0950Z

  We’re on the way to Pladda Island now, off the southern tip of Arran, which carries yet another similar reconnaissance mission. We suddenly descend to 30 metres to get more speed and to make the boat easier to handle. The squeaking stops. I’m told that Commander Sharpe, whom we had met in the Pool of London a few weeks earlier, is up there on HMS St Albans. He has apparently said of his and St Albans’ task, ‘We’re here to fail the students.’ This is one of the toughest days of the Perisher course until the final weekend. Halton and Garrett are adding pressure in the Control Room by making their presence felt.