HMS Vigil - any fans out there?

[Mick F]

Sea stories eh?

Love 'em.

When I was in HMS Sirius up in the north Atlantic for weeks on end on a slow 5knot course "along" the sea, the ship rolled alarmingly for days and nights on end.

All the bunks on Leander Class ships were fore and aft, so in order to sleep (if at all) you had to lie on your front with one leg cocked to support you.

I was a rather senior CPO, and I had a nice big workshop/office. I reckon it was the only place where you had enough space to sling a hammock fore and aft, so I borrowed one from stores and slung it. I found it a bit strange that I was steady whilst the ship was rolling about me. It was quite disturbing until I shut my eyes!

I was the only person onboard who had regular good night's sleeps.

[Jdsk]

Modern submarines aren't claustrophobic.

Turbulent former captain:
"A former submarine captain has praised BBC One’s gripping new thriller Vigil, but revealed the one major inaccuracy about living on an underwater warship."
"What you can’t portray in many series is the claustrophobia... "
https://metro.co.uk/2021/08/30/how-accu ... -15174565/

Jonathan

[Hellhound]

The series is typical throw away BBC fodder.
It's OK if you take it for what it is.Fiction.
When I was a Sea-cadet in the late 1970s we had a trip to Barrow-in-Furness to see the sub our unit took it's name from.TS Repulse.It looked huge to me back then...but I was only 12 or 13

[Jdsk]

Repulse was 130m long. Vanguard class are 150m. Akulas are 175m.

IIUC Vigil is supposed to be a Vanguard.

Jonathan

[Hellhound]

Repulse was 130m long. Vanguard class are 150m. Akulas are 175m.
IIUC Vigil is supposed to be a Vanguard.
Jonathan

Thank you for that.130m looks huge to a child

[Mick F]

Those submarines have only 135 or so people to crew them. 130odd metres long.
From what I remember of my mates on Trident etc, they did a two month patrol, then came back, and spent time in maintenance then went ashore, and the other crew took it back out.
Two crews per ship. Vanguards are not really any different.
Showers and bathrooms, a laundry and a canteen.

We spent months at sea with 250odd crew in a frigate only 113mtrs long.

Claustrophobic?
Don't make me laugh.

Try being on a conventional submarine.
Unable to have a shower, or a laundry, or a change of clothes ........... for weeks on end.
Smelling of diesel and oil constantly.

[Jdsk]

From what I remember of my mates on Trident etc, they did a two month patrol, then came back, and spent time in maintenance then went ashore, and the other crew took it back out.
Two crews per ship. Vanguards are not really any different.

Not different from what? Vanguard class submarines are the ones that carry the Trident missiles.

Did you mean not different from the Resolution class submarines carrying Polaris missiles?

Thanks

Jonathan

[drossall]

We're really enjoying it. We have no knowledge against which to judge its realism, and are just taking it for what it is, fiction. Don't even know if there are any circumstances under which the police would be put aboard a submarine to investigate what was originally an unexpected death. But it seems more of the classic thriller style with none of the strange turns or excessively-dark themes that have become fashionable lately and spoiled many series. Not that murder isn't dark, of course.

[Mick F]

Just thinking.......... I said Trident, when I meant Polaris with Chevaline warheads.

Chatting to a mate - a Geordie - recently, who was a submariner in the same vintage in the RN as me, was a conventional submariner engineer having trained and served on conventional diesel-powered Ocelot submarines. He was given a "pier-head jump" to join Resolution ............... Polaris/Chevaline nuclear powered submarine.
The difference was amazing, he's told me, and I believe him.

Having visited an "O Boat" and the Resolution and another one - the name eludes me - Revenge, Renown, Repulse?
They are huge in comparison to a conventional submarine. I've seen inside Ocelot and Oberon, and I know full well what he means.

[Jdsk]

From what I remember of my mates on Trident etc, they did a two month patrol, then came back, and spent time in maintenance then went ashore, and the other crew took it back out.
Two crews per ship. Vanguards are not really any different.

Not different from what? Vanguard class submarines are the ones that carry the Trident missiles.

Did you mean not different from the Resolution class submarines carrying Polaris missiles?

Just thinking.......... I said Trident, when I meant Polaris with Chevaline warheads.

Thanks

Jonathan

[Roy A]

HM Submarine Ocelot is displayed at Chatham Naval Dockyard, where it can be viewed. When I visited it was claustrophobic and moving from one section to another was made difficult due to having to swing through double circular openings. Ocelot is 90m long and had a complement of 69.

It was my second experience of submarines having been aboard HM Submarine Andrew in Portsmouth during a Navy Day in the 1950's - Andrew I understand was first to cross the Atlantic submerged. I was a young lad at the time and given special treatment by the crew as my dad was in the Senior Service..

[Mick F]

Good story!

Ocelot in a museum eh?

Sea story ............

On our way in HMS Ambuscade down to the South Atlantic in 1982 to the Falklands, we called in at Ascension Island for fuel and ammunition. We were moored against a refuelling and stores ship, and were busy doing stuff.
Ocelot tied up to us, and they stored and ammunitioned across our decks.

Down in the CPOs mess, we chatted to the two chiefs (the only two CPOs in Ocelot) as they came on board for a beer.
Their whole ship's company used our laundry, so the chiefs sat there wearing their scruffs and what they stood up in.
They were offered showers.
The Chief Engineer - and I remember his reply well - was "No thanks, we're refuelling tomorrow."
He knew very well that to be clean for a few hours was pointless, as he would be oily and greasy for the rest of the time - possibly for months.

Meanwhile, we heard from them that the single passageway on the single deck on the Ocelot was filled with boxes of stores and ammunition and land mines ready for off-loading ashore. In order to get fore and aft, they had to be crawling on their hands and knees over the crates and boxes.

Chatting to my Geordie mate recently who was in Ocelot at the time, he corroborated the story.

[Mick F]

PS:

Stop Press.

Forget anything I said about Ocelot .............. it was Onyx.
Sorry, it was definitely Onyx.

Same class of boat of course, and TBH, they all look the same!

[mattheus]

We're really enjoying it. We have no knowledge against which to judge its realism, and are just taking it for what it is, fiction. Don't even know if there are any circumstances under which the police would be put aboard a submarine to investigate what was originally an unexpected death. But it seems more of the classic thriller style with none of the strange turns or excessively-dark themes that have become fashionable lately and spoiled many series. Not that murder isn't dark, of course.

Good!

p.s. does anyone know how to get a browser to filter out certain posters? You can't add the forum VIPs to your "foe" list (such a harsh word - it would be "ignore" list in any other forum), and it would make threads like this soooo much more readable!

[drossall]

Err, never wanted to. I can't think of anyone whose posts I wouldn't want to read, even if I don't agree with everything said. And here, the comments are all from people with different experiences (or, like me, none) of submarines, so have been quite interesting.

But it wouldn't be your browser, but the system, that would have to filter. I'm actually hazy what a VIP is in phpBB terms. I didn't know that there were friend and foe lists here till your post made me look - never needed to - and I've worked with forum systems in my professional life for decades.