Fifteen Diesel-electrics All in a Row (or eight)

In my soon-to-be-available submarine thriller, "Terror on the Alert", my main character notes a buildup of Royal Navy submarines in their home ports during the leadup to the Cuban Missile Crisis.

This photo was kindly provided by Ed Falstrem, who like me trained with the RN and served in A-boats. He says:

"Here is a photo of 15 RN submarines alongside the depot ship taken in Oct 1962, just as the Cuban crisis was developing."

Ed, who went on to command four Royal Canadian Navy boats, had this to say about "Terror on the Alert":

I have read the book and enjoyed it very much. I could argue with you over a couple of technical details but it sure took me back to my time on Acheron and Aeneas.

Submarines from early days to modern (5)

It's amazing how, in the world of submarines, the basics haven't changed. In World War I days, the most advanced submarines, and their predecessors, had many common attributes: a cylindrical shape, ballast tanks to allow the boat to dive, and periscopes. Fifty years later, I served in a Royal Navy A-boat.

Here is a photo of HMS Andrew, typical of her class. The crewmen visible are standing on the free-flooding casing, a shell that allowed safe if often precarious footing when surfaced. The blister-like long shape at the waterline outlines the port ballast tank, and the periscopes are housed in the fin, ready to be raised for use when dived. (The radar mast is raised in the photo.) Her basic design, though, is a sixteen-foot diameter steel pipe. The casing and ballast tanks are external to the steel pressure hull.
Andrew boasted an atypical feature: she was the last RN boat with a deck gun.
The A-boat featured in my upcoming novel set  during the Cold War will also carry a 4" gun.

Future Posts--Saddles and Periscopes

2013 is drawing to a close, it’s time to reflect on all the positive feedback I’ve received for my first novel, Soldier of the Horse, and my blog. Soldier made a Bestseller list, and a gold medal for wartime/historical fiction from the Independent Publisher organization in the United States. Sales have been very rewarding, but just as satisfying have been the many comments about the book including of course some excellent reviews.

Another activity I’ve been working on is the content of this blog. Followers and casual readers of my blog will know I’ve been concentrating on entries about submarines in general and Cold War and Canadian submarines in particular. I am going to do a quick pivot, as they say in military and naval circles, and spend some time touching bases once again with the Canadian cavalry in the last few months and weeks of the Great War.

Having said that, though, I’ll intersperse some submarine lore and developments. I’ll be looking for feedback, so don’t hold back! 

And, speaking of submarines, my manuscript about a Canadian submarine during the Cuban Missile Crisis is now on the publisher's desk. I'm very excited about that.

A Salty HMCS Grilse Story (Part 2 of 2)

 For Part 1 of Hal Zerbin's story about a risky time aboard HMCS Grilse, click here.

This is the last bit of Part 1:
".....so we had to unsnap ourselves from the safety railing and move right over the sound of escaping air. And we proceeded to do that."
(Hal, who is Gilse's Chief ERA, and the Engineer Officer are looking for a leak in the boat. Grilse is surfaced somewhere in the Pacific.They are crouched on the casing/upper deck, with six-foot seas running.)

Part 2: 

     We then had to unsecure a couple of lock bolts to enable us to open a small access hole in the decking. That made the air noise (escaping through the leak) louder and we were certain we were on the right track. We could then see there was air escaping from somewhere under the #1 main engine outboard exhaust, above the pressure hull. Taking turns we upended ourselves and wriggled into the small access hole as best we could, and felt, by hand, under the exhaust valve casing itself. Sure enough, there was this little line, just a short piece, blowing air thru a long split in its side. 

     We came out and had a conference, there on the aft deck, Charlie with his back to the aft end and myself facing aft, both of us sort of crouching/sitting. 

     Then I happened to look up and saw this much larger breaker heading towards our stern, quite a number of feet higher than our deck. Without thinking I grabbed Charlie and flattened him onto the deck and threw myself onto him, digging my fingers, both hands, thru the gap between the teak stringers that formed the deck. I managed to get a good grip and squeezed for all I was worth. Not a second too soon, either, as the wave was on us and covered us for what seemed like hours (actually perhaps 15 seconds). It was quite green and almost pleasant under the water, and soon the wave receded and left us still holding on for dear life, sputtering and thoroughly soaked. Charlie pried himself free of my death-grasp and gave me a dirty look.

     “Jeez, did you have to squeeze so hard!” 

     I thought I had done him a favour!

     Anyway, the CO aborted any further searching and we headed for home and the dockyard for repairs. On searching further thru the blueprint book, we found the little line quite clearly identified as a “tell-tale” drain, meant to let you know that you had a leak between the inboard group exhaust and the outboard exhaust!  The only thing the builders had not forseen was the corroding of the line till it leaked full bore into the engine room, thru the pressure hull, with no means of shutting it off. 

     This was the same line that just about cost the life of the Burrfish, during one of her last WW II patrols.

     When I was in Ottawa, in 1996, I think, I got together with Charlie for a drink or two. He still insists, in the Chinese custom way, that I owe him!!!

A Salty HMCS Grilse Story (Part 1 of 2)

This all-too-believable story was supplied by Hal Zerbin, who spent years in Royal Navy A-boats and, later, HMCS Grilse. (Much of Grilse’s previous years were in the guise of USS Burrfish—see earlier blog posts.) I have, with Hal’s permission, edited slightly. For the conclusion, stay tuned!

We were not too far off the west coast of Vancouver Island, on our way to Pearl Harbour,(I think), and had completed a couple of days of snorkeling runs with the Air Force, when the For’d engine room watchkeeper noticed a higher than usual level of water in the bilge after the completion of a snorkeling run. No one was really excited about it, we all thought it was just one of those things, but, after a prolonged run, the water level was noticeably high and we all “got serious”. A small, about 1 1/8 inch line (pipe) at the for’d outboard end of the for’d Engine Room became suspect but we could not identify it and we could not even find it on the book of blueprints supplied with the boat. 

So we initiated another snorkel  run and sure enough, water came out of the suspect line, and, stranger still, it did not stop coming out when we stopped snorkeling, and only stopped when we surfaced. We then decided to pressurize, (with low pressure air), the external exhaust trunking for #1 main engine and proceeded to do this, however, to find the external leak, someone had to go out on the after deck and listen and try to identify just exactly where it was coming from. 

The engineer, Charlie Gunning, and the Chief Engine Room Artificer, (Me), were the likeliest people to go so we prepared ourselves and the boat hove to. There were 5 to 6 foot swells running, sometimes slopping over the deck but they did not look dangerous and we proceeded to the aft deck, with the Captain and many others gathered on the cigarette deck (part of the external superstructure) to watch the proceedings. Charlie and I snapped our safety line on to the safety railing and ventured out on to the deck, with the boat gently rolling under us. It was not hard to identify the general area of the leak as we soon heard compressed air as we approached the #1 exhaust valve. 

But it was impossible to tell where, exactly it was coming from as the area below the walking deck  was quite crowded with piping and other components so we had to unsnap ourselves from the safety railing and move right over the sound of escaping air. And we proceeded to do that.

To be continued...

Video of HMS "Alliance" Interior

At right is a photo of HMS Alliance during her heyday. I am guessing it was while she was on active service in the Far East, judging by the camouflage paint job.
No longer in commission, the Alliance has survived some hard times to become the centrepiece of the Royal Navy Submarine Memorial and Museum in Gosport, Hampshire.
Here is a link to a recent video that shows how well the Museum has preserved and rebuilt her both inside and out.
The Alliance is a particularly interesting exhibit from my point of view, in that she was a sister to my only Royal Navy boat, the Alderney, long gone to the breaker's yard. And my next historical novel, bearing the working title "Sailor Down", is set in an A-boat.
For a look at the Amazon page for my cavalry story, "Soldier of the Horse", click here.