HMS Trenchant returns home

HMS Trenchant has been away for 335 days taking part in operations to tackle terrorism and the global drugs trade. Seven of its 170 crew remained on board the Trafalgar-class sub for its entire deployment, spending 4,700 hours – six and a half months – underwater.

The mammoth deployment, taking in Bahrain, Jordan, Crete and Gibraltar, spanned 38,800 nautical miles, enough to circle the planet one and three quarter times.

 

Jubilant families lined the seafront in Plymouth, Devon, to greet the homecoming seamen as the 5,000-tonne vessel headed into the city's Devonport naval base.

Commander Irvine Lindsay, HMS Trenchant's commanding officer, said: "It is believed that this 11-month period away from the UK is the longest ever UK nuclear submarine deployment.

"The ship's company have met every challenge head-on."

 

HMS Trenchant, launched in 1986, is due to be decommissioned in 2017.

In 2007 it the became the first Royal Navy vessel to fire the new Block IV Tomahawk cruise missile in a live-firing trial in the Gulf of Mexico.

 

The long-serving sub was involved in a notorious maritime accident in 1990 when it snagged a trawler in the Bute Sound in Scotland, drowning its four-man crew.

 

Yesterday, the cheers rang out as HMS Trenchant finally arrived home, as parents, spouses and children waved wildly. Pamela Tarr, 64, was there to welcome Chris Parr, 37, a leading hand who served the entire 11 months at sea.

She said: "I just can't believe how long he's been away and it is amazing to finally have him home with us.

 

"We are ecstatic and the proudest parents in the world".

 

 

http://www.devonportpeople.co.uk/VIDEO-PICTURES-HMS-Trenchant-Plymouth-335-days/story-19065242-detail/story.html

DRIVE AND PATIO

 

 

 

Before any of you embark on a project like this make sure you know your Builder is totally reliable...this is the mess I am left with at the moment and a Hubby at Sea. after the week I have had and to think he witnessed TJ's seizure you would have thought he would at least have had the decency to finish the job...how wrong could I be...Could do with a man and a van to confiscate his tools and machinery to be given back on return of the cash paid!!

 

 

The Silent Service

short film aboard one of the Royal Navy's 'Trafalgar Class' nuclear powered submarines. gives a good insight of life submerged in a submarine 

RIP Joyce Brothers

 

Joyce Brothers, a former academic psychologist who long before Drs. Ruth, Phil and Laura was counseling millions over the airwaves, died on Monday at her home i...n Fort Lee, N.J. She was 85.

Shortly after the loss of USS THRESHER, Dr. Brothers wrote the following.

RISK IS AN INSPIRATION IN SUBMARINE SERVICE

The tragic loss of the submarine Thresher and 129 men had a special kind of impact on the nation…..a special kind of sadness, mixed with universal admiration for the men who chose this kind of work.

One could not mention the Thresher without observing, in the same breath how utterly final and alone the end is when a ship dies at the bottom of the sea…..and what a remarkable specimen of man it must be who accepts such a risk.

Most of us might be moved to conclude, too, that a tragedy of this kind would have a damaging effect on the moral of the other men in the submarine service and tend to discourage future enlistments. Actually, there is no evidence that this is so.

What is it, then, that lures men to careers in which they spend so much of their time in cramped quarters, under great psychological stress, with danger lurking all about them?

Bond Among Them

 Togetherness is an overworked term, but in no other branch of our military service is it given such full meaning as in the so-called “silent service.”

In an under sea craft, each man is totally dependant upon the skill of every other man in the crew, not only for top performance but for actual survival. Each knows that his very life depends on the others and because this is so, there is a bond among them that both challenges and comforts them.

All of this gives the submariner a special feeling of pride, because he is indeed a member of an elite corps. The risks, then, are an inspiration, rather than a deterrent.

The challenge of masculinity is another factor, which attracts men to serve on submarines. It certainly is a test of man’s prowess and power to know he can qualify for this highly selective service. However, it should be emphasized that this desire to prove masculinity is not pathological, as it might be in certain daredevil pursuits, such as driving a motorcycle through a flaming hoop.

Emotionally Healthy

 There is nothing daredevelish about the motivations of the man who decides to dedicate his life to the submarine service. He does, indeed, take pride in demonstrating that he is quite a man, but he does not do so to practice a form of foolhardy brinkmanship, to see how close he can get to failure and still snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. On the contrary, the aim in the submarine service is to battle the danger, to minimize the risk, to take every measure to make certain that safety rather than danger, is maintained at all times.

Are the men in submarines braver than those in other pursuits where the possibility of sudden tragedy is not constant? The glib answer would be that they are. It is much more accurate, from a psychological point of view, to say they are not necessarily braver, but that they are who have a little more insight into themselves and their capabilities.

They know themselves a little better than the next man. This has to be so with men who have a healthy reason to volunteer for a risk. They are generally a cut healthier emotionally than others of similar age and background because of their willingness to push themselves a little bit farther and not settle for an easier kind of existence.

We all have tremendous capabilities but are rarely straining at the upper level of what we can do; these men are.

The country can be proud and grateful that so many of its sound, young, eager men care enough about their own status in life--and the welfare of their country--to pool their skills and match them collectively against the power of the sea

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kens 50th Cruise