Trip to the Submarine Escape Training Tank, Gosport
by Stefan Montgomery, Aged 11

Picture by Tony Baskeyfield


On the 25th July 2004 I was lucky enough to be joining the Marlin Trip to the Royal Navy base ( HMS Dolphin) at Gosport, where members of the club were going to dive in the Submarine Escape Training Tower.

On arrival at the base we had to be booked in and get special passes to enable us to get on to the base, we then made our way around the base to the SETT building and parked the cars, My Dad then went in and told the tower staff we had arrived. All the divers had to take their kit to the top of the Escape Tower building, so I helped carry some of the kit for people, we were quiet lucky as there was a lift to take us to the top, which was the tenth floor !. When we got up to the top of the tank we were told that the water was 32 degrees ! that’s like a bath, the tank was 6 metres wide and 30 metres deep. The tank had a mermaid painted at the bottom and on the sides there were special blisters these are used for instructors to use when they are training.

Whilst the divers were getting ready to get in tank, myself, Ashley and Rob were lucky enough to be shown what the tank is used for. The tank is used for training sailors to escape from a damaged or sinking submarine, we were shown what they have to wear and the training that they are given, we were then taken by “Dusty” the Navy man in charge ( who was a member of S.P.A.G this stands for Submarine Parachute Assault Group, They parachute in from Hercules aircraft when there is a submarine accident at sea they can be on site within 4 hours) and shown floors one, seven and eight, even the divers didn’t get to see these floors.

On the ground floor we were shown into one of the escape chambers, inside there was a red marker on the side of the chamber, the marker is where the chamber is filed up to with water, then the air pressure is made the same as if it was a submarine at depth, and then the sailors are sent out of an airlock in a special suit and they have to breath out all the way to the top, I don’t think I would like to do it !!. When we went back to the top of the tank divers were already in the tank, we were given plastic boxes to press onto the water to let us see the divers, It was brilliant because the bubbles kept hitting the boxes. Because we were so high in the tower we could see all the docks at Portsmouth and we could see two Royal Navy destroyers and an aircraft carrier at berth. When all the divers had dived the tower we made our way to the Submarine Museum next door. The Submarine Museum was great it had the very first Royal Navy submarine called “Holland” One on show, it also had displays of flags from submarines from the first and second world wars and up to and including today, there was also a brilliant show and displays of submarines throughout the century’s even back to 1767! !! yes they built a submarine then called the “The Turtle” and that had to be peddled.

The day ended with a film show and a guided tour of “HMS Alliance” a Diesel powered submarine, we walked all the way through the submarine from front to back we saw the torpedo tubes and the the crews rooms and bunks and also the two giant engines and then the torpedo tubes at the back, when on the submarine there were only 15 of us and it felt very crowded, I would not like to be on it with the 65 crew that manned this type of submarine. When we were in the control room of the submarine the guide played a recording of the submarine under attack with depth charges that was great !!, then when in the engine room the guide played a tape of one of the giant engines being started it was loud ! I bet it was deafening with both going and no earplugs!. I would like to thank my dad for taking me and also all the following members for making me feel welcome, Sandy, Nathalie, David, Joe, Chris, Phil, Julie, Ken, Kev Parker, Rich and Kath, and my friends Rob and Ashley, Being part of the club is great thank you to you all.

Marlin Sub Aqua Club

SETT

All photographs by Tony Baskeyville: PlusTwoDesign

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