The Silent Deep

by James Jinks

  So far the debate has been difficult. A review into Labour defence and nuclear policy is underway. The problem is the debate is not just about policy; it is fashioned by long held personal convictions. The Labour leader believes that ridding Britain of nuclear weapons is a moral issue and he is determined to ensure the party adopts a policy of unilateralism. ‘Jeremy would not be able to forgive himself if he passed up an opportunity to get Labour to vote against Trident’ said one friend of Corbyn.133 When asked in September if he would ever authorise the use of nuclear weapons, Corbyn said, ‘No.’134 In another interview he said ‘I am opposed to nuclear weapons, I am opposed to the holding of and use of nuclear weapons … I do not see the use of them as a credible way to do things.’135 His comments prompted outcry from Labour MPs, with the then Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle, a supporter of the nuclear deterrent, telling the BBC ‘I’m surprised he answered the question in the way that he did’, saying that it ‘undermined to some degree’ the policy review process she was responsible for.136 When the Chief of the Defence Staff, General Sir Nick Houghton, was later asked for a response to Corbyn’s vow never to press the nuclear button, the General replied, ‘It would worry me if that thought was translated into power, as it were.’137

  In January 2016, Eagle was removed from the Shadow Defence brief and replaced by the former Shadow Culture Secretary, Emily Thornberry, a unilateralist, who has spoken at Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) meetings. Hours after Thornberry’s appointment, the Shadow Armed Forces Minister, Kevan Jones, resigned from the Labour front bench, citing differences with those now in charge of forming policy. Thornberry maintains that she is approaching the review ‘with an open mind’, but admits that she is ‘extremely sceptical about Trident’ and is not ‘afraid to ask some very difficult questions.’138 So far those questions have centered on whether technological developments, such as Cyber attacks and future generations of underwater drones could make Trident ineffective as a nuclear deterrent. ‘There are forthcoming generations of drones that can work underseas’ said Thornberry. ‘At the moment they have two problems; one is communications, and the other is battery life … If technology is moving faster than that, then it may well be that Trident will not be able to hide. And if that’s right, then if we are to bet everything on mutually assured destruction, we have to be assured that it is going to work. And if it can’t hide any more, that is a problem.’139

  Former senior military figures were quick to dismiss such arguments. The former professional head of the Royal Navy, Admiral Lord West of Spithead, described Thornberry’s comments as ‘nonsense.’140 Another former First Sea Lord and former Chief of the Defence Staff, the retired submariner Admiral of the Fleet Lord Boyce, pointed out that ‘we are more likely to put a man on Mars within the next six months than we are to make the seas transparent within the next 30 years’ and during a speech in the House of Lords, spoke of the ‘badly informed talk by some people in positions of responsibility. Such statements’ he said, ‘are totally speculative, they show serious lack of understanding of anti submarine warfare, the science of oceanography, and the science of the impenetrability of water and they are probably being made with the intent of being irresponsibly and wilfully misleading.’141 Two former Labour Defence Secretaries, Lord Hutton and Lord Robertson of Port Ellen criticised the ‘use of spurious arguments and newly created “facts” ’ and warned that the review process was ‘sliding into chaos and incoherence’.142

  The Labour review continues, as does work on ‘Successor’. In November 2015, the Government published a National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review: ‘A Secure and Prosperous United Kingdom’, which modified the ‘Sucessor’ programme. The estimated in service date of the first ‘Successor’ class submarine was delayed to the ‘early 2030s’ and the costs of the now 35-year acquisition programme also increased, to a total of £31 billion (including inflation over the lifetime of the programme), with a contingency of a further £10 billion. The revised cost and schedule estimates reflect the greater understanding of the detailed design of the submarines and their manufacture.143

  The review also announced plans to implement a number of organizational, managerial and contractual changes, to deliver the programme. A new organization known as the Director General Nuclear, will be established to bring together all the current nuclear teams, including those working for the Chief Scientific Advisor and the Director of Strategic Programmes, to act as the single sponsor for all aspects of the defence nuclear enterprise, from procurement to disposal, with responsibility for submarines, nuclear warheads, skills, related infrastructure and day-to-day nuclear policy. It will occupy a brand new set of secure, bespoke offices on the sixth floor of the Ministry of Defence Main Building in Whitehall and will be staffed by around 140 people, a significant increase in the 60 to 65 people currently involved in those nuclear teams. It is the only part of the Ministry of Defence that is increasing in size.

  The new organization, which one insider described as ‘the controlling mind of the entire nuclear enterprise’, will be headed by a commercial specialist, with significant experience of delivering large-scale projects on time and on budget. As part of efforts to strengthen arrangements for the procurement and in-service support of nuclear submarines, a new delivery body with the authority and freedom to recruit and retain the best people to manage the submarine enterprise will also be created and efforts to improve performance and investment and develop skills and infrastructure within the necessary industrial suppliers will also be intensified. The review also announced that the Government intended to put ‘in place new industrial and commercial arrangements between government and industry, moving away from a traditional single “Main Gate” approach, which is not appropriate for a programme of this scale and complexity, to a staged investment programme.’144 The Government remains committed to holding a debate in Parliament, but this will be about ‘the principle of Continuous At Sea Deterrence and our plans for “Successor” ’.145

  Given the Conservative majority, and the significant number of Labour MPs who support the maintenance of a British nuclear deterrent, work on ‘Successor’ will almost certainly continue until the 2020 election (due under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011), by which time the first submarine of the ‘Successor’ class will be taking shape and steelwork for the second will be in full production in the BAE shipyard in Barrow.146 In addition, a multitude of components and sub-assemblies will be being manufactured for all four boats by hundreds of suppliers. Our hunch is that there will almost certainly be a British bomb with a ‘bloody Union Jack on top of it’ somewhere in the grey wastelands of the North Atlantic in the 2030s, 2040s and 2050s, carried by one of the submarines currently being laid out on the computer screens in Barrow’s Blue Lagoon. When faced with the nuclear question British Prime Ministers, as primary guardians of national security, seem, knowingly or unknowingly, to have been disciples of Cicero, who wrote in De Legibus:

  Salus populi suprema est lex.

  The safety of the people is the chief law.147

  Epilogue: How a Boat Dies

  For all their stealthy and potentially deadly purposes submarines are warm and companionable places to inhabit. Shut the reactor down, get the people out and close the hatches, what do you have left? A cold, inanimate and very large piece of black steel – a huge metallic corpse.

  As we have seen throughout this book, the Royal Navy is very good at rites of different kinds (the Remembrance Day service at the beginning). Sailors know how to give a good send-off. On a shining June morning on the parade ground of HMS Drake in Devonport it’s the turn of HMS Tireless, which returned to base two weeks earlier from one last mission when, in August 2013, it was at five minutes’ readiness to fire cruise missiles into Syria from somewhere in the Mediterranean, Operation ‘Spinney’, and in the spring of 2014 was at its maximum diving depth in the southern Indian Ocean searching for the missing Malaysian airliner, MH 370.

  A
rumour spread through the boat when berthed in Fremantle that yet another final task would fall to Tireless – a long sail across the Pacific to show the White Ensign off the Falklands. It was not to be. After a starring part in Anzac Day, Tireless set off for her home port, covering 7000 miles in three weeks.

  Like all COs, Commander ‘Griff’ Griffiths loves his boat and it showed as Tireless tied up in Devonport. As guests gather on 19 June in HMS Drake’s Wardroom before the decommissioning parade, Griffiths says: ‘I’m fine now. But bringing the boat alongside for the last time was very emotional.’ Hennessy/Jinks ask: ‘Did you have a little cry?’ Griffiths: ‘No. Nearly. I couldn’t get through my final pipe.’

  The previous night, Griffiths entertained ten of the COs who had commanded Tireless since she left Barrow in 1984 for a final dinner on board. ‘It was a sombre affair but extremely enjoyable,’ he says.

  At 0930 on the dot, the ceremony begins as the Band of the Royal Marines, Plymouth, swing on to the parade ground with ‘Hearts of Oak’, their white helmets dazzling, leading a guard of honour made up of part of Tireless’s crew. The others are already on parade divided into junior rates, senior rates and officers with proud wives, children, sweethearts and parents looking on. It’s an occasion of quiet dignity punctuated by the occasional shout of ‘Daddy’ and the cry of seagulls.

  At 0946, Rear Admiral Matt Parr and Commander Griffiths are driven to the parade ground. As they step out of the car, the band, with a Pythonesque touch, provides a little burst of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Iolanthe before launching into a medley of ‘We are Sailing’ and ‘Mr Blue Skies’ as they inspect the ranks.

  The service begins with ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’ and ‘For Those in Peril on the Sea’ before the Chaplain leads the readings and prayers:

  ‘Lord God, we give thanks for the unique and enduring contribution of the Submarine Service to our Nation and the Fleet: We pray for ourselves and all submariners past and present asking for your continued Blessing and protection upon us.

  ‘And now Tireless finishes her operational life we give you thanks for the contribution the boat has made to the security of our Nation and maintenance of peace over the years. We recall all those who have served in her and remember the many friendships that have been forged between members of her company in the past and present, we give you thanks that those friendships continue today and pray that they will stand the test of time as we move on to the new appointments and challenges. We ask this through Jesus Christ, our Lord.’

  HMS Tireless, the old lady of the Cold War, is out of sight of the parade ground hidden behind dockyard buildings and vast cranes. As the service proceeds, she mutates from HMS Tireless to just Tireless as her White Ensign and Union Flag are taken down.

  Griff comes to the microphone, plainly rippling with emotion but still under control. He sings a last song to his beloved boat and his special crew. ‘The happiest and most enjoyable years of my career have been in this great boat …’ ‘We will always be proud of our silent accomplishments.’

  Of their submarine he tells the crew: ‘we understand her traits and her little flaws … The personality we ascribe to the boat is inbred in the ship’s company. Your professionalism is the essence of that spirit … Be it Operation “Spinney” or the search for MH 370, Tireless has written herself into the history books … You will always carry the Tireless spirit with you.’

  He recalls the two crew members Tireless lost under the ice during the fire of 2007. These are not routine or ritualized words.

  Admiral Parr tells the crew they have taken Tireless out ‘on a high’. He refers to Operation ‘Spinney’ and the search for the airliner, and to the clandestine operations Tireless has conducted in ‘little bits of the colder seas’. ‘In the winning of the Cold War,’ he says, ‘the “T” class was one of those weapons that proved the supremacy of the West in technology and people.’ He offers thanks to the families ‘for what they have to put up with’.

  The band erupts into another burst of Gilbert and Sullivan. A baby cries. The emotion eases. The guard of honour marches off to ‘Hearts of Oak’ once more and then the band of the Royal Marines departs to ‘A Life on the Ocean Wave’.

  The party that follows in the Senior Rates’ Mess brims with jollity, cheerful families, sausages and patties and a huge cake with a black Tireless on a sea of blue icing cut with a sword by the wife of one of the former COs.

  Neil Masson, the tactics and sonar officer, takes us down for one last visit to his boat. Tireless is flagless, showing patches of rust and clusters of missing anechoic tiles, and is covered with green seaweed like a grass skirt accumulated in the warm tropical and southern seas for which she was never designed. We toast her demise with a cup of tea in the wardroom as the families of the crew pass through the narrow passages. Tomorrow Griffiths will hand Tireless over to Devonport dockyard, her passage almost complete. She will then join her older sisters, eighteen Royal Navy nuclear submarines stored at Devonport and Rosyth dockyards, their hulls maintained in a similar way to operational submarines to ensure that they remain safely afloat. Tireless is destined for number three basin in Devonport dockyard, where she will sit alongside Valiant, Warspite, Courageous, Conqueror, Splendid, Sceptre, Superb, Spartan, Sovereign, Trafalgar and Turbulent. Seven others – Dreadnought, Churchill, Swiftsure, and the four Polaris submarines, Resolution, Repulse, Renown and Revenge – are berthed in Rosyth dockyard.

  As these submarines age the cost of maintaining them is rising. Capacity is also running out as more and more leave service. The Ministry of Defence is looking for an environmentally safe and cost-effective means of disposing of the fleet via a Submarine Dismantling Project. The current plan involves removing radioactive material from each submarine and storing the waste, the vast majority of which is metal from the reactor compartment (less than 1 per cent of the total weight of each submarine). After the radioactive materials have been removed the hull of each submarine will then be broken up and recycled in a similar way to other warships. Until that happens the huge black metallic corpses of these eighteen submarines lie silently at rest.

  Illustrations

  1. ‘The most dangerous of all the services’ (Winston Churchill). The crew of HMS Safari, one of the most successful British submarines in the Second World War, September 1943. The Jolly Roger includes white bars for each ship sunk; daggers for operations involving the delivery or recovery of shore parties from enemy territory; crossed sabres for the boarding of another vessel; and the lighthouse for the submarine’s use as a navigational marker for an invasion force.

  2. Admiral of the Fleet Sir George E. Creasy, Admiral Submarines, September 1944–November 1946, who steered the Submarine Service from World War to the post-war world.

  3. Rear Admiral Guy Grantham, Flag Officer Submarines (FOSM) August 1948–January 1950.

  4. Rear Admiral Sydney M. Raw, FOSM, January 1950–January 1952.

  5. The German Type XVII ‘Walter-boat’ being transferred to the captured Walterwerke, Kiel, shortly after being salvaged, July–August 1945. The U-boat was later commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Meteorite.

  6. Operation ‘Blackcurrant’. The diesel engines of submarines supplied many Royal Dockyards with electricity during the 1947 winter fuel crisis.

  7. HMS Affray. The Wartime ‘A’ class Submarines were the only new class of submarine built by the Royal Navy during the Second World War and entered service just as the war was nearing its conclusion.

  8. The ‘A’ class also underwent conversion. Here HMS Alliance leaves Portsmouth in the early 1950s. Note the streamlined hull, larger sail and forward sonar dome.

  9. HMS Turpin in its wartime configuration. The ‘T’ class also underwent modification, ranging from simple streamlining to more extensive conversion.

  10. The converted ‘T’ class HMS Totem (‘a slippery customer’, according to her CO, John Coote), pictured here in 1953, shortly before Operation ‘Cravat’, the pioneering intelligence-gather
ing operation off Gibraltar.

  11. Commander John Coote, CO HMS Totem, on his promotion to Commander, 1952.

  12. HMS Totem, showing the eponymous totem pole with John Coote (left) and Totem’s First Lieutenant, John Fieldhouse (right), the future First Sea Lord and Chief of the Defence Staff.

  13. Photograph taken through HMS Totem’s periscope on the approach to Gibraltar during Operation ‘Cravat’, 20 March 1954.

  14. HMS Vanguard at Gibraltar, photographed through HMS Totem’s periscope during Operation ‘Cravat’, 20 March 1954.

  15. HMS Eagle photographed through HMS Totem’s periscope during Operation ‘Cravat’, 20 March 1954.

  16. Skyraiders Nos. 313 and 308 on HMS Eagle photographed through HMS Totem’s periscope during Operation ‘Cravat’, 20 March 1954.

  17. With the creation of NATO in 1949, the Submarine Service prepared for war against the Soviet Union, in alliance with other submarine nations. Pictured here in October 1960 is the shore installation and home of the Submarine Service, HMS Dolphin at Gosport, during a NATO exercise. From left to right: HMS Trenchant, USS Sailfish, HMS Thermopylae, USS Dogfish, HMS Talent; (second row) HMS Tireless, HNLMS Zeeleeuw, USS Tirante, USS Halfbeak; (back row) unnamed vessel, USS Threadfin, USS Chopper, USS Picuda.