Take A Good, Deep Breath. End of a Gosport Era.

[capnsensible]

 

[capnsensible]

 

[capnsensible]

If you follow on from the first vid, there is a short clip of a TV presenter getting kitted up and climbing into the one man escape tower.

 

[DJE]

I wonder why they say it would collapse if the water was drained out? It must have been built before they ever put water in it.

I did some work across the creek a few years ago in the big ship-model towing tank. We were looking at temporary dams so they could de-water one end of the tank to change the wave-making machines. They said they couldn't empty the whole tank because the environmentalists didn't want all that chlorinated water going into the creek. Is the submarine training tower sea water or chlorinated?

 

[john_morris_uk]

I did some work across the creek a few years ago in the big ship-model towing tank. We were looking at temporary dams so they could de-water one end of the tank to change the wave-making machines. They said they couldn't empty the whole tank because the environmentalists didn't want all that chlorinated water going into the creek. Is the submarine training tower sea water or chlorinated?

Chlorinated IIRC

 

[PilotWolf]

If you follow on from the first vid, there is a short clip of a TV presenter getting kitted up and climbing into the one man escape tower.

Didn’t John Noakes from Blue Peter do it once?

The dunker was bad enough - screw this!

W.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Didn’t John Noakes from Blue Peter do it once?

The dunker was bad enough - screw this!

W.

I had to be in date for the dunker every time I was in a sea going job. Before I joined up, I'd spent a night in hospital after being trapped upside down underwater and nearly drowning. The first few times I did the dunker I had to give myself a good talking to to get in the blasted thing... After 21 years plus, I'd stopped caring. I still didn't enjoy it though.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Not sure why any would want to pierce there ear drums,

Apparently it's because if you emerge from a deeply submerged submarine the sudden pressure increase can't be qualised by the eustachian tubes so your eardrum ends up looking like a paper hoop after Bonzo the Wonder Dog has jumped through it. Making a hole accepts the inevitable and makes it as relatively painless as possible.

 

[john_morris_uk]

Apparently it's because if you emerge from a deeply submerged submarine the sudden pressure increase can't be qualised by the eustachian tubes so your eardrum ends up looking like a paper hoop after Bonzo the Wonder Dog has jumped through it. Making a hole accepts the inevitable and makes it as relatively painless as possible.

Hmmm- well having been through the SETT I can tell you there was no mention of any such thing as intentionally piercing the eardrums to our group going through. We were told that lots of people would probably;y end up with burst eardrums if escaping from a couple of hundred metres but better that than fish food was the common response.

 

[capnsensible]

Apparently it's because if you emerge from a deeply submerged submarine the sudden pressure increase can't be qualised by the eustachian tubes so your eardrum ends up looking like a paper hoop after Bonzo the Wonder Dog has jumped through it. Making a hole accepts the inevitable and makes it as relatively painless as possible.

Cobblers, youve been had.

Your eardrums will go naturally at any x depth with the speed the pressure comes on in the escape tower. You dont need to stick anything in there. Its a wind up.

 

[Uricanejack]

Exactly what we were told and the reason we were monitored all the way to the surface from the deep escapes. The practice ones from shallower were for us to ‘purse your lips and make a hole the size of a pencil and breath out through it all the time.’

We also had demonstrations of a balloon inflated at the bottom of the tank and released to float to the surface but burst en route. “And this is what will happen to your lungs if you hold your breath and forget to breath out... AND YOU WILL DIE”.

I understand that they stopped using the SETT because too many trainee submariners did die when things went wrong... but that might have been just a story/gossip doing the rounds. They’d certainly stopped doing the mass escape practice run where you form a line and the whole compartment is pressurised to allow continuous escapes rather than individuals in the escape suits.

For those who are interested, the MUCH preferred option would be for the submersible LRV5 to come and latch onto the escape hatch and for the trapped submariners to be taken to the surface a few at a time in comfort and the dry...

(I hope I’ve remembered the name of the submersible correctly.)

Used to do the ballon thing with new divers.
Along with, don’t rise faster than your bubbles. Which you might not think is helpful when it’s dark. Funny thing, when it’s really dark, the bubbles is how you know which way is up.
The more difficult part when diving and coming up is controlling your buoyancy, you have to dump air from your buoyancy control or you will rise to fast.
Many people are quite surprised and find it hard to believe, you have more than enough air in your lungs to exhale all the way up.

I was Bosun on a small sail training vessel which visited HMS Dolphin back in the early 80’s. We had a tour, which include the tower, a diesel electric train vessel (we tied up beside it), the PO‘s mess and a bottle of rum.
They explained what I think was the older process. As a diver I wanted to try it but there was no way they were going to allow it.
Our guide, who showed us the escape hatch, told us it was peacetime only.
I still have a small pair of dolphins, I was given which I never earned the right to wear.
It was cool expierience

 

[Uricanejack]

Hit to many buttons

 

[Travelling Westerly]

I seem to remember the water being very warm. Had the pleasure of having a dip during my ships divers course (not as long back as some of you though )

 

[Travelling Westerly]

Capnsensible -was it as warm as I remember or was it just another rose tinted memory of the RN that didnt really reflect the true story

 

[Poignard]

Capnsensible -was it as warm as I remember or was it just another rose tinted memory of the RN that didnt really reflect the true story

It was warm.

 

[capnsensible]

Capnsensible -was it as warm as I remember or was it just another rose tinted memory of the RN that didnt really reflect the true story

Yup, I can double confirm ^^ that it was warm. Instructor attrition may have been too high otherwise.

 

[HappyAfloat]

My experience of the tank is slightly different. On a freediving course I learnt how to dive from the top of the tank to the bottom and back, a memory that still makes me smile many years later.

 

[langstonelayabout]

Another listed eyesore. Good job they knocked down The Tricorn before the nutters could list it.

I think we'd have been better off keeping the Tricorn than the tank. At least the Tricorn could be reconfigured into a modern shopping complex, but the owners wanted the work more than the ability to lease retail.

Anyway. Nice car park...

 

[glynd]

Those of you who use or have sailed in/out of Portsmouth will probably recognise the Submarine Escape Training Tank at Fort Blockhouse, ex HMS Dolphin.

Just pulled out Deighton's "Horse under water" which starts off with a visit to this very training establishment....
Did you get your tot of rum after your ascent?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

It's quite common for old swimming pools to be undrainable because water has penetrated the tank concrete behind the tiles and without the water in the pool hydrostatic forces push the tiles off. My local pool uses divers to do grouting for this reason - they had to do an emergency drain some years back and were closed for a month while they stuck a huge number of popped tiles back on. Perhaps something similar has happened to the escape tower.

I.K. Brunel hit the same problem when building the dry dock in which SS Great Britain was constructed - the dock structure "floated" in the soft ground surrounding it. I forget how they solved the problem, but it's mentioned in the book I have about her.