‘OOPS PERISCOPE’ - warning for Irish Sea fishermen

News from the Celtic League:

Irish Sea fishermen need to keep a weather eye on the wave tops as the Royal Navy has just launched its latest nuclear submarine (HMS Audacious) and presumably after getting the finishing touches it will be starting its sea trials around our coasts (link):

http://www.heraldscotland.com/…/15255003.Navy___s_latest_…/…

The submarine which cost a billion pounds is the latest of the Astute Class however probably more appropriate a name would have been ‘Awkward’.

The lead vessel HMS Astute famously crashed into the Isle of Skye some years ago. No one has ever properly explained that and the driver (skipper) not surprisingly is no longer a submariner. However it didn’t end there as another of the type (HMS Ambush) is currently laid up in Gibraltar with a large dent after failing to spot a tanker. Again there has been no explanation as to how the vessel failed to realise that a vessel of several tens of thousands of tonnes was just yards away from it until ‘the bump’.

The Astute’s don’t just have problems finding there way about they are also plagued with reactor defects (link):

http://www.heraldscotland.com/…/14291467.Reactor_incidents…/

Anyway lets hope that HMS Audacious gets through it’s trials without colliding with the Mersey Ferry or polluting the Irish Sea. Hopefully the vessel will have more joy than one of her named predecessors the King George V dreadnought, HMS Audacious that was sunk by a mine off Donegal in 1914 – fortunately all hands were saved.

Seriously are the comparatively shallow and congested waters of the Irish Sea a suitable ‘playground’ for submarines?

Image: HMS Ambush in Gibralter with a tarpaulin discreetly concealing its dent.

BERNARD MOFFATT
Public Relations Officer Mannin Branch

Issued by: The Mannin branch of the Celtic League.

29/04/17