Tue May 18, 2021 7:32 pm
#1847816
Submarine escapes are rarely impressive but their is one worthy of note which was not an emergency but rather to test the equipment. Men from the SETT set up a world record for a free ascent form 600ft from a diesel “O” boat off Malta in the 60s. It was a gutsy thing to do - no special equipment with them, just a random selection of escape suits from the on board stock. They went out one by one from the escape chamber, into total blackness - the chamber flooded so quickly that their ear drums all burst. I think the record still stands although, at the time, the depth was recorded at 750ft. When the Dreadnought went into refit, the escape gear was unloaded and every single escape suit pack broke like fluorescent tubes due to the heat at the stowage point above the main engines.
A real life escape happened in the Thames estuary in the 50s(?), from a diesel boat in collision with a coaster, was a textbook escape but the majority of them drifted away on the tide and perished. There are several types of escape - if water is coming in you keep the water level down by opening up air into the compartment to balance the outside pressure. A canvas twill trunking is lowered and lashed down below the escape tower. By this time you have to plug into an emergency breathing ringmain. Chamber upper and lower hatches are opened and you work your way toward the the chamber, take a final deep breath, pass the breathing piece to the next man, duck under the twill trunking and away you go but you must”whistle” all the way to the surface or the inevitable happens.
If you know that a rescue ship is waiting up top and their is no rapid flood, you go out singly in a Michelin man suit using a system of - enter chamber, shut the lowed lid, the others still inside flood the chamber and when the pressures balance the upper hatch flips open and your away like a rocket. But, the last man to go has a unique set of operations to do, by memory. If he gets it wrong he will be forever trapped in the chamber.
The final method is by Deep Submergence Rescue Vessel DSRV, which is piggy backed on to another boat and taken to the stricken boat. It latches itself on to a ring around the upper hatch of the escape chamber and the crew are extracted 20 at a time ( I seem to remember) and taken up top.
Sorry for rambling on - I hope it all makes sense !
Forgot to add - all this is done in the dark, except for those plastic things that you bend to break a glass phial inside which sets off a chemical reaction giving out a green light.
Antagonise no man, for you never know the hour when you may have need of him.