Submarines Stories Index

PERILS OF SUBMARINING
- Cdr SL Bhatla Retd

During annual exercises off Portland, UK, in Jul 65 when I was under trainee on board HMS Tiptoe, we were in the company of a number of ships and submarines under the Command of a Flag Officer, for exercises.

Early morning we left Portland harbour and headed to the sea. As usual we dived and my Captain, Cdr Charles Pope handed over watch at 0800 hours to me at a depth of 110 ft. He told me to watch out for some helicopters. I went to sonar, had a good look and came back in Control Room. I ordered the boat to Periscope Depth. As soon as the Periscope was up I saw three helicopters heading towards us. I went down to 110ft and went to call Captain who was in his bunk. Captain came to Control Room. I gave him the bearings of helicopters seen by me.

After a pause he went to Sonar Room, checked the sonar where nothing was heard. He then saw bathy chart and ordered boat to Periscope depth. As the Periscope was going up he was quickly going round with the Periscope. Suddenly with a big jolt, our boat went nearly to 90 Degree on Starboard Side.

All of us were thrown around and my right leg was in the Periscope Well with a knee injury. Some people were shouting. They all wanted to see their wife and children. Captain put his head on the chart table and numbed. I crawled and switched on the pump to transfer water to righten the boat. Some others also performed some emergency actions and with in a minute or so the boat was upright again.

I presumed that some hand grenades were thrown on us by the helicopters. We surfaced in emergency. I requested Captain's permission to open the hatch. He said negative; he would open it himself. He went up opened the hatch and went to the bridge. I again requested him for permission to come upto the bridge, which was granted.

Once on the bridge I was shocked to see that our radar aerial was floating nearby and the Periscope was bent and part of the super structure was cut and shifted. Captain then pointed to a ship about a mile away and said " that bastard has hit us". The ship was HMS War wick, a fast frigate with Flag Officer Sea Training on board. It was listing 45 degree after swallowing nearly 200 tons of water. After exchanging a few signals we were directed to sail to Portsmouth harbour.

While on the way we tried to cover all the damaged portion of super structure and finally we limped back to the harbour in the evening. A mailman came on board first and handed over a few letters and one telegram. I opened the telegram which was addressed to Captain wishing " Many Happy Returns of the Day". I hesitatingly gave it to Captain and said that somebody is trying to be funny. He said " No Shadi, it is my birthday today and this telegram is from my girlfriend".

After a while, a hoard of Senior Officers with overhauls tucked under their arms were seen coming to our boat. Captain ordered me to put all the champagne bottles in the cold room. After receiving all the Senior Officers, we took them to the wardroom and opened the champagne.

The incident was discussed during toasting of the captain's birthday. Finally Captain was court marshaled and was cleared fully because of the unfavorable bathy conditions in the area. I was the main witness.