Nimrod Mk 1 - 1c buoys

[Pontius Navigator]

Can anyone remind me the load of 1c buoys on the Nimrod and numbers of actives and passives?

[Not Long Here]

23 total - Nine on station 1, seven each on Stations 4 and 5. Can't remenber what the standard mix was though.

[Pontius Navigator]

Nlh, brilliant, thanks. On that my mind was a blank. I guess because we dropped few 1c even than torpedoes.

[PingDit]

Crikey! that brings back some memories!

Action Stations... Closed-up on 1C - 'Anvil' smoking his pipe on my left, me in the centre coordinating while puffing on some Old Holborn and 'Doddy' looking decidedly green on my right. The Nav's throwing out the odd complaint about not being able to see the Tac Screen because of the billlowing clouds coming from the Acoustics Station! Ahhh... them were the days....

[PTR 175]

A complete war load of Mk 1C was kept on two Type S trolleys in the dump. 12 sets were kept at STM. Some were kept in with the smoke floats so we had to wear BA sets to get them out if we did not have time to ventilate the storage.

They were all loaded onto three AV 288 carriers. Each set was serviced annually. There were restrictions on the two types of Buoys (T17053 and T17054) on how they were loaded.

With only 16 RF channels and 3 Acoustic channels available, loading them was a bit of a jigsaw without a picture especially if there was a shortage of certain RF frequencies, which was a regular occurrence.

If i recall correctly you could not have two buoys with the same RF channel on the same carrier nor could you have actives with the same acoustic channel on adjacent hard points of the 288.

At StM we kept a large back up stock in a large building over by the dump, but still ran out of some RF channels on occasions. I also kept my dinghy in there along with the bonnet of an E-type jag belonging to a plumber and on occasion the angling club boat was in there as well. The storage building is still there. The Sonobuoy bay was used by the SAR staff. That is still there as well.


If you go into the imperial museum you will see one mounted on its servicing stand. I was amazed when I saw it.

Ex Jnr Tech in the Sonobuoy bay. A long time ago

[Avtur]

An ASW display is currently being set up in the FAST Museum in Farnborough that will feature several sonobuoys with their casings opened to show the guts of how they worked.

[oxenos]

"T17053 and T17054"

I seem to recall a T 9003 - only because of a song. ( Climb upon my knee, sonobouy. Though you're 9003, sonobouy) Sung to Danny boy.

Were 17053 / 4 later versions?

[PTR 175]

If i recall correctly the T17053 and T17054 buoys were basically updated version of the older types but they had solid state electronics rather than miniature valves and hence the different type numbers.

So yes just a later model.

By the way if you throw parts of a dye pack into the stream at Watergate bay when the emmits are there it turned them purple as well, oops.

[oxenos]

Neighbour of mine referred to them as 'emmeroids.
They come down in bunches, turn red, and they're a pain in the bleedin ass.

[denachtenmai]

By the way,if you threw a broken sonobuoy dye pack into the stream that passed 204's pans in Ballykelly, the "farmer" about 4 miles downstream towards the lough,got very irate when all his ducks turned bright green,allegedly.
Regards, Den.

[Pontius Navigator]

PTR, thank you.

I already found the picture on the IWM website. Had to "remove" the trolley.

Now, if I think really hard I might remember the Jez type, 24953?

Plenty of A-size imagery on line but none for the tastefully painted British buoy.

Presumably the 1c was painted Orange as an aid to the Shack to get a good on top (wonderful position in nose or tail). Come the Nimrod I guess someone thought it a good idea to paint the A-size in dayglo as well to help the submarine see them :(

[Cazalet33]

I also kept my dinghy in there along with the bonnet of an E-type Jag belonging to a plumber and on occasion the angling club boat was in there as well.
As you do.

Try telling that to the young whippersnappers nowadays!