Having just managed to watch the latest episode of Warship - Life at sea, I am again struck by what an omnishambles the whole thing makes the Navy look. Leaving aside the now obligatory fire , and extraction of crew members by Merlin for drug taking, this episode's drama of the flooding caused by a torn seal around the base of the gun barrel and the consequent hand bailing out exercise verged on the comical. Given how vital the mission was said to be, with the attendant and inevitable for channel 5 race against time, the 50% reduction in speed did seem like an obvious handicap, Why did they not rotate the gun to move the seal out of the way on the onrushing waves? On planet earth in 2022. there must surely be a better understanding of how to design ships than this, and better and more effective ways to remove flooding.
Returning to the main event, it is surely not without relevance that while the sub was at close quarters, and before any damage to the towed array, the system went U/S. The Merlin was still not deployed . When the circuit boards had been shuffled to restore the system, the sub was nowhere to be found.
Are Channel 5 documentary makers a Jinx on any vessel they are aboard, or is it really as bad as it seems?
Next episode awaited with baited breath and a deep sense of foreboding......