Posted on 11/27/2010 12:27:37 PM PST by SmithL
THE naval officer in charge of a state-of-the-art submarine when it ran aground off the coast of Scotland has been relieved of command.
Nuclear-powered HMS Astute was the first of a new class of cutting-edge sub being put through sea trials when it became stuck on a shingle bank off the Isle of Skye last month.
It was stuck for several hours and had to be pulled clear when the tide came in.
Naval chiefs announced that the man in charge of the vessel, Andy Coles, 47, was yesterday stripped of his command of the submarine altogether. He will remain with the Royal Navy and will be handed another post.
No decision has yet been made over whether he will face a court martial over the incident on October 22.
(Excerpt) Read more at thesun.co.uk ...
One ping only?
Thanks for the ping. I hadn’t heard about this.
He’ll now be in charge of locating banks.
If it has a cutting edge, how did it get stuck?
oh...never mind
A career limiting maneuver.
Running a sub aground to use it as a permanent shore battery against invaders. That will work. Cap'n Andy was thinking outside of the box on this one.
BTW, this shingle bank isn't on my chart either, Andy. Carry on.
Furthermore he went gently up on the smooth rocky shale bank, not like that yank yutz who ran his boat full tilt-boogie into an undersea mountain, killing and maiming sailors left and right, and wrecking the boat beyond repair.
Pity. They had such high hopes for the Astute.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1551028/Navys-stealth-submarine-will-rule-the-oceans.html
A Bobby Darin tribute might be appropriate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEIDep_UMmk
Enjoy!
Gee, now that there’s a hard-core evolutionist in charge, I’m surprised the Navy doesn’t have a more enlightened policy about ships going ashore...
HMS Astute has not been fitted with a traditional periscope but uses electro-optics to capture 360-degree images of the surface for analysis by the commanding officer.
Senior Navy sources said submariners on the Astute would have also used computerised maps of the area and printouts to judge the vessel’s safest path in the shallow and it is these that may have misled the crew.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1323285/HMS-Astute-Charts-Britains-1-2bn-nuclear-submarine-date.html#ixzz16WCh7WMq.
This was a wake-up call for me. I have been using the place mats from a lobster roll shack as charts for years. They're laminated, you see, and easy to wipe off.... and when one is not using them for navigational purposes, they are still ... you guessed it ... great place mats.
I guess they don't have Lobster Roll Shacks on the Isle of Skye? PS: He was picking up some guys from the beach. Coulda happened to anyone. What's the big deal here?
Note the black tarp on the front. I wonder if that is hiding stuff they do not want other countries to see.
I am amazed Jimmy Carter was a sub captain.
LOL! People can joke but if this guy had bad maps or the seabed changed they probably not his fault. The Brits often have crap support stuff. Kind of like our guys with M4 carbines fighting in valleys in Afghanistan. Wrong gun.
The only thing LESS career enhancing than a ‘collision at sea’ is running aground.
Now back in my day (oh here we go) the CO was completely responsible for YOU even if he was asleep in his rack and YOU were out getting drunk and tearing up the town.
“They” say he may get a Courts-Martial. About the only thing that will save him is if there isn’t a chart in the world that points out this particular ‘barrier’.
It sure is lonely at the top, especially when you screw up.
Carter was never a captain and never spent a day as crewman of a nuke sub.
This has already happened several times to USN sub commanders who have damaged their vessels underwater by hitting uncharted submerged mountains, and other calamities. The USN is very strict with their ship captains’ responsibily not to hazard their vessel.
“Note the black tarp on the front.”
That’s their new “anti grounding” secret weapon.
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