HMS Argyll tries to sink Guzz

Posted this in here as I think it could lead to some funny dits.

BBC News - HMS Argyll navy torpedo fired into Devonport wharf


I would believe that some touch drills were done a little too enthusiastically for this to happen.

I have seen a Lynx drop a TVT during touch drills. By the time the cab was back on board I had a punch bag rigged up as a TVT in the hangar. It had the nose cap, parachute and other bits on it to look real. Hanging from the hangar gantry with the parachute fastened to railing behind it it looked quite good.
The observer thought otherwise and was heard to mutter something under his breath at me.

 

Quite a few things would have had to go wrong in order for that to happen alongside.

As always, I would imagine a series of small factors led to a large fuck-up :error:

 

Ain't life fun, on the 231.

Fantastic photo of said 231, firing a torpedo. Champers anyone?! :lol:

 

This is brilliant. Spectacularly so.

 

Was it targeted at Swilly... or the Avondale?

 

It would have been better if a dockyard copper was walking past the fence at the same time.

 

A least they managed to hit something.

 

Working on the principle that shit rolls down hill (in this case, fast) I would imagine some young ET(WE) has just had his/her recommends for killicks tippexed over (or the electronic equivalent, including red writing in his/her electronic docs).

 

They haven't allowed red writing in docs for some considerable time. I'm sure guzzler will enlighten us.

Sent from my HTC One SV using Navy Net - Rum Ration mobile app

 

I'm well out of the loop now dapper - RR, the odd pint with Ballistic and even more rare ones with the Torpoint contingent is my only contact these days.

The red underlining has certainly gone (obviously with computerisation) and I do believe it was actually stopped quite a long time ago as you say. Red writing, to my knowledge, was never actually a correct (or even legal?) procedure, it was just underlining - though no doubt someone will have a dit telling me different. I don't doubt it (red writing) did happen occasionally as service documentation was a fucking disgrace in the 'old days', and anything went due to lack of proper control/management.

One of the good things that has happened over recent years is the cleaning up of the 'write ups' - I always thought they were just a source of entertainment for the wardroom (and a few chuckles in the ship's office I suppose, but that doesn't make it right) and though many may dislike the sanitised 'PC' modern Navy, at least a system is now in place to give personnel a proper, or at least greatly improved, chance to progress on genuine merit rather than just the whim of some pissed-up Supply Officer (bitter? nah!) or whatever.

I can't believe I've let myself sidetrack into fascinating writer dits on a thread about things that go bang - or in this case didn't, but the lacklustre divisional documentation and attitudes to people's careers in the 70s & 80s is as near as I get to a passion about my former career.

 

That's why I said the electronic version of red writing as service docs no longer exist. The linen hand written docs died the death in 1999 and writes went computerised as RORRs 1, 2 and 3 about the same time although you could still do red writing on those (I have the proof!!). Not sure how that's entered on JPA as that came in just as I was leaving.

 

Didn't know that Wrecks. I'll wager it was 'unofficial' though. The red stuff that is.

 

The RoRRs I've got with red writing (underlined as well in case of B&W printers I was told) seemed official enough. I was a Chief and had a little disagreement (*cough*) with an SD subby. Caused a bit of nause (not for me) as he left me as VG Sup but couldn't justify dropping me down to Sat.

 

Yeah, been there. As I say, not disputing what you say, just not aware of it as a recognised procedure. Tacky IMO.

 

The Daily Mail's article on the incident. There's nothing like over egging the pudding is there?

Royal Navy fire 9ft torpedo from warship into nuclear dockyard | Mail Online

Also note the aparently, the torpedo tubes on a T23 are normally underwater but have been exposed by the low tide! FFS.

 

Yep, some cracking investigative journalism going on at the DM offices! How far is it from Frigate alley to 10 or 11 berth?

 

The Daily Wail isn't the only rag to mangle the facts.

A few different sources stated that "the 45kg missile flew 200 yards through the air". :wtf:

Apart from the "missile's" weight, if you can get MTLS to launch a torpedo 200 yards through the air it's time to reclassify it as a Close Range Anti-Aircraft weapon :tongue3:

 

Cue several re-makes of popular war movies

Above us the Pavement...
Sink the Portacabin...
Run Silent, Run Quick...
We Skive at Dawn...
The Enemy Alongside...
HMS Marlborough will engage harbour...
Master and Commander: The far side of the quay...

(any and all contributions gratefully accepted)

 

The Cruel Harbour?

 

I don't think people are treating this incident with the seriousness it deserves.

This dummy torpedo was ejected using compressed air and it can be the devil's own job to find the right replacement Sparklets soda syphon bulbs these days.