Fee Fi Fo Fum
08-12-2004, 08:54 PM
A notable feature on the Gosport skyline, the tower containing the Royal Navy's Submarine Escape Training Tank, celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, having provided essential safety training for over 300,000 submariners since 1954.
The tank, sited at Fort Blockhouse, is 100 feet deep and was constructed as part of the Royal Navy's pioneering work during the 1950s developing escape techniques to improve the chances of survival for crew in the event of a submarine accident. The Submarine Escape Training Tank set the standard followed by many navies around the world, and in addition to Royal Navy personnel, submariners from the United States, Canadian, Italian, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Turkey and South Africa have been trained at the facility. At the peak of the Cold War, some 4,500 trainees experienced the SETT each year - the number at present averages around 2,500 per year.
Every RN submariner has to successfully complete the SETT course during initial training, and then requalify at periods during their service at sea. While the trainees practise using escape breathing apparatus to ascend from the depths, their instructors use breath-held diving techniques to move through the water while monitoring student's safe progress. In addition to their instructional role, the SETT training staff form a ten-man parachute submarine rescue team, constantly at six-hours notice to deploy anywhere in the world and able to be delivered by airdrop directly at the scene of an accident.
http://www.news.mod.uk/img/pressdatabase/images/supportingImages/large/sett2_tn.jpg
The Second Sea Lord witnesses a demonstration ascent of the SETT during a visit to the facility
http://www.news.mod.uk/img/pressdatabase/images/supportingImages/large/sett1_tn.jpg
The SETT tower, with Lt-Cdr Mannion, its Officer Commanding, and Cdr McDonnell, the OC of the RN Submarine School.
The tank, sited at Fort Blockhouse, is 100 feet deep and was constructed as part of the Royal Navy's pioneering work during the 1950s developing escape techniques to improve the chances of survival for crew in the event of a submarine accident. The Submarine Escape Training Tank set the standard followed by many navies around the world, and in addition to Royal Navy personnel, submariners from the United States, Canadian, Italian, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Turkey and South Africa have been trained at the facility. At the peak of the Cold War, some 4,500 trainees experienced the SETT each year - the number at present averages around 2,500 per year.
Every RN submariner has to successfully complete the SETT course during initial training, and then requalify at periods during their service at sea. While the trainees practise using escape breathing apparatus to ascend from the depths, their instructors use breath-held diving techniques to move through the water while monitoring student's safe progress. In addition to their instructional role, the SETT training staff form a ten-man parachute submarine rescue team, constantly at six-hours notice to deploy anywhere in the world and able to be delivered by airdrop directly at the scene of an accident.
http://www.news.mod.uk/img/pressdatabase/images/supportingImages/large/sett2_tn.jpg
The Second Sea Lord witnesses a demonstration ascent of the SETT during a visit to the facility
http://www.news.mod.uk/img/pressdatabase/images/supportingImages/large/sett1_tn.jpg
The SETT tower, with Lt-Cdr Mannion, its Officer Commanding, and Cdr McDonnell, the OC of the RN Submarine School.