Massive respect for this man. Love the emotion he clearly has regarding his lads! I left the Nottingham a couple of months before this happened and knew some of those mentioned. Great ships company & a great Captain.
I was on HMNZS Te Mana when we came to the rescue, and i have to say that going on board in the days after was one of the scariest experiences in my service. As a WE man, i have to argue that we don't spend all our time on our backs, some is on our sides :D
A ship operated by giants - What a wonderful statement from a Commanding Officer to say of his crew. A fine example of NBCD training swinging into action and saving the ship. Bravo Zulu to all involved.
A great Captain makes for great men. You guys overcame everything, stepped up to the mark, all the training came to fruition and it worked!!! I was on Submarines, i understand when you get in the shit the training and the leadership you receive from up top resolves issues! I remember being at sea on a Submarine, we caught fire and at one point we were going down backwards with no propulsion! You come together, you work together, and you bloody get on with it! We had a great Captain, but we did our bit, and did it well. This video is great, this is why the Royal Navy are by far the best in the world!!
This ship was brought into Newcastle after the grounding. I took photos of it from the yacht club marina on Throsby Creek. Alas digital cameras and zoom weren’t too good at the time.
The skippers first command was HMS Kingfisher a bird class patrol boat which was part of the Northern Ireland Squadron. He was lieutenant farrington then and a good boss....
I had RFs relief in my classroom the next week and a handful of photographs for him to see that had been sent me from elsewhere in the naval network. Needless to say it was a sobering lesson, and he was clearly not joining D91 any time soon.
RN damage control school is very hardcore. That's the only reason they didn't lose the ship. It's funny that, by the standards of that day, the computers were vastly out of date. But they were still essential to that ship. Generally this would be career ending in many navies. Commodore Farrington's career lived to fight another day.
Not much dispute that the RN training given to the ratings, along with their stoic characters, saved the day. From a navigational perspective though several of the officers, including the captain in particular, let everyone down and put the whole crew in grave danger. From his commentary it sounds like he was planning on the hoof, rather than coming up with a comprehensive plan to safely manage the ship's stay there. Wolf rock is clearly marked on the chart, south of Mutton Bird island so the captain could have held a brief meeting with his navigational officers before going ashore and clarified some exclusion areas. It sounds from the commentary as if the captain had a very weak knowledge of where the danger areas were around the island, as he relates a couple of calls to the harbourmaster for information which might reasonably have been expected to have been in RN sailing directions. Ultimately he was reprimanded and several members of the crew were commended, so it appears the navy could see what had happened. When you're in charge of a warship you might be expected to lose it to enemy action, but not during navigation when on a visit.
You can just hear his passion for the Navy, his pride in his crew and his embedded emotion of it all 20 years later.
Well done Sir.
Massive respect for this man. Love the emotion he clearly has regarding his lads! I left the Nottingham a couple of months before this happened and knew some of those mentioned. Great ships company & a great Captain.
I was on HMNZS Te Mana when we came to the rescue, and i have to say that going on board in the days after was one of the scariest experiences in my service. As a WE man, i have to argue that we don't spend all our time on our backs, some is on our sides :D
A ship operated by giants - What a wonderful statement from a Commanding Officer to say of his crew.
A fine example of NBCD training swinging into action and saving the ship. Bravo Zulu to all involved.
A marvellous example of what people can achieve when they’re part of a team.
Triumph over adversity.
What a fantastic post
A great Captain makes for great men. You guys overcame everything, stepped up to the mark, all the training came to fruition and it worked!!! I was on Submarines, i understand when you get in the shit the training and the leadership you receive from up top resolves issues! I remember being at sea on a Submarine, we caught fire and at one point we were going down backwards with no propulsion! You come together, you work together, and you bloody get on with it! We had a great Captain, but we did our bit, and did it well. This video is great, this is why the Royal Navy are by far the best in the world!!
This ship was brought into Newcastle after the grounding. I took photos of it from the yacht club marina on Throsby Creek. Alas digital cameras and zoom weren’t too good at the time.
Incredible story! 🙏
The skippers first command was HMS Kingfisher a bird class patrol boat which was part of the Northern Ireland Squadron. He was lieutenant farrington then and a good boss....
I had RFs relief in my classroom the next week and a handful of photographs for him to see that had been sent me from elsewhere in the naval network. Needless to say it was a sobering lesson, and he was clearly not joining D91 any time soon.
So who was the navigator ...... the man that plots the ships course?
RN damage control school is very hardcore. That's the only reason they didn't lose the ship. It's funny that, by the standards of that day, the computers were vastly out of date. But they were still essential to that ship. Generally this would be career ending in many navies. Commodore Farrington's career lived to fight another day.
Not much dispute that the RN training given to the ratings, along with their stoic characters, saved the day. From a navigational perspective though several of the officers, including the captain in particular, let everyone down and put the whole crew in grave danger. From his commentary it sounds like he was planning on the hoof, rather than coming up with a comprehensive plan to safely manage the ship's stay there. Wolf rock is clearly marked on the chart, south of Mutton Bird island so the captain could have held a brief meeting with his navigational officers before going ashore and clarified some exclusion areas. It sounds from the commentary as if the captain had a very weak knowledge of where the danger areas were around the island, as he relates a couple of calls to the harbourmaster for information which might reasonably have been expected to have been in RN sailing directions. Ultimately he was reprimanded and several members of the crew were commended, so it appears the navy could see what had happened. When you're in charge of a warship you might be expected to lose it to enemy action, but not during navigation when on a visit.
Human existence is replete with 'what ifs' and after-the-event experts.
Must have been some whiplash claims !!
Halim Talafuka,Alhamdulillahirobil Alamiin,Allahumma Amiin.@$.
Old ships