A ceremony marking the retirement of Royal Navy submarine HMS Turbulent
took place this weekend at Her Majesty's Naval Base Devonport in
Plymouth.
Turbulent officially left operational service at a decommissioning
ceremony on Saturday after nearly 30 years of service, including firing
missiles during operations against Libya.
The ceremony marked the end of the distinguished service of the second
oldest of the Trafalgar Class submarines with the Royal Navy, the boat
having come to the end of her natural operational life.
Guests included the submarine's sponsor Lady Cassidi, twelve previous
commanding officers, and family and friends of the submarine and her
crew from over the years.
Lady Cassidi paid tribute to the submarine, her crew and the families
who supported the vessel when at sea. The submarine's bell was rung for
the last time, the decommissioning pennant was lowered on board, a
religious service was staged and the Band of Her Majesty's Royal Marines
Commando Training Centre Lympstone played.
HMS Turbulent's current Commanding Officer, Commander Nicholas Wheeler,
said: "The decommissioning event provides a memorable opportunity to
officially decommission Turbulent from her fleet life. It was an
opportunity for me to offer my and the Royal Navy's gratitude for the
hard work the men of Turbulent have provided me and my predecessors over
recent years.
"It is an honour to have Lady Cassidi attend the event as ship's sponsor after many years of unfaltering support."
The submarine has had an active and successful career, fundamental to
the defence of the United Kingdom. In 2011 Turbulent deployed from the
UK for a longer than normal 268 days, successfully completing a
deployment to the Indian Ocean.
HMS Turbulent also provided Tomahawk land attack missile coverage in
support of joint operations against the former rulers of Libya and
conducted other operations and exercises during which she visited Souda
Bay, Fujairah, Bahrain, Goa and Aqaba.
Commander Ryan Ramsey, who captained the submarine in 2011 and now teaches new submarine commanding officers, said:
"This was a chance to celebrate 29-and-a-half years of maintaining
service and operations for our country. I came to say goodbye to some
amazing people. I was always amazed by the quality of my ship's people
when I was serving on submarines and their unfailing ability to deliver
security and operations to the UK.
"This was an exceptionally emotional time - to see the end of a
submarine which has been so much part of my life and my family's life
for several years."
Commander Ramsey added: "It is a great occasion to celebrate the success
of the submarine and to see my former ship's company who I led on so
many operations - we formed a strong bond which remains. It has also
been very rewarding to see how my former team has moved on and developed
and been promoted in some cases."
Since being commissioned in 1984 Turbulent has been deployed on patrols
as far apart as the North Atlantic and Far East, and saw service in the
Adriatic during the Balkans conflict. Trafalgar Class attack submarines
were designed as Cold War warriors but have adapted to the demands of
the 21st century.
Based in Devonport, the boat's hunter-killer title came from her primary
role - to hunt out and destroy enemy nuclear missile submarines as well
as surface ships.
That has always been part of her remit, but over the decades the
submarine has been kitted out for other roles, including covert
surveillance of enemy forces and inshore reconnaissance of installations
and landing beaches.
Captain Tim Lightoller (Ret'd) was HMS Turbulent's first commanding
officer in 1982 and was a guest of honour at the decommissioning
ceremony. He said:
"I must admit to being emotional at seeing the end of HMS Turbulent's
service today. I am surprised at how emotional it is. It is a day of
mixed emotions for me - a sad day to say farewell to a very happy boat,
but there is much to remember of a fantastic life of operational
service.
"I was in charge of the boat for its first three years of life and was
at the launch with Lady Cassidi and got it through trials and testing
and into operational service. It was then the Cold War and our prime
role was monitoring Soviet submarine operations and working under the
ice in the North Atlantic."
Captain Lightoller's grandfather was Second Officer Charles Lightoller
on the liner Titanic and the most senior officer to survive the famous
sinking who went on to be decorated for sinking submarines in the First
World War.
Captain Lightoller said he had always wanted to be a submariner and
served on HMS Rorqual and Opportune before heading submarine sea
training in Scotland where he lives. On leaving the Royal Navy he got a
job with the National Trust for Scotland.
A former member of Captain Lightoller's crew at the ceremony was ex-Chief Petty Officer Tony Chamberlain who said:
"HMS Turbulent has always been a happy boat and this is obvious today
mixing with old shipmates at this event. A highlight was meeting a US
boat, the submarine Sea Devil, at the North Pole on Independence Day and
being escorted by her and having her captain on board.
"We worked a lot under the ice in northern waters collecting
intelligence in the Cold War and testing systems in Norwegian waters. It
is great being at this event and catching up with old colleagues."
HMS Turbulent is the second Royal Navy submarine to bear the name. The
first was a Triton Class submarine launched in 1941 which served during
the Second World War until she was sunk by a mine near to the Maddalena
Archipelago off Sardinia in 1943.
The current HMS Turbulent was built by the Vickers shipbuilding company
in Barrow-in-Furness, was commissioned in 1982, and has been commanded
by thirteen captains.
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