Jim Perks – Black humour helps you cope with the brutality of Perisher

Simon: And what effect does that have on the other people doing Perisher then?

Black humour. It becomes a friend really. On one side, when it happens, even if you can see it happening, when it actually happens it’s a shock. ‘Christ, this is real’ and you feel for the person that’s being removed but also it brings it home how real this is. You know, this is it. If we fail this, we’ll probably never walk onboard a submarine again and we’re desperate to command one, so yeah, ouch, how does that feel for the individual?

And I didn’t understand that until I became Teacher actually.

It turns out these guys have got it, you know they understood, they were fine. Fine, can’t do it, it’s not for me and doesn’t mean to say your career is over in the Navy, go off and do something else and be very successful in some circumstances.

Simon: So, your mind has been sharpened by the loss of two.

‘Cos you know it can happen at any time, and especially when it happens quickly. Then the black humour clutches in and you know, there are four of us left, Teacher is in with the Captain, there’s a bottle of whisky, it is joking about it, it’s that level of friendship.

I mean you truly know the people you are on Perisher with. You know the whole submarine crew, when you’re in a submarine. In individual Messes, the Junior Rates, the Senior Rates, the Ward Room, you know. You’re stuck in a tiny place for a lot of time.

Again, Perisher amplifies that ‘cos you are literally, you’ve been together already for what 4 months, pretty much day and night, long hours and then you’re socialising to take some pressure off and look after each other. We didn’t know it but we were looking after each other’s mental health. Now we recognise it as that.