Andy Dinsdale – Being onboard during Perisher
Simon: When you’re onboard during the Perisher, is that quite good fun for you to … ‘cos you kind of know that you’re safe because Teachers going to be there making sure you don’t get into … the craft isn’t going to get into trouble.
Yeah you do know you’re safe. I don’t know if I’d call it good fun? It’s hard, because you’re deliberately pushing these guys hard, ‘cos you know you’ve got to push their bounds so that eventually when they’re in charge, they’re going to do what you need them to do as a Commanding Officer.
So yeah, ‘cos obviously, I say obviously, you know things that they don’t so yes, there is a bit of fun and it’s a good time but I guess it is … going back to what I liked about being a Submariner, it is wholly professional, you know they’re there as Trainees, they are Trainees, they’re Training Commanding Officers but they’re flipping experienced Submariners.
The bit that you know and respect for them is that this is the pinnacle of their career, so the fact that they’re onboard for a few weeks means that at the end of it, either they will have achieved Perisher and become a Commanding Officer, or they won’t. And the really hard one, and we did have people that didn’t, and that’s …
Simon: And that’s the end of their time in the Submarine Service.
That’s the end of their time on a submarine. Some of them go back to or go to surface ships and continue a career in surface ships, go in different directions, but they will never be a Commanding … and ultimately you do feel for them because … so, yes it’s fun but it’s also very serious fun ‘cos you know you’re there to put them through their paces.