Chris Groves – First time out as the Captain of a submarine
Simon: What was that like being the first time you went onboard as the actual Commander then?
I really enjoyed it I think. I think it wasn’t really until the first time I took her to sea that it really kind of hit home. So, alongside managing the Maintenance Period was fine. I had a team, a bunch of Heads of Departments who were really capable who I trusted. Built trust in them pretty quickly. I’d been in Maintenance Periods in submarines before so it wasn’t new particularly. I’d brought a submarine out of Refit so I knew what it was like to be in Dockyard hands and what the challenges were.
So I think the first most memorable moment was probably having gone to Harbour Stations and got the tugs attached to the submarine, and letting go all lines, and having the tugs sort of take you off the Berth and get you sort of pointing in the right direction, and then the first time that you let go all the tugs and start south, going down the Hamoaze in Plymouth in the submarine and you sort of give the order, “Slow ahead” and suddenly that realisation dawns that there are no tugs attached, it’s you, you’re the Captain, you’re sat there, your navigating, you’ve been in that scenario, you’ve been in that position many, many times but all of a sudden it’s down to you. And I can remember that feeling.
It’s a kind of a mixture between … to enjoy and absolute terror I suppose. It’s not terror. There’s just this realisation that you’ve got this 5,000 tonnes nuclear submarine, nuclear reactor, 130 people and you’re on your own, it’s you. That in some ways is liberating.