Colin Hamilton – Acclimatising to the constricted life on board

Simon: So how was that shift being within that metal tube with those people for a set period of time?

It’s not something most people give much thought for. Claustrophobia hadn’t been invented in those days (laughs).

You know, it’s … when you go down to the Submarine Museum, and you go onboard Alliance, they’ve got two doors, back and front and someone said, “Would you shut that door when you dive?” I said, “Well, you don’t have doors on the side, you come down the top” and I said, “if I shut the door, and I close the bow door”, which I’m not supposed to do, it’s very dark and there was a shriek from the back.

Somebody was suffering from claustrophobia, so I got the door open quickly. But no, you don’t give it any thought. I mean Polaris went out for eight weeks, nine weeks. You dive in the Clyde; you do your thing, and you surface in the Clyde.

You acclimatise yourself. It never really worried me.