Colin Hamilton – Polaris and the Cold War

Simon: Polaris, that was much more to do with the Russian side was it, the Cold War?

Yes, you are remaining undetected. They transferred the responsibility for nuclear weapons from the RAF who couldn’t stay up there forever, to submarines who could stay down there, and that’s what happened.

They were going to build five, but I think Harold Wilson cancelled one ‘cos they wanted to … there were all kinds of problems getting them built because of the technology and what have you, so he said, “We need some.”

Simon: It wasn’t as proven or wasn’t as effective as it was hoped to be then?

It was, we could have done with five because you know … you’re pushing it to get one out there on station. Ever since 1969, there’s always been a nuclear submarine on patrol, legend has it.

Now when you’re talking about it, when you go back in, after your eight weeks and you go to Coulport, which is the other side of the peninsula where you offload the missiles and change some of them, and then four days later you go on leave and the starboard crew take over.

Quite often the starboard crew arrive and accuse, “You haven’t been anywhere, you’ve been sitting on the bottom alongside Coulport, not like my husband.”

It was very strange you know, because they could probably see it if they decided to go over to Coulport. But then there’s always a bit of a rivalry between the two crews.