Colin Hamilton – Switching to Polaris

Simon: So, when you shifted to Polaris, what was that experience like? Did it feel any different knowing what you had onboard?

It was different. ‘Cos I hadn’t been to sea on Warspite, ‘cos I left her before she was completed, it was definitely different. I mean it never bothered me being in the dark. I’d spent quite a lot of time crawling through dark dingy tanks.

Simon What do you mean in the dark?

Well you know, with false lighting and especially at night when … especially on conventional boats, they go into red lighting so that the Captain doesn’t lose his night vision, so you’re bumbling around in this red light, all the other lights are off so it can be quite unnerving in the dark, especially if the submarine is pitching.

There’s no windows, but there aren’t many windows on modern ships.