Jim Perks – Periscope training using toilet rolls

So, I want you to stand up, with your back facing the water and slowly do a 360 turn.” So, we all did, he didn’t tell us why, he said, “Look through, kneel down again and right, what did you see?” “Where are all the ships?” “Oh shit, you didn’t tell me I was going to have to do that.”

So, then we started to understand and he said, “Right, next time, that’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to stand up, you’re going to do an all-round look, you’re going to kneel down again and you’ll tell me what you see.”

So, there’s a ship over there, it’s about 3000 yards away, it’s angle on the bow is this, amazing. And that’s what you’re trying to instil, very, very early on.

Perisher’s the PhD, that’s what it is. But ultimately you’re right, it’s got nothing to do with stopwatches, it’s everything to know about what is the most dangerous thing out there and how long have you got before it’s going to become a problem, and that and a whole analogy you take forward in a lot of what you do as a CO of a submarine, is understanding where the next problem is, how long you’ve got to solve it before you need to react in different manners.

Do I need to evade and run, do I need to stop and hide, do I need to put the mast down and do nothing, so that’s what eyes only is teaching you. I mean it looks good, it’s cool, it’s fun.

The guys on the Astute Class, they still do it but they don’t have to physically manhandle a huge Periscope and get oil dripped on them with lots of shouting around them. It’s all much calmer now because it’s all on a screen. They still have to do the Maths but you’ve got somebody else actually moving the Periscope.