Midge Ure – How the different shifts work for and aft
Onboard a submarine we work slightly different. The front end of the submarine, and again I don’t know if you’ve been made aware of this, the front end of the submarine works a two Watch system, for six hours on, six hours off, six hours on, six hours off from the minute they go to sea. The back end of the submarine they work a completely different system.
Simon: The back being the propulsion?
The Engineering. So, a nuclear submarine as it is now, you’ve got the front end which is your Weapons Engineers, your Sailors, your Chefs, Stewards and the living accommodation for everyone. The middle section is primarily the reactor itself and everything beyond that, behind that to the back end is your Engine Room.
It’s not all Engine Room but it’s effectively the Marine Engineering Department. So, that Marine Engineering Department back there, we work a slightly different routine. We work a shift system and a Watch system which is four hours overnight, so three four hour shifts overnight, and then …
If you were to go onto what we would call the First, you would have your evening meal at half 6, you would go on Watch at 7 o’clock, and you would finish at 11 o’clock. Come off Watch when relieved by the next Watch. So, somebody is getting up at 11, to then come on and work through ‘till 3 in the morning. It’s a 24-hour shift. At no point does a nuclear reactor not get watched over, ever.
From the minute it commissions, to the minute it’s laid off, it’s always got someone there, so you work 11 to 3, and then somebody gets up at 3 in the morning to work through ‘till 7 in the morning until breakfast time. You go off and have your breakfast and then somebody comes on 7 ‘till 10, 10 to 1, 1 ‘till 4, 4 to 7 and then you start the night. So, there’s three overnight longer shifts, four 3 hour shifts during the day. Still makes up the 24-hour cycle and it fits in around that the Watches at the front.
It just means there’s as a ‘back afties’ which we’re labelled as, they’re ‘fore endies’, we’re ‘back afties’ you probably do two Watches a day, so you might only do 7 hours a day. They do 12 hours a day, so they’re actually on Watch longer than we are.
So, the ‘back afties’, if you’re only on Watch seven hours a day, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that you’ve got a lot of time off. So, if you’re away at sea for 10 weeks, 20 weeks or whatever, you spend a lot of time trying to find things to do, whether it’s watching a movie, listening to music, going on the Gym equipment or whatever, so what …