A Submarine Escape Training Tower is a facility used for training submariners in methods of emergency escape from a disabled submarine underwater. It is a deep tank filled with water with at least one underwater entrance at depth simulating an airlock in a submarine. Since the 1930s, towers have been built for use by the Royal Navy, US Navy, Royal Australian Navy and in several other countries.
The Submarine Escape Training Tank (SETT) is a 100-foot (30 m) deep facility primarily operated to conduct training with submarine escape equipment, operated by the Royal Navy. [1] [2] The facility, located at Fort Blockhouse, Gosport opposite HMNB Portsmouth, [3] includes a fresh, chlorinated water column with a single escape chamber (as fitted to some classes of RN submarines) mounted at the base, through which students can conduct a fully representative escape cycle from 100 feet (30 m), closely replicating actions which would be required if forced to abandon a distressed submarine from depth. The SETT has its own dedicated boiler house to maintain its water temperature at 34 °C (94 °F). [3] The SETT was commissioned in 1954, with the first students trained in July of that year. Since that time completion of ‘the Tank’ has been a rite of passage for all RN Submariners. Training includes ascents from increasing depths as a major element, but in addition is underpinned by lectures and practical training in how to survive within a disabled submarine, operation of emergency equipment and survival techniques on reaching the surface – a package of potentially life saving skills. Over the years, the SETT has been used to train submariners from Italy, USA, Greece, Canada, Israel, Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, Australia and the Netherlands – with the staff and facility enjoying a worldwide reputation for excellence and good practice. [4] Owing to a combination of increased safety associated with modern submarine design, submarines operating in areas where escape would be impossible with current equipment and the risks associated with the conduct of training, the RN discontinued pressurised submarine escape training in March 2009.
The staff at SETT are drawn from the ranks of the UK Submarine Service. All members of SETT staff form part of the SMERAT (Submarine Escape and Rescue Advisory Team), [5] some members form the UK SPAG (Submarine Parachute Assistance Group), [6] and some form part of the UK contribution to the NSRS (LR5) Team. [7] All staff are trained in advanced life-saving techniques and diving medicine.
The tower was also privately hired to civilian diving clubs for the purpose of recreational diving and dive training. It was a popular 'novelty' dive amongst UK scuba divers since it allowed new trainees to extend their depth experience in a safe, controlled environment with good visibility and warm water temperature – two conditions that are in short supply in the UK. For similar reasons it was also used for freediving training, with participants including world record-holder Tanya Streeter. [8] In addition, the SETT has been used frequently for both underwater equipment testing, and to support media activity – notably hosting Blue Peter on a number of occasions, with some presenters completing ascent training. It has also been used frequently as a situation assessment trials tank (SATT) for technical divers.
US Navy escape towers were known as Escape Training Tanks. From the 1930s through the 1990s, they were used for training in buoyant ascent, the Momsen lung, and the Steinke hood. The decommissioned tower on Ford Island, Hawaii, was built to train United States Navy Pacific Fleet submariners prior to World War II, and was converted for use as an airport control tower after the attack on Pearl Harbor. [9]
Across the harbor, the tower on Sub-Base Pearl Harbor was used between 1932 and 1983. Neither of the U.S. escape towers in Hawaii are in use. The towers were also used to train scuba equipped divers (SEALs) or Underwater Demolition Teams to access or egress the submarine during special operations. The tower once located on Naval Submarine Base New London was in use between 1930 and 1994 and has since been razed.[ citation needed ] The Submarine Escape Trainer, a 40-foot (12 m) high, 84,000-gallon pool with two escape trunks was constructed at New London in 2007. [10]
Similar facilities are operated by the Royal Australian Navy at the Submarine Escape Training Facility at HMAS Stirling, [11] in Norway and Sweden, and in Turkey at Gölcük Naval Base. [12] The German Navy operates a 36-metre-deep escape training pool, built in 1977, at Einsatzausbildungszentrum Schadensabwehr Marine (Damage Control Training Centre) in Neustadt in Holstein. [13]
Since 2013 there is a submarine escape training tank situated next to non-profit swimming pool "Het Heersdiep" in Den Helder, The Netherlands. This tank is used by the Royal Netherlands Navy and also by other navies from all over the world. The tower at Aquacentrum Den Helder can also be used by civilian diving clubs for recreational diving and dive training. It is also used for freediving training and for fire brigade diving training.
The South African Navy has a submarine escape training tank at the navy diving school at the SAS Simonsberg training unit in Simon's Town on the Cape Peninsula.
Diving activities are the things people do while diving underwater. People may dive for various reasons, both personal and professional. While a newly qualified recreational diver may dive purely for the experience of diving, most divers have some additional reason for being underwater. Recreational diving is purely for enjoyment and has several specialisations and technical disciplines to provide more scope for varied activities for which specialist training can be offered, such as cave diving, wreck diving, ice diving and deep diving. Several underwater sports are available for exercise and competition.
Charles Bowers Momsen, nicknamed "Swede", was born in Flushing, New York. He was an American pioneer in submarine rescue for the United States Navy, and he invented the underwater escape device later called the "Momsen lung", for which he received the Navy Distinguished Service Medal in 1929. In May 1939, Momsen directed the rescue of the crew of Squalus (SS-192).
Underwater divers may be employed in any branch of an armed force, including the navy, army, marines, air force and coast guard. Scope of operations includes: search and recovery, search and rescue, hydrographic survey, explosive ordnance disposal, demolition, underwater engineering, salvage, ships husbandry, reconnaissance, infiltration, sabotage, counterifiltration, underwater combat and security.
The Momsen lung was a primitive underwater rebreather used before and during World War II by American submariners as emergency escape gear. It was invented by Charles Momsen. Submariners trained with this apparatus in an 80 ft (24 m) deep Escape Training Tank at New London, Mare Island, or Pearl Harbor. It was introduced as standard equipment on Porpoise (P)-class and Salmon-class boats.
A clearance diver was originally a specialist naval diver who used explosives underwater to remove obstructions to make harbours and shipping channels safe to navigate, but the term "clearance diver" was later used to include other naval underwater work. Units of clearance divers were first formed during and after World War II to clear ports and harbours in the Mediterranean and Northern Europe of unexploded ordnance and shipwrecks and booby traps laid by the Germans.
The seventeenth Royal Navy vessel to be named HMS Dolphin was the Royal Naval shore establishment sited at Fort Blockhouse in Gosport. Dolphin was the home of the Royal Navy Submarine Service from 1904 to 1999, and location of the Royal Navy Submarine School.
The Submarine Escape Training Facility (SETF), also known as the Submarine Escape and Rescue Centre (SERC), is a facility used by submariners of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) to train in the techniques needed to escape from a submarine in trouble.
Australian Submarine Rescue Vehicle Remora was a submarine rescue vehicle used by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) between 1995 and 2006. The name comes from the remora, a small fish that can attach itself to larger marine life, and has the backronym "Really Excellent Method of Rescuing Aussies".
Submarine Escape Immersion Equipment (SEIE), also known as Submarine Escape and Immersion Equipment, is a whole-body suit and one-man life raft that was first produced in 1952. It was designed by British company RFD Beaufort Limited and allows submariners to escape from a sunken submarine. The suit also provides protection against hypothermia and has replaced the Steinke hood rescue device. The suit allows survivors to escape a disabled submarine at depths down to 600 feet (183 m), with an ascent speed of 2–3 meters/second, at a rate of eight or more sailors per hour.
Robert Croft is a free-diver who, in 1967, became the first person to free-dive beyond the depth of 200 feet. Croft was a US Navy diving instructor in 1962 at the US Naval Submarine Base New London submarine school in Groton, Connecticut. At the submarine escape training tank, instructors train prospective submariners how to escape from a disabled submarine, which could be resting on the sea bottom.
HSwMS Belos (A214) is a submarine rescue ship in the Swedish Navy's 1st Submarine flotilla. She carries the Submarine Rescue Vehicle URF. She is also capable of carrying the NATO rescue system NSRS. HSwMS Belos is currently [2017] the largest ship in the Swedish Navy. HMS Belos is traditionally the name of the Swedish navy's submarine rescue vessel and she is the third ship with that name.
In underwater diving, ascending and descending is done using strict protocols to avoid problems caused by the changes in ambient pressure and the hazards of obstacles near the surface such as collision with vessels. Diver certification and accreditation organisations place importance on these protocols early in their diver training programmes. Ascent and descent are historically the times when divers are injured most often when failing to follow appropriate procedure.
The Royal Swedish Navy's Submarine Escape and Rescue system (SMER) is a set of equipment used by the Swedish Navy to provide rescue facilities for the crews of disabled submarines. The submarine rescue ship, the submarine rescue vessel, and the escape system on the submarines, which consists of an escape trunk and an escape suit, are its three main parts.
URF is the Royal Swedish Navy’s Submarine Rescue Vessel.
Diver training is the set of processes through which a person learns the necessary and desirable skills to safely dive underwater within the scope of the diver training standard relevant to the specific training programme. Most diver training follows procedures and schedules laid down in the associated training standard, in a formal training programme, and includes relevant foundational knowledge of the underlying theory, including some basic physics, physiology and environmental information, practical skills training in the selection and safe use of the associated equipment in the specified underwater environment, and assessment of the required skills and knowledge deemed necessary by the certification agency to allow the newly certified diver to dive within the specified range of conditions at an acceptable level of risk. Recognition of prior learning is allowed in some training standards.
The Royal Navy's Submarine Parachute Assistance Group (SPAG) is a team who provide a rescue support capability to submarine sinking incidents worldwide, available at short notice.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:
The following index is provided as an overview of and topical guide to underwater diving:
The Underwater Escape Training Unit is a military training centre for survival at sea in Somerset; the site is mainly for helicopter aircrew.
Submarine rescue is the process of locating a sunk submarine with survivors on board, and bringing the survivors to safety. This may be done by recovering the vessel to the surface first, or by transferring the trapped personnel to a rescue bell or deep-submergence rescue vehicle to bring them to the surface. Submarine rescue may be done at pressures between ambient at depth, and sea level atmospheric pressure, depending on the condition of the distressed vessel and the equipment used for the rescue. Self-rescue of submarine personnel by buoyant free ascent at ambient pressure is considered submarine escape. Survivors may require recompression treatment for decompression illness.
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