The military must shoulder blame for this week's fatal submarine fire off the Donegal coast, writes Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent.
'I have a bunch of rock stars on board and I would sail anywhere with these guys. These guys saved the boat and I am extremely proud of what they have done."
It may be cold comfort for one young widow of two small boys, but the emotionally charged words of Commanding Officer Luc Pelletier of the HMCS Chicoutimi speak volumes. One man died, one is still seriously ill, but for a short period 55 of their colleagues were in danger of losing their lives earlier this week just over 100 miles off the Co Donegal coastline.
Had this occurred, it would have been one of the worst marine accidents of its kind since the explosion and sinking of the Russian nuclear submarine, Kursk,with 118 sailors on board on August 12th, 2000 in the Barents Sea. Unlike the Kursk, the HMCS Chicoutimi (formerly the British-owned HMS Upholder) is a conventional diesel-powered submarine. However, as with the Kursk, the initial military response to the fires on board earlier this week was one of damage limitation.
"The crew is safe. Several sailors experienced smoke inhalation but do not require evacuation from the submarine," said a press statement on Tuesday from the Canadian Department of National Defence in Ottawa, quoted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The on-board fire had broken out when the submarine was about 100 miles west-north-west of Arranmore Island, Co Donegal, on a delivery run from Scotland to Nova Scotia.
The British Ministry of Defence also played down the seriousness of the situation, taking full control of the rescue operation, which was in the British search-and-rescue zone until the submarine drifted further south. The ministry declined to give journalists a latitude and longitude for the craft. Several Irish fishing vessels that responded to requests for assistance found themselves subject to a four-mile exclusion zone set around the vessel, which was by Tuesday evening drifting helplessly in an eight-metre swell and a force eight to nine gale.
It was only after the British Navy ship, HMS Montrose, arrived on Wednesday, about 24 hours after the fire, that the true picture began to emerge. There had been not one but several fires, which had damaged key electrical cables, and nine of the crew had been injured while trying to extinguish them. Three of the nine required evacuation, and a Royal Navy Sea King, on standby at Carrickfin Airport in Co Donegal, was dispatched to the scene.
Lieut Chris Saunders (32) lost consciousness and his heart stopped after he was winched on board the helicopter in difficult conditions, and plans to fly to Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry were abandoned. The helicopter was diverted to Sligo General Hospital, Lieut Saunders was pronounced dead on arrival, and his colleagues, Master Seaman Archibald MacMaster (41) and Petty Officer 2nd Class Denis Lafleur (41), were declared to be, respectively, "serious but stable" and "stable".
Fire is the major risk on board submarines in peacetime. Crews are constantly trained for this, and for dealing in first aid. Life on board is not for the faint-hearted, with crews working in an airless environment, sleeping in cramped bunks and often deprived of basics such as adequate toilets and regular hot showers. It is still not clear if there were any qualified medical personnel on board the submarine when it left Scotland, but, as this newspaper's medical correspondent pointed out this week, smoke inhalation is recognised as a serious risk in fire training. Rather like secondary drowning, the delayed physical reaction to smoke inhalation can often be dramatic, with a build-up of toxic chemicals in the body inducing acute respiratory failure.
The Minister of State for the Marine, Mr Pat the Cope Gallagher, intimated on Thursday that there were questions to be asked about the delay in winching off the three men - questions which the British Ministry of Defence were refusing to answer when contacted by this newspaper. All such issues will be dealt with by a Canadian military board of inquiry, a British defence spokeswoman said.
When that military board sits, the commander, Luc Pelletier, may become the scapegoat for a series of decisions on matters which were outside his control. Decisions about cutbacks in military spending, decisions about purchasing four submarines which proved to have technical malfunctions, decisions about the consequent cost overrun of same from $750 million to more than $900 million.
One of the four submarines, the HMCS Windsor, had to turn back from a two-week mission from Halifax in 2002 when salt water seeped into a hydraulic motor. It emerged that the vessel had a dent in its hull "the size of a pizza" as a result of a collision which had occurred before the Canadian Navy took possession of it. The Royal Navy "agreed to co-operate" in the subsequent investigation.
The sequence of events also focuses attention once more on this State's preparedness for such incidents within our territorial waters. The Irish Coast Guard is now well-equipped with four medium-range search-and-rescue helicopter bases and an extensive lifeboat and coast and cliff rescue network, but the Air Corps is being pulled out of search-and-rescue work altogether next week. And the Naval Service still has restricted responsibilities, and no ocean-going tug.