Under Pressure: Life on a Submarine. Richard Humphreys
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Names of Royal Navy personnel have been changed to protect privacy.
Mudlark
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published by Mudlark 2019
FIRST EDITION
Text © Richard Humphreys 2019
Illustrations © Tom Hughes 2019
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers
Cover illustration © Neil Gower
Photographs courtesy of the author except where indicated
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
Richard Humphreys asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
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Source ISBN: 9780008313050
Ebook Edition © September 2019 ISBN: 9780008313081
Version: 2019-09-03
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Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008313050
For my father, who loved life
V.J.C.H.
1928–2016
‘Submariners themselves were regarded as not quite the thing – smelt a bit, behaved not too well, drank too much. They were regarded as a sort of dirty habit in tins.’
Admiral Sir John Forster ‘Sandy’ Woodward, One Hundred Days, 1992
Contents
1 Cover
2 Title Page
3 Copyright
4 Note to Readers
5 Dedication
6 Epigraph
7 Contents
8 Author’s Note
9 Diagram of Polaris Submarine
10 Polaris Submarine Hierarchy
11 Glossary
12 Introduction
13 1 Beasting
14 2 HMS Neptune, Faslane
15 3 The Bomber
16 4 Alongside
17 5 Work-up
18 6 Coulport
19 7 Before the Off
20 8 Set Sail
21 9 The Dive
22 10 A Brief Tour
23 11 No Time
24 12 All the Time in the World
25 13 Downtime
26 14 Booze
27 15 Snadgens
28 16 Porn
29 17 Familygrams
30 18 Showtime
31 19 Under the Lights
32 20 Cut Off
33 21 Racked Out
34 22 Food, Glorious Food
35 23 The Day Job, the Night Job, Repeat
36 24 Letters from the Grave
37 25 Captain Is God
38 26 To Launch or Not to Launch
39 27 Homeward Bound
40 28 Off Crew
41 Acknowledgements
42 About the Publisher
LandmarksCoverFrontmatterStart of ContentBackmatter