Well we got on the boat on Sunday after a bit of a delay as they were gamma scanning some welding.
4 sets of armed guards and a few protesters later we got down to the dock on a seriously miserable day.
The boat was HMS Vengeance. Very hard to tell how big she was. She's a bit like an iceberg not sitting very high out of the water. I've seen too many sub movies I know now. We didn't go in through the conn but through the forward escape hatch. IT wsa a bit of shock to get to the hatch and look down this ladder that goes down 20'. This thing was not made to suit anyone other than reasonably fit men. No disabled access here.
When you are in it it's just a plumbers nightmare with some men fitted around the machines. A real rabbit warran. After about 5 minutes I couldn't tell you where we were. The command room isn't at the bottom the conn with periscopes etc :(. The conn is basically empty just a tower for the scopes and exhausts/intakes for the diesel back up generators.
My mate works aft at 'maneuvers.' He works with the gearboxes generators and steam pipes. He's in the cramped little space surrounded with pipewok for 4 hours at a time. He can go for a little wander if he likes down some even more cramped walkways and crawl spaces.
His bunk is in the senior rates 'area' it's a 6-7' square room with 9 men in it. It is quietish for them unlike the junior rates. His mess is not to bad. It about 15' by 20' and about 6'6" high. The bar the cinema and the mess are all in one.
We got down to the torpedo room (we weren't supposed to because they were venting the slurry tanks, had to be carful not to trip over THAT pipe). One of the biggest rooms we saw. There were lots of shiny topedoes very big and nasty looking.
More movies ideas ruined, the missle silos were not in a nice big room all on their own the were just in the middle of the ship with 3 or 4 decks built arround them. The gym was a set of machines fitted around the silos. The crew quarters similarly were just fitted around the missles. Didn't get to see any of a trident because none of the hatches were open.
We got to see the reactor (the bad boy) through a vewing window in one of the floors. I was sure I could feel my feet warming up walking over it.
All in all a helluva machine. I wouldn't want to work on one. It's a very disorienatating place I felt a bit dizzy by the time we got off.
Much respect to those who do or have worked on these boats. It's a dangerous place you could all to easily imagine fingers getting nipped off in the pressure doors or falling down some of those stairs. We all got off without a bump even my 6'3 mate.
