While he is to escape a Court Martial, it is clear that Commander Andy Coles – who did a bit of Skyescraping recently in the very new, very sophisticated, very expensive (and very late) attack submarine, HMS Astute, is being held responsible for her grounding off the legendary island.
The 47 year-old said to have compounded his error by having the Coastguard tug Anglian Prince, pull the submarine off at high tide – the profile of the high-sided tug and that of the sub were not the best match and Anglian Prince ended up colliding with Astute’s starboard foreplane and pulled it off.
The repairs will be extensive, with an £8+ million tab and the submarine will not go back to sea until well into 2011.
Regarded, somewhat resentfully within the Navy, as extremely lucky, Coles is to be shunted off to shuffle paperwork until he retires – on full pay and keeping his rank and his pension rights, both of which he would have lost had he been court martialled.
The Ministry of Defence has still said nothing about whether or not Astute was carrying up to date Admiralty navigational charts.
the Coastguard tug Anglian Prince, did NOT pull off the Stbd fore plain of any other part of the Sub, as reported in your article, It did however make contact and there was slight damage.
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I sometimes wonder where journalists get their information, or in this case, lack of information. If they cannot get the truth they just seem to make it up to be more dramatic. It would NOT have been the Captain’s decision to use the TUG. The slight damage sustained would cost nowhere near 8 million. Why would a damaged foreplane stop the boat going to sea till next year? Why would the CO lose his pension rights, rank and pay if Courts Martialled?? There are many Admirals around who were Courts Martialled in their early careers and remained in the service to tell their tale. All things which a GOOD journalist would have checked first. Absolute fiction.
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For Mr L P Blower: The formal information given puts the cost of repair at £8 million and refers specifically to rudder and foreplane damage. Information from other sources in the Navy has indicated tat Commander Coles is being held responsible – at least in public facing moves – for the problems with the tug.
We have been surprised by the given cost pf the repairs for the damage quoted but assumed that this was because of the specific sophistication of Astute and her ‘stealth’ hull plates.
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I personally know what happened and in no way was this the Captain’s fault…..any of the crew will tell you that.The word “scapegoat” comes to mind…..
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For Mr R.O. Plant: We have wondered about that – prompted by the circumstantial evidence of the sheer speed of the leaking of this sort of information. So what happened?
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Bonjour messieurs, je suis Français et nous sommes très interressés par ce qui vient d’arriver à ce sous-marin. Nous avons de bonnes raisons de penser que ce Andy Coles était commandant du Turbulent le 15 Janvier 2004, et que lors d’un exercice avec le hollandais Dolfign, il a entrainé par le fond le chalutier Bugaled Breizh GV642421. Mon père était mécanicien sur ce chalutier il y a 7 ans. Nous aurons la vérité quoiqu’il en coute.
thierry lemétayer
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For lemetayer thierry: You may find some material in this article of interest to you in this matter.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2010/09/14/the-day-the-northern-constabulary-asked-nuclear-submarine-hms-astute-to-move-along-please-86908-22559936/
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Pingback: Argyll News: HMS Astute's skipper relieved of command :Argyll,HMS Astute,Faslane,Skye, | For Argyll
You Know that Astute left the drydock recently and there was no actual damage to the sub apart from the dive plain which was minorly damaged and the rudder fitting which was designed to break off in the event of a grounding. Someone should really pay more attention to what they are reporting.
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For Chris Towers: Sorry Chris. until the inspections were done no one could be certain about the extent of the damage done in and father the Skye grounding. The MoD itself was reporting, in general terms, a gravity of damage that, thankfully, has not turned out to be the case.
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