Close Quarters

A previous reviewer says HMS Cutty Sark, the submarine escort vessel, is a tough one to identify. Perhaps I can help. She was built as a private yacht in 1920 for Henry Keswick of Jardine's, using plates intended for an S class destroyer, so the previous reviewer was nearly right! In 1920/1921 she sailed round the world to visit Jardine's interests in the Far East. In 1926 she was acquired by the Second Duke of Westminster and was very much part of the social scene until 1939. Famous guests included Coco Chanel and Winston Churchill. (The relationship between Bendor, as the Duke was know, and Coco Chanel would make an interesting follow-up to Coco Before Chanel.) In 1939 the Cutty Sark was requisitioned by the Royal Navy and converted to anti-submarine work. After being damaged in St Malo during the Fall of France in 1940 she became a submarine escort vessel escorting submarines out of the Clyde to the open seas. It is interesting that she is referred to by her real name in a fictional film. Her captain, both in pre-war and wartime service was Cdr R H Mack RN: I am not sure whether it is actually Mack or an actor who plays the captain in the film. For obscure reasons, when the Navy requisitioned the Cutty Sark, Mack became her owner, so as a naval officer he most unusually owned his own ship! The Cutty Sark was laid up in 1944, became a training ship for the Jewish Marine League in 1946/1947 and was broken up on the Thames in 1948.

I endorse the comments made a week ago on this site. The following additional comments may be of interest to viewers of this film (released on DVD by the Imperial War Museum on 2005).

The opening frames of the film show Lieutenant Commander David Gregory, the Commanding Officer of the submarine HMS Tyrant (actually HMS Tribune - N76) returning from leave. The Submarine Depot Ship is HMS Forth, with her submarines alongside to port and starboard, in the Holy Loch, near Dunoon in the Firth of Clyde (some 25 miles west of Glasgow). The Holy Loch later became the US Navy's submarine base.

The boat's honours board - seen on the fin of HMS Tyrant as the submariners remark on the "skipper's" return - is probably genuine but a little different to those formally approved for use by HMS Tribune in the 1950s. The First Lieutenant or 'Number One' - second-in-command - of HMS Tyrant is a Lieutenant of the Royal Naval Reserve (RNR).

As HMS Tyrant sails from the Depot Ship, while saluting Captain SM, you may see the flag of the Netherlands - clearly a Dutch submarine was also alongside (perhaps HNLMS Zeehond?).

The two-funnel destroyer that escorts the two submarines out to sea - called HMS "Cutty Sark" in the film - is a tough one to identify. Perhaps she is an S Class destroyer built in World War I - an old destroyer would make sense for this duty as it's not a 'front line' role. Eight S Class remained in service by 1943.

For viewers not familiar with naval jargon, "Pilot" means the Navigating Officer, "Subby" means a Sub-Lieutenant and "Chief" means the Marine Engineering Officer. The film is sometimes dubbed "In Which We Submerge"!

The T Class submarines were built from 1937 to 1944 and none is preserved. The smaller U and V Class were built during the same years.

The T Class was followed by the broadly similar A Class submarines, the first of which was launched in early 1945, but most were cancelled owing to the end of hostilities. A few were completed and formed the backbone of the RN Submarine Service in the post-war years.

One of this Class, HMS Alliance (1945), is preserved at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire. A visit to her will give you a real feel a typical WW2 submarine and you will be able to see for yourself just how good was the Pinewood Studios full-size model of the interior of HMS Tyrant! (HMS Alliance was still in service in 1972, as she was on duty for the Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, taking Midshipmen like me for a dive in Torbay - the pervasive smell of diesel oil put me off volunteering for service in submarines!).

Summary: Great film > Buy the DVD > Visit the RN Submarine Museum!

Thoroughly enjoyable "scripted documentary". All sailors are actual RN Seamen and they do a very good job of portraying themselves - no over the top acting - just simple lines realistically delivered. One fascinating thing, the number of lung cancer and heart disease victims in the 1960's-70's must have been staggering. EVERYONE, Captain to swabbies, smokes constantly - even on duty(!) and buying, giving, using, sharing, talking about tobacco is a constant theme. Well worth watching even if it is a bit slow at times, but that is the reality of submarine duty -long and boring then fast and furious.

This film gives an excellent idea of what it was like to fight one of His Majesty's submarines during World War II. It is probably the most authentic footage of its kind and certainly better than even the best fiction films such as the highly-acclaimed "We Dive at Dawn". Someone looking for a 'good story' might ridicule this, but anyone who knows anything about British WWII submarines would find this wonderfully authentic. The boats used, "Tyrant" and "Strongbow", are actually the T-class "Tribune" and S-class "Sea Dog", built by Scotts Shipbuilding & Engineering Co Ltd at Greenock and by Cammel Laird on the Mersey respectively. As there are no surviving examples of either class, this film is about as near as one will ever get to seeing them.

A Royal Navy T-class submarine, Tyrant, goes on a routine patrol off the coast of Norway.

This movie class to have been shot on the Tyrant, with its real crew playing their parts. It's certainly possible, and the comments from submariners, indicate that it's accurate as to look and feel and action. However, even with two camera men, Jonah Jones and the uncredited Fred Gamage, the cutting indicates two many camera set-ups within a sequence to have been shot in action. Although there's land to the rear as they set sail, everything on patrol is clearly shot in open water, with no visual indication of where -- one stretch of open ocean is, after all, much like another -- and the action that finally occurs within the last twenty minutes of the movie is likewise anonymous.

The obvious conclusion is that this is a re-enactment of a patrol. It's a very good one. Unfortunately for an audience, very little happens for a long time. War, as some wit noted, consists of days of boredom and minutes of terror. I think we can agree that such a remark calls for the speaker to be subject to days of terror and minutes of boredom. As a record of what goes on in a submarine during patrol, it is excellent. As entertainment it's not very interesting.