§ 2. Commander Purseyasked the Civil Lord of the Admiralty to what extent reliance is placed by commanding officers on radar organisation reports, instead of the traditional methods of navigation, in darkened warships operating in company at sea for night hunting of our own submarines; and whether revised instructions will be issued to avoid false radar organisation reports becoming a factor in causing a collision.
§ The Civil Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. C. Ian Orr-Ewing)Commanding officers of Her Majesty's ships are provided with and use both radar and visual information for ship safety. No undue reliance is placed on either source of information.
In two ship anti-submarine actions, where close situations may develop, visual aids are predominant and a qualified officer is specifically stationed on the bridge for the safe navigation of the ship by traditional methods. He monitors orders given by the commanding officer who is normally stationed in the operations room. If necessary he overrides any unsafe action which may result from a false radar report.
This procedure has been promulgated in detail to the Fleet.
§ Commander PurseyHow does the Civil Lord account for the collision between the destroyer "Battleaxe", which has to be scrapped, and the frigate "Ursa" during a night submarine exercise when the orders were "not to close within two miles"? Both ships 946 were on approximately similar courses, at about the same speed, and when the collision occurred an "Ursa" rating remarked, "We have hit something." The "Battleaxe" captain said, "Yes, it is me". Both captains thought that they had hit the submarine and one stated that the collision was unbelievable. How did this matey party occur?
§ Mr. Orr-EwingThere are a number of aspects of this collision which are still sub judice.Two courts martial are still pending, so I think that it would be wrong if I commented on it at this stage.