STARTING YOUR TOUR
If you have arrived
by car or coach, then visit our Weapons Gallery before you make your way down
to the Ticket Office. Incidentally you can make a comfort stop here after your
journey, so you can uncross and stretch your legs at the same time!
In the Gallery you will see examples of submarine weapons that span the century of the Royal Navy Submarine Service's existence. A rare Whitehead torpedo (did you know that the torpedo's inventor in 1868, Sir Robert Whitehead, was the great-grandfather of the Von Trapp singers of Sound of Music fame - but that is another story!) It neighbours the mighty Polaris missile. You will also see the history of Royal Navy torpedo development. The famous Mark VIII (the longest serving weapon in history and last used in anger in 1982); its wire-guided successor Tigerfish, vital to us during the Cold War; and the bang up to date GEC-Marconi Spearfish torpedo, the most capable of its type in the world.
A very recent acquisition is what remains of the Royal Navy's first warhead fitted Tomahawk Land Attack Missile (TLAM), fired from HMS Splendid in November 1998 against a target on the uninhabited San Clemente Island off the Californian coast. This collection of debris may not be all that visually appealing, but it represents yet another step change in submarine capability.
You will
see HMS Andrew's 4 inch gun, the last to be fired in the Royal Navy Submarine
Service, and the successor to a weapon much used by submarines until the 1960's.
Next to it is a Dalgety Canoe, one of the means used to land special forces
from submarines during WWII. Not too far away is another platform used for a
similar purpose in the shape of a Maiale - an Italian Human Torpedo (chariot).
You can read the story of how six Italian charioteers put 70,000 tons of British
warships to the bottom in Alexandria Harbour in December 1941!
A recent acquisition is the wooden plug from which our Vanguard submarines anchors were shaped. This is just the anchor, so you will be able to imagine the size of the rest of the submarine!
The largest artefact on display is a Polaris Missile. It is in sections so that you can see the various elements that gave this deterrent weapon its range of 2500 miles and accuracy of less than 100 yards! The Chevaline warhead will show you the extent to which the UK government went in order to maintain the National Deterrent's invulnerability to an aggressor's own defences. You will have to imagine the size of a Resolution Class submarine that carried 16 of these 32 feet long missiles, but we do display the associated fire control equipment and explain the processes of targeting, navigation and launch.
It is time to move on because there is so much more to see.