Queen's 78th birthday cling film gift from submariners
Queen Camilla visited the base in Plymouth on Wednesday, the eve of her 78th birthday, and the crew came up with the novel gift idea to carry on a joke she first shared with them two years ago.
Her Majesty, the Lady Sponsor of the submarine since 2007, had been amused then to learn that cling film had been used to keep the £1.65bn Astute afloat in an emergency incident.
On Wednesday, she exclaimed: 'Oh my goodness, the famous cling film!' when she was given the present by Cdr Christopher Bate, the commanding officer of HMS Astute.
In her role as Lady Sponsor of the sub, Camilla has been kept informed of operational debriefs and deployments as well as the occasional malfunction on board. She was said to have learnt of the deployment of cling film from her staff.
Cdr Bates explained: 'We had a defect on board and we were losing vacuum in the main engines. The engineers said we could either come back to port to fix it or use something on board. So they used cling film from the galley.
'[They] wrapped it in the engines and stopped air getting into it and reducing the vacuum, and therefore restored propulsion at sea.
'And it's been on there for the last two and a half years, because it's such a big job to change the seals … Her Majesty found it quite amusing when she found out.'
The Queen, who also mentioned the incident in her speech to the ship's company at a garden party on Wednesday, laughed when she was presented with the dispenser: 'Oh brilliant. How lovely, thank you very much.'
She said in her speech: 'Within this ship's company, those extraordinary endeavours range from the innovation of one petty officer…through to the resourceful solution to maintain a vacuum, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with cling film!
'I can only imagine what the unofficial toolkit in a submarine might look like.'
Cdr Bate said he hoped the dispenser, bearing a gold plaque that states 'Clingfilm, keeping Nuclear Submarines at Sea,' would act as a 'talking piece in her house'.
'She was very pleased,' he added.
The Queen, who was appointed as the first female Vice Admiral of the UK on Wednesday morning during her visit to the naval base, spent part of the day in Plymouth touring HMS Astute and meeting submariners.
She also visited the Children's Hospice South West in Barnstaple, of which she is patron, to celebrate its 30th anniversary.
It emerged that another defect she had been made aware of as Lady Sponsor of HMS Astute was less severe, but she had acted nonetheless.
Following a freezer malfunction on board, she sent the crew tea and biscuits to tide them over after their frozen food went bad.
Speaking about her involvement with the submarine, Cdr Bate said she had been 'a really good supporter since day one' and wrote to the boat regularly.
'We lost a member of the ship's company two a half years ago, which was quite difficult, and she was very supportive – writing to the submarine and to his parents,' he said.
'She's been a great supporter throughout and is genuinely interested about what we get up to at sea.'
Regular letters and Christmas cards
Chief Petty Officer Paddy Ashdown, who has been on HMS Astute since its inception and met the Queen during Wednesday's visit, said: 'She keeps sending letters and Christmas cards out to the boat.'
Michael Pearson, a tactical submariner, added: 'She always writes to us wishing us good luck for our coming deployments.
'It's really nice having someone that high up in the royal family as our Lady Sponsor.'
The submarine was named by Her Majesty, then Duchess of Cornwall, in 2007 and is the lead sub in the Royal Navy's fleet of Ship Submerged Nuclear (SSN) or 'attack' submarines.
The price tag for the fleet of seven nuclear-powered Astute-class attack subs has soared by £1bn over the past year and has taken the entire programme costs to more than £12bn.
Wednesday's garden party for the crew marked the end of the Astute's first commission. Cdr Bate explained that the submarine is now entering a Mid Life Revalidation Programme, which will include a refit – presumably ridding its engines of cling film – before beginning a second commission.
'She's into her mid-life refit now, so probably for the next five years, she'll be in Devonport, and she should come out pretty much brand new,' he said.
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