HMS Tireless (S88)

:"See HMS Tireless for other ships of the same name."

HMS "Tireless" (S88), a Trafalgar class submarine, is the second submarine of the Royal Navy to bear this name. She was launched in March 1984, sponsored by Mrs Sue Squires, wife of Admiral 'Tubby' Squires, and commissioned in October 1985.

Over the next six years, "Tireless" completed numerous exercises and visits around the world, including a trip to the Arctic in 1991. In early 1996, she entered refit and returned to sea in 1999.

On 12 May 2000, "Tireless" detected a slow loss of reactor coolant, and put into the port of Gibraltar for what was hoped would be quick repairs to a minor crack in a coolant pipe. However, the damage was found to be more extensive than was first hoped, and the boat remained at Gibraltar, creating diplomatic tensions between Spain and Britain, until she left on 2 May 2001, nearly a year later following extensive repairs.cite web| url=http://www.largeassociates.com/TirelessKurskForensic.pdf | title=Forensic Assessments of the Nuclear Propulsion Plants of the Submarines HMS Tireless and RF Northern Fleet Kursk | accessyear=2007 | accessmonth=03 | accessday=22 | month=March | year=2005|format=PDF] During that year, all "Trafalgar"-class submarines were inspected for similar problems.

On 19 April 2004, "Tireless" and warship|USS|Hampton|SSN-767 rendezvoused under the Arctic ice and surfaced together at the North Pole.

"Tireless" again angered Spain in 2004 when the boat put into Gibraltar from 9 July to 15 July for what were explained as "technical reasons." Britain assured Spain that the port call was unrelated to the British celebrations, on 21 July, of the 300th anniversary of the capture of Gibraltar from Spain.

March 2007 explosion

On 21 March 2007, two "Tireless" crew members, Leading Operator Mechanic Paul McCann and Operator Maintainer (Weapons Submariner) 2 Anthony Huntrod, were killed in an explosion onboard, apparently caused by an oxygen generator candle in the forward section of the submarine. The submarine was in service near the North Pole under ICEX07 along with the warship|USS|Alexandria|SSN-757 and had to make an emergency surface through the ice cap. A third crewmember who suffered "non life-threatening" injuries was airlifted to a military hospital at Elmendorf Air Force Base near Anchorage, Alaska and was expected to make a full recovery. According to the Royal Navy, the accident did not affect the ship's nuclear reactor, and the ship sustained only superficial damage. Part of the exercise was being used to measure ice thickness by using sonar. cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6478127.stm |title=Oxygen device sparked sub blast |publisher=BBC News| accessdate=2007-03-22 ] cite web |url=http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/03/21/uk.submarine/index.html |title=2 sailors killed in UK nuclear submarine accident | accessdate=2007-03-22|publisher=CNN ] The film ""—which was filming on the ice and in the "Alexandria" during the exercise—was dedicated to McCann and Huntrod.

References

External links

*cite web|url=http://royalnavy.mod.uk/server/show/nav.2483
title=Royal Navy official website
* [http://www.maritimequest.com/warship_directory/great_britain/submarines/pages/tireless_s88_page_1.htm MaritimeQuest HMS Tireless S-88 pages]