WEBVTT - The Flood: Explosion 0:00:04.240 --> 0:00:07.160 Hi, It's Claire from the Front. For the next four 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.280 weeks on Sundays, we're bringing you a new mini series 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:14.640 from The Australian called The Flood, and this is episode one. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:18.400 The series is hosted by Chief International Correspondent Cameron Stewart 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:21.439 and created by Kam with me and our audio lead 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:24.279 Jasper Leik, plus all of us here at The Australian. 0:00:24.760 --> 0:00:28.520 It tells the incredible true story of how sixty Australian 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.400 sub mariners saved their own lives and their boat. The 0:00:32.440 --> 0:00:36.600 Flood is a truly inspirational story of human courage, resilience, 0:00:36.800 --> 0:00:40.479 teamwork and ingenuity. You can follow the show by searching 0:00:40.600 --> 0:00:44.560 The Flood wherever you listen and going to the floodpodcast 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.520 dot com, where you can also watch it as a video. 0:00:56.200 --> 0:00:59.560 The Flood is brought to you by the Australian War Memorial. 0:01:00.680 --> 0:01:04.039 Some stories define a nation, others reveal what it means 0:01:04.080 --> 0:01:07.120 to be human. Through Their Eyes is a new podcast 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:11.320 from the Australian War Memorial that uncovers powerful human stories, 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:17.640 revealing war through unexpected perspectives and immersive storytelling Through Their Eyes. 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:29.880 Coming in June, there was a sharp hiss, and then 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:31.560 a l mighty explosion. 0:01:31.720 --> 0:01:39.160 Bang, we heard a flood, flood, flood in the lower motto. 0:01:40.200 --> 0:01:43.759 The flood the closest astray has ever come in peacetime 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:46.440 to losing a submarine and its entire crew. 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.200 So we are attep diving depth. 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:53.560 That was fearfully cold and there was a lot of 0:01:53.560 --> 0:01:54.360 water coming. 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:59.520 In twenty seconds. That's all we had. 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:01.280 Only we're in trouble. 0:02:01.920 --> 0:02:03.360 You have a flood like that and you just got 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:04.520 to get my Sunnotice. 0:02:05.080 --> 0:02:07.200 I can remember screaming out at the top of my voice. 0:02:07.280 --> 0:02:10.519 The tullo seawater is the same as one hundred crates 0:02:10.560 --> 0:02:14.240 of your favorite laga coming into your submarine every second 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:15.080 through a hole. 0:02:15.120 --> 0:02:15.799 About that beer. 0:02:16.360 --> 0:02:18.440 Yeah, it was like being stuck in a washing machine. 0:02:18.919 --> 0:02:20.600 It was just round and round and round. 0:02:21.000 --> 0:02:24.120 I didn't want to be the guy who took that 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:32.280 crew to the bottom. 0:02:32.400 --> 0:02:37.560 I'm Cameron Stuart and this is the flood episode one explosion. 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.080 One of the most remarkable but least known stories in 0:02:48.120 --> 0:02:51.240 recent Australian history is the near loss of sixty Australian 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:56.000 submariners when seawater flooded their submarine HMAS to Shino deep 0:02:56.080 --> 0:02:59.000 under the Indian Ocean in two thousand and three for 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.480 sixty men and women. They had twenty seconds left before 0:03:02.480 --> 0:03:05.240 they would have sunk to the ocean floor. The submarine 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.360 would never have made it intact. It would have been 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.160 crushed like an empty coat can by the ocean's pressure 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:13.799 as it went down. It's a story of the Navy 0:03:13.840 --> 0:03:16.400 glossed over at the time, fearing further damage to the 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:20.360 already tarnished reputation of its new Colins class fleet. But 0:03:20.440 --> 0:03:22.880 for those who were board the submarine that day, their 0:03:22.919 --> 0:03:26.160 lives were never the same again. It haunted the Navy, 0:03:26.560 --> 0:03:29.760 It haunted everyone who heard about it. It changed the 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:33.440 way the Navy operated its submarine fleet. Its impact can 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.760 still be felt across families and across generations. For the 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:40.800 first time we reveal the full story of the incident 0:03:40.880 --> 0:03:44.720 they call the flood, the closest Australia has ever come 0:03:44.720 --> 0:03:48.160 in peacetime to losing a submarine and its entire crew. 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:55.800 Cam Commodore Peter Scott retired from full time service in 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:58.080 the ro All Australian Navy half a dozen years ago 0:03:58.600 --> 0:04:02.400 after a career of four years, vast majority of which 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:05.320 was either in or around submarines in one way or 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:09.480 Another absolute highlight of that career was my command of 0:04:09.520 --> 0:04:12.440 first H MASK Colins and then h MAS Shana. 0:04:13.920 --> 0:04:16.120 On a dark evening in late two thousand and two, 0:04:16.440 --> 0:04:18.800 I jumped into a Zodiac inflatable boat which had come 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.400 to pit me up from the beach in Fremantle, Western Australia. 0:04:21.880 --> 0:04:24.640 I was a thirty nine year old investigative reporter and 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.280 I'd written plenty of stories about the problems facing the 0:04:27.360 --> 0:04:31.040 Navy's new Colins class submarines, but I'd never been on one. 0:04:31.360 --> 0:04:33.800 We headed out to the ocean. We were supposed to 0:04:33.839 --> 0:04:38.560 rendezvous with hgmas D'shano, the fourth of the Royal Australian 0:04:38.640 --> 0:04:42.920 Navy's six new Colins class submarines. As we raced out 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.520 to see, my eyes scanned the dark horizon, seeing nothing. 0:04:47.320 --> 0:04:50.640 Then suddenly, a huge, dark outline of a submarine appeared 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:53.880 out of nowhere. We pulled up alongside, and before I 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:56.400 knew it, I was whisting to the submarine and down 0:04:56.440 --> 0:05:00.000 the hatch. The commanding officer of the Dashano, Peter Scott, 0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.200 there waiting for me. He wore a strange agrill on 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:05.880 his face. I was the last person that he and 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:08.240 his crew of sixty men and women wanted to see 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.680 a journalist the bane of their profession. 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:13.320 On Mike Digs. 0:05:13.480 --> 0:05:15.279 I was in a navy for thirty two years, from 0:05:15.279 --> 0:05:18.680 the age of fifteen to forty seven. My years as 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.200 a submarine force commander was two thousand and one to 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.200 two thousand and five, and so if you recall that 0:05:24.360 --> 0:05:27.840 was the time of HMAS lemon dud subs, A lot 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:28.560 of bad press. 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:32.960 Leaky propellers, noisy engines and combat systems that had to 0:05:33.000 --> 0:05:35.680 be replaced because they were out of date are just 0:05:35.720 --> 0:05:37.880 some of the missteps on the way to launching the 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:39.560 much maligned Colin's Fleet. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.880 So I spent a lot of time making presentations to 0:05:42.880 --> 0:05:45.440 all and sundry about dispelling the myths of the Clons 0:05:45.440 --> 0:05:48.800 class submarines because I had a submarine force that was 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.440 in somewhat of a quandary. They were loving these new 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.279 submarines and all that they brought, but we were getting 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.400 a lot of bad press at the same time. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.359 It was eventually agreed I could spend forty eight hours 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:03.159 on board the Duschano while it was conducting war games 0:06:03.200 --> 0:06:05.520 against Australian naval ships in the Indian Ocean. 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:07.080 I'm one hundred and ninety. 0:06:06.920 --> 0:06:09.839 Four centimeters or six foot four inches tall, so I 0:06:09.839 --> 0:06:13.320 don't love small spaces. And the Collins class boats, although 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.360 bigger than the old Oberon boats, are still a warrant 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:20.320 of narrow passageways, guaranteed to bring out the inner claustrophobia 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.000 in anyone. I recall feeling queasy when the submarine first 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:27.520 dived beneath the surface. I kept bumping my head on things, 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:29.920 but I did my best to join in. I ate 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:32.120 with the crew and the mess. I slept under the 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.599 torpedoes and I watched them as they listened to the 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.919 whales and the warships in the ocean around them. The 0:06:39.000 --> 0:06:40.880 crew quickly got over the fact that there was an 0:06:40.920 --> 0:06:45.680 outsider in their midst. They were relaxed, friendly, and surprisingly eccentric. 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.400 Commander Scott was a submarine commander from Central Casting, a 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:54.679 tall ranger character who was hugely popular with his crew, 0:06:55.000 --> 0:06:57.960 not least because of his reputation for calmness under pressure. 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.279 If I tell us story about life on submarines, I'm 0:07:02.320 --> 0:07:05.839 often asked why would you do that? And my antswer 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.799 comes down to three really simple things. Purpose and challenge 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:14.000 and people. The people are phenomenal. They tend to be 0:07:14.480 --> 0:07:18.400 the sort of characters who are driven by purpose and 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:22.720 look for challenge. You cannot survive in a submarine if 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:24.800 you don't know your stuff and if you can't work 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:27.440 with other people. But that doesn't mean that you can't 0:07:27.440 --> 0:07:29.320 be eccentric. It doesn't mean that you can't be quite 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:30.200 a different character. 0:07:31.440 --> 0:07:34.920 One female Submarana was a heavy smoker who chose to 0:07:35.000 --> 0:07:38.640 work in a sealed, non smoking capsule, and you harbored 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.560 the peculiar ambition of one day sinking her fiance. In wargames, 0:07:43.040 --> 0:07:45.680 he was a sailor on the Anzac frigate war Amonger, 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.200 and even the sonar operator Melanie Ellerton, would spend the 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:54.320 day imitating the whale noises she heard on her headphones. 0:07:55.200 --> 0:07:57.600 When I asked her one day what noise sharks made, 0:07:57.880 --> 0:07:59.520 she looked at me in the eye and chanted the 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.560 theme music from the movie Jaws. 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.880 We have a very secretive lot and very tight crew. 0:08:06.200 --> 0:08:09.560 What I really really really loved about the command on 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.360 the Chanea at that time was very much like a 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.160 you work hard, you play hard, so you put the 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:17.880 yards in, you put your hard work in, and you're 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:21.400 awarded for it. The morale was amazing on that boat. 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.120 I love just relive it again. 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:29.920 The crew even had a peculiar habit of watching submarine 0:08:29.960 --> 0:08:33.480 thrillers while underwater, with Sean Connery in the Hunter read 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:35.800 October being played seemingly on a loop. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.080 Our strategy depends on your answer. 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:41.719 The entire fleet will know where we are. 0:08:42.400 --> 0:08:46.360 So we've just been overflown by a loyaltitude multi engine turboprop. 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:49.880 I had no idea that just a few months later, 0:08:50.360 --> 0:08:52.760 these men and women would be fighting for their lives 0:08:52.760 --> 0:08:55.800 in the very same submarine as it flooded deep under 0:08:55.800 --> 0:08:58.640 the Indian Oceans. But even while I was on board 0:08:58.679 --> 0:09:03.600 there was a major incident. But a China was gliding 0:09:03.880 --> 0:09:07.640 silently beneath the ocean's surface towards its planned skirmish with 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:10.960 three Australian Navy ships about eighty Nordick miles off the 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:14.440 West Australian coast, and I suddenly heard footsteps and yelling 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:18.079 in the narrow corridors. Get down the back, let's go, 0:09:18.600 --> 0:09:21.679 yelled a petty officer they called Mango. He took one 0:09:21.679 --> 0:09:25.040 look at myself and my photographer and bellowed, look after 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:29.120 the civilians. Let's go We're not effing around here. There 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.880 was an unnerving urgency in his voice as he hustled 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:35.000 us towards the back of the boat, and alarm sounded 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:39.120 throughout the submarine. Crew Members who had been sleeping seconds 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:41.800 earlier jumped out of their bunks and ran to their 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:46.559 emergency stations. Some were donning fireproof clothing and oxygen masks 0:09:46.600 --> 0:09:50.120 and tanks. No one was joking. Clearly, this was not 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:54.400 a drill. We were shuffled through watertight doors that sealed 0:09:54.440 --> 0:09:57.200 the front half of the submarine from the rear. The 0:09:57.240 --> 0:09:59.720 doors are designed to prevent a fire or flood from 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:02.520 in gold in the entire boat, ensuring that at least 0:10:02.520 --> 0:10:06.480 some of the crew can initially survive a disaster. Commander 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.959 Scott announced over to speakers that there have been a 0:10:09.040 --> 0:10:13.280 hydraulic burst in the weapons storage compartment. Two crew members 0:10:13.400 --> 0:10:16.679 dressed in full fire fighting kit charged into the compartment, 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:21.000 where torpedoes and hardpurn missiles were suspended. They discovered oil 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.360 spraying out at high pressure from a broken connection in 0:10:24.400 --> 0:10:27.040 the piping. I was standing with a group of crew 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.920 in the sealed back half of the submarine, listening to 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:31.079 the emergency siren. 0:10:32.920 --> 0:10:35.360 The failure of a system like that can be really serious, 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:38.599 but there's a lot of risk associated with how it 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:40.920 fails as well. So if you have a hydraulic burst, 0:10:41.640 --> 0:10:46.560 what you have is hydraulic oil being sprayed at extremely 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:50.240 high pressure into the atmosphere and it just becomes explosive. 0:10:51.080 --> 0:10:55.240 So the risk of explosion and fire, neither of which 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.400 are healthy on board and enclosed submarine, can be really high. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:03.120 Minutes later, a voice came over the PA It said 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.600 there is no risk of fire, the system is safe. 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:09.920 No casualties throughout the submarine. The petty officer Mango later 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:12.960 apologized for his language, but he said afar in the 0:11:13.000 --> 0:11:15.000 weapons room was one of the most dangerous things that 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.880 could occur. That's what happened on the Cursk, he told me. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:26.200 The crew of the course are now entombed as the 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.480 Navy races to attempt to rescue. 0:11:29.559 --> 0:11:32.120 Every sub mariner at that time was haunted by the 0:11:32.120 --> 0:11:35.000 story of the Cursk, the Russian submarine that sank to 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:37.599 the bottom of the Barren Sea with one hundred and 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.200 eighteen crew in August two thousand after a torpedo stowed 0:11:41.240 --> 0:11:42.439 on board exploded. 0:11:43.120 --> 0:11:45.960 Western military analysts had been suggesting earlier on in the 0:11:46.040 --> 0:11:48.840 day that if no breakthrough came within forty eight hours, 0:11:48.840 --> 0:11:50.760 that the crew would be in a very grave situation. 0:11:50.880 --> 0:11:53.359 Indeed, there's still no foreign indications. 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.959 Those crew who survived the initial explosion wrote notes to 0:11:57.040 --> 0:11:59.800 the loved ones for days as their submarine sat in 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:04.600 the seabed, awaiting or rescue that never came. When I 0:12:04.600 --> 0:12:08.200 went to Seekamada Scott in his cabin after the hydraulic burst, 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.280 my eyes started to a book on his shelf, A 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:13.520 Time to Die, the Cursed Disaster. 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:19.239 We were in Hawaii at the time, during the maintenance period. Importantly, 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.679 we also had a lot of our family over in Hawaii, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:27.400 you know, just taking some leave with the crew, So 0:12:28.040 --> 0:12:31.760 my wife and daughter were with me as the news 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:38.760 was breaking each day. It was hard to watch that unfold. 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:42.199 It was pretty brutal on the families because they can 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:47.640 just place themselves in a very similar situation. There's absolutely 0:12:47.920 --> 0:12:49.800 this might be the wrong term these days, but there's 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.000 absolutely a brotherhood amongst submarinas. There's not a lot of 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:54.960 people in the world who understand what it is to 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:58.760 take a naval submarine to see, so you definitely feel 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:04.359 a sense of kinship politics aside with another Navy's submarine 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.920 force that suffers a disaster like that. 0:13:10.200 --> 0:13:12.880 On that day in late two thousand and two, as 0:13:12.880 --> 0:13:15.920 we glided under the Indian Ocean, I recall sitting with 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:18.920 Commander Scott in his cabin talking about the curse and 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:22.719 about the risks which submaraners face. He had his own 0:13:22.760 --> 0:13:25.800 stories to tell. At just thirty seven years old, he 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.079 once helped steer home a crippled British Navy submarine in 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:31.800 the North Sea when it was swamped by a wave 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.360 with its hatch still open, causing seawater to surge in 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:39.640 short circuiting computers and sonar equipment. I had no idea 0:13:39.640 --> 0:13:42.000 that just a few months later, when I was safely 0:13:42.040 --> 0:13:45.240 back on dry land, the Commander Scott and this same 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:48.840 crew of lovable eccentrics would go perilously close to suffering 0:13:48.840 --> 0:13:51.439 the same fate as the crew of the Cursk. 0:14:01.800 --> 0:14:05.160 The flood is brought to you by the Australian War Memorial. 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.320 What Does War Look Like Through the Eyes of the 0:14:08.320 --> 0:14:11.240 People Who lived It? Through Their Eyes is a new 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.240 podcast from the Australian War Memorial that uncovers deeply human 0:14:15.360 --> 0:14:21.080 stories drawn from the AWMS, vast collections, galleries and expert insights. 0:14:21.360 --> 0:14:26.280 Through unexpected perspectives and immersive storytelling, each episode brings history 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:30.280 to life in a way that's personal, moving and relevant today. 0:14:30.600 --> 0:14:34.480 Discover the stories behind our history through their eyes. 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:44.640 Coming in June, so we were preparing for deployment which 0:14:44.640 --> 0:14:47.760 would probably be three to four months long up into 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:50.000 Southeast Asia to conduct a series. 0:14:49.720 --> 0:14:54.760 Of top secretmissions, and we were pretty well through most 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.000 of that work up Alanta. 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:01.400 Scott chose to test the submarine system a deep diving depth, 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.800 the deepest depth which the submarine is designed to operate at. 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:08.360 The actual deep diving debts itself is classified because to 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.000 reveal it we'd give an enemy and advantage in any conflict. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:15.280 It's the deepest depth which would be authorized to operate 0:15:15.480 --> 0:15:20.800 in any sort of normal circumstances. Even in a wartime scenario. 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:25.320 You'd think really, really carefully about pushing the boat deeper 0:15:25.360 --> 0:15:26.440 than deep diving depth. 0:15:29.400 --> 0:15:32.120 I'm climbing down the main hatch of the HM ass Onslow, 0:15:32.560 --> 0:15:35.560 one of the old Oberon class submarines. They are the 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.040 predecessors of the Commons class submarines. This submarine was decommissioned 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.840 in nineteen ninety nine, just two years before the Deshana 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:46.360 was commissioned. It is a rabbit warren of pipes, wires, 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:51.440 equipment of all types, crammed into narrow passageways where sailors 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:54.960 and submarines have to walk through for weeks and months 0:15:55.000 --> 0:15:58.640 on end, gliding silently under the ocean on top secret missions. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:03.240 As the submarine glided ever deeper, the crew responsible for 0:16:03.280 --> 0:16:06.800 the submariness technical systems were at their stations, vigilant and 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:10.880 silent watching the depth gauge, their eyes scanning every instrument 0:16:10.960 --> 0:16:13.960 and piece of equipment, knowing that the water pressure outside 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.000 was rising with every meter of depth. 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:20.160 Lower motorom is a space right down the bottom at 0:16:20.200 --> 0:16:24.080 the rear of the or aft in the submarine that 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:30.200 houses a fair amount of seawater, cooling apparatus, pumps, and pipework. 0:16:31.080 --> 0:16:33.920 I'm going down to the lower motor Room, a tiny 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.800 room crammed with equipment. This is where Petty Officer Jordie 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:41.240 Bunting was stationed to keep a watch on flexible hoses 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:42.600 on the day of the flood. 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:45.560 Now it was myself and two other guyers who were 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:49.200 in the engineering space and the engine room and for 0:16:49.240 --> 0:16:51.840 some reason we'd played paper ocky as who was going 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:55.160 down the hole, and somehow I come up worse off 0:16:55.160 --> 0:16:58.680 than the other two. So we were just looking for 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.080 leaks and just hoping that everything held together as it. 0:17:03.040 --> 0:17:05.000 Should to put the boat through its paces. 0:17:05.840 --> 0:17:09.040 The lower motor Room, a crammed space measuring no more 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.280 than two or three meters, sat underneath the submarine's main 0:17:12.359 --> 0:17:15.040 motor room. The crew entered and left this small room 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.760 via a hatch on the deck. Petty Officer Jordie Bunting, 0:17:19.000 --> 0:17:22.119 universally known as Rocker, stood in that small compartment at 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:25.040 the back of the submarine. His gaze fixed on a 0:17:25.080 --> 0:17:28.760 newly replaced hose, which was part of the auxilliary seawater 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.240 system that provides cooling waters for the motors and which 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:36.080 is exposed to sea pressure at all times. Then, in 0:17:36.119 --> 0:17:38.320 an instant, his world changed. 0:17:39.720 --> 0:17:44.000 There was a sharp hiss and then all mighty explosion fang, 0:17:46.000 --> 0:17:47.920 and the next thing I remember was shit, it's getting 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:52.520 pretty cold. It was fearfully cold, and there was a 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:56.000 lot of water coming in. I can remember screaming out 0:17:56.040 --> 0:17:57.640 at the top of my voice, not that I thought 0:17:57.640 --> 0:18:04.040 it was heard, that we were flooding and then yeah, 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:06.560 it was like being stuck in a washing machine. It 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:08.119 was just round and round and round. 0:18:08.880 --> 0:18:12.359 Luckily for Bunting abel seamen Greg Sullivan were standing not 0:18:12.480 --> 0:18:14.040 far away in another compartment. 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.840 On the day of the flood. My role was to be. 0:18:17.840 --> 0:18:21.480 In the engine room builge and check the area for leaks. 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:26.520 I heard a loud noise and then continue noise that 0:18:26.640 --> 0:18:30.000 wasn't normal. It's normally pretty quiet, so I could tell 0:18:30.080 --> 0:18:34.760 straight away it wasn't good. Started heading back there and 0:18:35.040 --> 0:18:39.520 ran into another sailor who was sounding the alarm. When 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:40.880 he finished, I said, where's Rocker? 0:18:42.200 --> 0:18:45.240 Near the front of the submarine, Commander Scott was standing 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:47.919 just outside the control room under the main hatch with 0:18:48.040 --> 0:18:52.000 two of his most senior engineers, Johnny Ryan and Mango, 0:18:52.480 --> 0:18:54.680 to see if a repair job on a recent small 0:18:54.760 --> 0:18:56.320 leak in the hatch had been fixed. 0:18:57.520 --> 0:18:59.920 For a couple of months, we'd had a slight weeper 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:05.280 a leak on the main access hatch and we'd been 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.240 back alongside worked on that hatch, gone back out to 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:10.359 seat to try to prove it and it would still leak. 0:19:10.920 --> 0:19:14.920 So anyway, the Chief Tiff, Johnny Ryan, was pretty darn 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.120 confident that he had a crack this time. So as 0:19:18.160 --> 0:19:22.840 we arrived at deep diving depth, the chief tiff, myself 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:27.320 and the chief electrical sailor, we're all underneath that main 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.840 access hatch just to check that it was actually home dry, 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.199 and it was. It was fantastic, So we're happy about that, 0:19:35.960 --> 0:19:40.119 but not for long. And we're very happy about that 0:19:40.359 --> 0:19:44.520 until the moment we heard a main broadcast pipe which 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:49.160 said flood, flood, flood, flood in the lower motument. So 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.440 we are at deep diving depth, the submarine is under 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:57.680 as much pressure as you would design the submarine to 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:01.080 operate out and we've got a mate flood somewhere back 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.040 after in the submarine. 0:20:04.119 --> 0:20:08.200 The words flood, flood, flood on the intercom were enough 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.640 to freeze the blood of the entire crew. At deep 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.720 diving depth, a major flood was the most dangerous misshap 0:20:14.840 --> 0:20:16.080 the submarine could suffer. 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:23.840 John Ryan joined the Navy in nineteen eighty four as 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:26.400 an apprentice out at H. Mason Remember at Quakers Hill 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.480 on dashane O. I was the chief tiff for the 0:20:30.280 --> 0:20:32.400 head of the engineering team. 0:20:32.800 --> 0:20:35.240 John Ryan was halfway up a ladder checking the main 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:37.960 hatch for lecks with Commander Scott. When he heard the 0:20:37.960 --> 0:20:40.320 flood warning come over the speakers. 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:45.760 You could hear the words flood, flood, flood, but in 0:20:45.800 --> 0:20:47.200 the background it was like a roar. 0:20:48.160 --> 0:20:51.040 Was anything going through your head at that point. 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:55.119 A lot of things, I think, but nothing in particular. 0:20:55.440 --> 0:20:56.960 Just shit, shit, shit. 0:20:58.080 --> 0:21:00.520 John Ryan sprinted as fast as he could from the 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:02.560 front of the submarine to the back to see what 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:06.280 had happened. The crew would later dub him Johnny crazy 0:21:06.480 --> 0:21:08.880 because he ran towards a major flood and not away 0:21:08.920 --> 0:21:09.199 from it. 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:12.680 So I remember sitting in the Genus Sala's mess when 0:21:12.680 --> 0:21:17.000 the flooding alarm came through the speakers. I saw Old 0:21:17.119 --> 0:21:21.320 Chief two for Johnny Ryan running back after, and I said, well, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:24.399 that's not normal. You know, Normally, when we're exercising or 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:30.120 things happening, it's more of a disciplined exit towards the incident. 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:34.240 But seeing that and then hearing the flooding alarm going 0:21:34.280 --> 0:21:38.359 off and then were very closely watching the depth gauge. 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:39.720 Yeah, just. 0:21:41.640 --> 0:21:42.040 Scary. 0:21:44.560 --> 0:21:49.720 It was several kilometers so pretty deep preservation, probably three 0:21:49.800 --> 0:21:55.960 kilometers beneath us, certainly too deep for the submarine to survive. 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:58.560 So if we had gone down that depth of water, 0:21:58.640 --> 0:22:02.920 the submarine would have been crushed before we hit the bottom. 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:05.840 Commander Scott had no way of knowing at that moment 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.159 how much waterd Shano had taken on and whether or 0:22:09.240 --> 0:22:12.040 not he could get his crippled submarine back to the surface. 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.240 When you have a flood like this, you go from 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:18.879 knowing the state of your submarine in intimate detail, like 0:22:18.960 --> 0:22:22.400 you can know or pull out the state of every valve, 0:22:22.680 --> 0:22:28.200 every switch, the contents of every tank, every single detail 0:22:28.240 --> 0:22:31.399 about the submarine is known. You have a flood like 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:40.880 that and you just go to endless unknowns. 0:22:47.560 --> 0:22:50.520 This is episode one of our four part series which 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.800 the Australian subscribers here first at the floodpodcast dot com 0:22:54.840 --> 0:22:58.240 and Apple Podcasts. Next week On the Flood. 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:01.600 Something flew past and my head and hit something and 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.320 flew back. But it was all split second stuff that 0:23:04.359 --> 0:23:04.639 went on. 0:23:05.240 --> 0:23:07.960 Was your head under guy was under the wood most 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:09.879 of the time. It was sort of it. Yeah, it 0:23:10.040 --> 0:23:11.240 was cold, it was vicious. 0:23:13.720 --> 0:23:16.600 The Flood is an audio and video investigation for The 0:23:16.640 --> 0:23:21.760 Australian by Cameron Stewart, executive producer Claire Harvey and editor Jasperliku. 0:23:22.240 --> 0:23:24.720 You can watch the video right now at the flood 0:23:24.800 --> 0:23:30.120 podcast dot com. Our theme is composed by Jasperlik, cinematography 0:23:30.200 --> 0:23:33.520 is by Andy Taylor and video editing by Lachlan Clear. 0:23:33.960 --> 0:23:37.960 Additional footage was shot by Luke Geldard and Peter aqualina A, 0:23:38.080 --> 0:23:42.920 graphics of by Sean Callanan and animations by Franklin. Special 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:47.120 thanks to Kristin Amiot, Ryan Elfin, the Australian National Maritime 0:23:47.200 --> 0:23:59.600 Museum and the Australian War Memorial. Captured, Imprisoned, Determined to 0:23:59.640 --> 0:24:04.240 Survive through first hand accounts from the Australian War Memorial's archives. 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:08.080 Through Their Eyes reveals what it meant to endure captivity, 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:13.080 maintain hope and survive against the odds. Listen to Through 0:24:13.119 --> 0:24:15.760 Their Eyes wherever you get your podcasts