The HMS Dolphin Experience
Posted By Paul Kotik on 10 February 2003
We'd been tossing the idea around for months, and then it was upon me.
Freediver magazine publisher Howard Jones and Deeper Blue's Stephan Whelan ponied up the logistics and the game was afoot. I left Miami on an overnight nonstop to London, bound for a weekend freediving romp at HMS Dolphin, the Royal Navy's Submarine Escape Training Tower (SETT) at Portsmouth, England.
My home in South Florida is blessed with a semi-tropical climate, not at all like the Arctic wilderness I regarded, with no small apprehension, on the approach to Heathrow. That was a Thursday afternoon. After a bit of nostalgic rambling about Central London that afternoon and Friday, Stephan and I rose before dawn Saturday morning and motored through the Surrey countryside down to Portsmouth.
The English countryside is, thankfully, what it is, and is no less so on a frosty winter morning. Soothing to the eye, reassuring in its solidity and permanence. It was, however, well below freezing. As we wound through the streets of Portsmouth, one could feel the ancient maritime tradition in which the town is steeped. The presence of the Royal Navy was apparent in the increasingly numerous sightings of munitions plants, camouflaged bunkers, concertina wire and red brick buildings named by the Royal Navy, for reasons unknown to me, as if they were ships. One such building, HMS Dolphin, was our destination.
A narrow causeway passes the Trafalgar Marina and leads one to the gates of the compound in which the SETT facility is housed in a 10 -story building, the tallest in the vicinity. We parked outside the gate, entered an adjacent office, and were issued preprinted vehicle and personal passes by convivial military personnel. Back in the car, we approached the gates, presented our credentials, and were admitted to the base.
In contrast to the sleepy town center, the base facilities and the waterfront were quite active at that hour. We later learned the reason as we witnessed the Royal Navy's flag warship, the carrier Ark Royal, steaming from home port to deploy.
Her Majesty's Ship Dolphin is not a tourist resort. It is nothing like that
at all. It is a military installation, and has the look and feel of one. The
walls and floors are hard, the corners sharp, and the paint, though
immaculate, has that institutional gloss. Bulletin boards are covered with
large format aerial photos, terse charts illustrating emergency medical
procedures and signed testimonials from the foreign naval personnel who have
passed through the facility over the years. Some of the notices are composed
in an unfathomable military jargon which is, nevertheless, not without a
certain charm. One such sign advises the reader to "Ditch All Gash Before
Leaving the Building." I thank in advance any reader who knows to discover
its meaning to the rest of us.
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