Commander Drysdale

Last January we posted about the the HMS Superb, a  British nuclear submarine, which in 2008 crashed into a massive stone pinnacle under the Red Sea. (See Submarines Navigating Badly.)   Now the commander and two other officers have been severely reprimanded by a Royal Navy court martial.  Apparently all concerned just misread the chart.

Commander of submarine in crash misread chart, court martial told

A Royal Navy commander crashed a nuclear-powered submarine into a large rock in the Red Sea after misreading a number one as seven on a navigational chart, a court martial heard today.

Commander Steven Drysdale, who was in charge of HMS Superb, had ordered the vessel to take a shorter route to make sure it reached a rendezvous point in time for an operation. The submarine dived to reach deeper water so that it could travel faster, the hearing at Portsmouth naval base was told.

A pinnacle jutting out from the seabed was marked as being at a depth of 123 metres, but Drysdale misread it as 723. Thinking that the boat would clear the obstruction easily, the submarine was directed towards it and it grounded.

Drysdale, officer of the watch Lieutenant Commander Andrew Cutler and navigation officer Lieutenant Lee Blair all admitted at a previous hearing an offence of neglecting to perform their duty.