Royal Navy comes to ‘rescue’ of Swedish submarine
They were able to avoid a ‘coffee-crisis’ in the Baltic
A Royal Navy patrol boat, operating out of Portsmouth, has carried out a special mission - to deliver coffee to a Swedish submarine.
It happened during NATO exercises in the Baltic.
HMS Dasher responded to the plea for help and conducted what is believed to be the first ever re-supply by the class of fast patrol boats and a submarine in their near-40-year careers, sending ground coffee across to their allies in the mid-ocean.
The special delivery was a light-hearted moment in the middle of an otherwise very serious NATO exercise to bolster safety and security in the region which has been taking place for the past ten days or so.
It was during a break from an attack exercise that Dasher’s crew received orders to help out the submarine after the two-dozen crew reported they’d nothing left aboard their boat to wash down their morning pastries.
Rather than simply handing over the emergency rations, Seamanship Specialist Able Seaman Cody Prince threw a heaving line to the submarine. A waterproof bag, stashed with coffee and Italian biscuits, was passed over safely and the coffee crisis averted.
After the transfer was complete, Dasher sped away at 20 knots back to her base for the evening.
There was a more serious side to the meet-up (officially a ‘replenishment at sea’ in naval parlance), as Lieutenant Jack Mason, HMS Dasher’s Commanding Officer, explains.
“Although on this occasion it was only ground coffee, we’ve demonstrated allied co-operation, the ability to communicate between a P2000 and a Swedish submarine via NATO, and the ability for a P2000 to deliver critical stores at short notice to assist with submarines maintaining their operational readiness.”