Publication:Navy Annual 2005/Submariners - the Making of the TV Series
BY LIEUTENANT COMMANDER GRAHAM SPENCER, RAN, COMMANDER STU WHEELER, RAN, AND CHIEF PETTY OFFICER NOLA ECCLES, RAN.
The aim of the series has been to provide the public an insight into life on board an Australian Navy submarine while deployed overseas, thereby raising the public profile of submarines.
In preparing for this production, Mr Hugh Piper (EP Film Writer and Director) and Mr Paul Warren (EP Cameraman) joined the submarine Force Element Group (FEG) to undertake medical examinations, submarine familiarisation and emergency escape briefs from the submarine Escape rescue Centre (SERC) and the submarine underwater Medicine unit - West (SUMU-W) in HMAS Stirling.
After her commissioning in March 2003, HMAS Rankin was nominated as the submarine to embark the two cameramen. The two-man EP film crew were fitted out with black overalls, boots, bunk bags and invited to participate in filming HMAS Rankin's workup between February and April 2004.
During this time there was much happening behind the scenes. It all came together on Easter Saturday 2004, when HMAS Rankin was programmed to sail at midday. A short time later, the slender black hull disappeared from view and the crew took their last look at the hot Western Australian sunlight for several months.
The following weeks were filled with a busy program of operations and the submarine rescue exercise known as PACIFIC REACH; the first multinational exercise organised and hosted entirely by the South Koreans. Following the outstanding success of the exercise with the Koreans, Rankin sailed for the city of Kure on Japan's inland sea for a goodwill visit. Again, it was a brave reception by the Japanese in the pouring rain. This is captured in the series and one has to feel sorry for everyone as they get soaked at the formal welcome to Kure.
Behind the scenes, film was arriving by safe-hand mail from Korea and Japan and being cleared for security issues by CAPT Mark Sander, RAN back at Stirling. Another EP film crewmember was busy interviewing some of the crew's spouses in the Rockingham area to provide a balance between the operational deployment and the spouses left to manage their families in Australia.
Training Authority - submarines, (TA-SM) (Commander Stuart Wheeler, RAN) the Navy's submarine training and system school in Western Australia, provided valuable support to EP by allowing computer graphics specialists Messrs Peter Brooke and Andrew Widdis to produce a computer generated image of a Collins Class submarine. This virtual 3-D image appears at the beginning of each episode and throughout the series.
Everyone agrees the series should be a fantastic success that will be well received by the public. You will have to see the series to learn what happened onboard HMAS Rankin.
During the six-month deployment, HMAS Rankin trained a number of submariners for the award of their Dolphins. The first two months of the deployment saw four submariner trainees work their way through competency logs and task books under ideal training conditions. In Hawaii they graduated as submariners. Over the six-month deployment, more trainees qualified in HMAS Rankin that ever before and this represented another significant achievement for HMAS Rankin and a boost for the submarine workforce.
Since HMAS Rankin returned to Fleet Base West, she has been awarded the Duke of Gloucester Cup, the Fleet's most proficient unit award, plus other Fleet Awards for 2004, which is the 'icing on the cake' for HMAS Rankin's ship's company.
