The Queen received a birthday gift that helped keep a nuclear-powered submarine at sea when all else failed, clingfilm. Camilla’s 78th birthday, celebrated on Thursday, was marked with the presentation of a clingfilm holder from Commander Chris Bate whose crew used the household item to fix a defect in the main engines of his submarine HMS Astute.
“There’s nothing more useful, brilliant how wonderful,” said the royal guest about the present which had a small plaque with the words “Clingflim keeping nuclear submarines at sea”. The Queen is HMS Astute’s Lady Sponsor and has developed a strong bond with the crew and wider navy that saw her made a Vice Admiral when she visited Devonport naval base in Plymouth to meet its submariners.
She boarded the vessel’s huge hull as the first phase of its working life over almost 20 years came to an end, and met eight of its past commanders who stood close to the turret. Later in a garden party speech to the crew and their families, she looked forward to the submarine’s return to service after a four-year refit and warned with the “global tectonics shifting unpredictably” she may return into an “unfamiliar world”.
But said this was a “challenge that I know will be taken on with her usual tenacity”. She referenced the ingenuity of the crew “…from the innovation of one petty officer to code cutting edge long-range communications software, through to the resourceful solution to maintain a vacuum, in the middle of the Indian Ocean, with clingfilm!
“I can only imagine what the unofficial toolkit in a submarine might look like.” General Sir Gwyn Jenkins, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, said the Queen’s honorary role would “further enhance Her Majesty’s relationship with the service.”
Tt dates back to the mid-16th Century and was marked by the presentation of a large burgee, or pennant, by Rear Admiral Andy Perks, head of the submarine service, recognising the Queen’s ongoing support for the Royal Navy. Commander Bate, captain of the hunter-killer submarine HMS Astute, said he hoped the clingfilm dispenser would be a talking point in the Queen’s home.
He added: “We had a defect on board, we were losing vacuum in the main engines and the engineers said we can either come back to port to fix it or use something onboard. So they used Clingfilm from the galley on board, wrapped it around the engines and stopped air getting into it and restored propulsion at sea, and it’s been on there for the last two and half years.”
He praised the support the crew have received from Camilla over the years: “She’s been a really good supporter since day one and for the last 15 years writes to the boat regularly. We’ve had freezer failures where we’ve had to go without frozen food and she’s sent tea and biscuit to support the ship’s company.”
