UK News 06-10-2004 Always Keep The Receipt who: The Royal Navy what: Rushes to help stranded submarine it sold to Canada at the weekend where: 120 miles off the coast of Ireland when: Last night snippet: "You just cannot beat the value of having a submarine that belongs to you, operating in your waters," Rear Admiral Dan McNeil, commander of Canada`s maritime force Atlantic, is quoted as saying in today`s Guardian. The vessel, one of four diesel submarines purchased from the MoD at the weekend, began the voyage on Monday "but by yesterday afternoon, it did not look quite such good value. And it seemed to have little prospect of being in Canadian waters any time soon." HMCS Chicoutimi, a diesel submarine with 57 officers and crew on board was just off the coast of Ireland when a fire broke out, explains The Times, "forcing the captain to send out a mayday signal and carry out an emergency surfacing manoeuvre." Royal Navy rescue operations are being hampered by the weather, however. "The sub is awaiting ships to tow it back to Faslane," a spokesman for the Canadian Navy tells The Times, "but the problem is that the seas are extremely treacherous, with six- to eight-metre waves and winds of 35 knots. It`s going to be extremely difficult for the ships to make it out there, and the sailors are getting tossed to and fro something crazy." The Independent reckons the incident "will come as a huge embarrassment for the Ministry of Defence, coming only four days after the vessel was formally handed over to the Canadians." HMCS Chicoutimi was the last of four such submarines bought in a deal "dogged by escalating costs, delays and reports of corrosion, leaks, turbine breakdowns and other technical faults encountered during their refits." With only craft on active service, the paper suspects that Canada is considering suing Britain over the deal; the repair bill is estimated at £390 million - nearly twice what the Canadian Navy paid for the four subs. [... more]

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