Life on a Cold War Polaris Nuclear Missile Submarine (84)

Cold War Conversations - "vivid & compelling" The NY Times

Ian Sanders

Documentary, History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 865 Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2019

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War. Now before we start his story as I’d like to tell you about some of our fans who are helping the podcast financially such as Liam Doyle, Sarah Ampolsk, Philippe Branco, Victor Osprey and Richard Orman. So how do you join this select band? Then sign up to Patreon. For the price of a couple of coffees a month you help to cover the show’s increasing costs and keep us on the air, plus you get the sought after CWC coaster too. Just go to https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Back to today episode, Richard has just published his book called “Under Pressure” described by historian James Holland as “'An utterly fascinating and wonderfully detailed insight into the hidden - and frequently disorientating and claustrophobic - world of the modern submariner, this richly compelling and hugely entertaining memoir brilliantly conveys the tension, huge responsibility, culture and, of course, humour, of being a crewman on the nuclear deterrent.” You can have the chance to win a free copy via the information in our show notes here. https://coldwarconversations.com/episode84/ The show notes also contains a documentary film of life aboard one of these boats. We welcome Richard Humphreys to our Cold War conversation. Support the project! https://coldwarconversations.com/donate/ Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/ColdWarPod Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/coldwarpod/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/coldwarconversations/ Youtube https://youtube.com/@ColdWarConversations Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Cold War Conversations, the home of real stories of the Cold War.
0:05.8	And then I went on board and, you know, I had to take some time out in the toilets, actually,
0:10.7	because I was taking some deep breaths because I was like Christ.
0:13.2	This is something else. This is the living environment.
0:15.6	It's just something like I've never experienced because it's so small down there.
0:21.4	This is Cold War Conversations. If you're new here, you've come to the right place to listen to first-hand Cold War history accounts.
0:31.4	Do make sure you follow us in your podcast app or join our emailing list at cold warconversations.com.
0:40.2	As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service
0:47.1	of the Royal Navy in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War.
0:56.5	Now, before we start his story, I'd like to tell you about some of our fans who are helping the podcast financially, such as Liam Doyle, Sarah Ampolsk, Philippe Branco, Victor Osprey and Richard Orman.
1:12.0	So how do you join this select band?
1:14.6	Just sign up to Patreon.
1:17.4	For the price of a couple of coffees a month,
1:20.2	you help cover the show's increasing costs and keep us on the air.
1:24.5	Plus you get the sought-after Cold War Conversations coaster too.
1:30.1	Just go to cold warconversations.com slash donate.
1:35.0	So back to today's episode, Richard has just published his book called Under Pressure,
1:41.1	described by historian James Holland as an utterly fascinating and wonderfully
1:46.6	detailed insight into the hidden and frequently disorientating and claustrophobic world of
1:53.0	the modern submariner. This richly compelling and hugely entertaining memoir brilliantly
1:59.5	conveys the tension, huge responsibility,
2:03.4	culture and of course humour of being a crewman on the nuclear deterrent.
	...

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