SLt Smith RNR accompanied nine cadets from all three services to HMS Excellent, based on Whale Island in Portsmouth Harbour. The cadets enjoyed an overnight stay on HMS Bristol, a Type 82 destroyer now used as training vessel.
After an early call of hands the next morning, cadets undertook a series of firefighting drills in mock up sections of a frigate, all designed to simulate the sorts of fires that RN ratings and officers might encounter on-board, including extinguishing a 400°C diesel engine fire.
In the afternoon, cadets were tested to the limit in the Damage Repair Instructional Unit (DRIU) as a mess deck was flooded with them in it! After some frantic initial efforts, the cadets eventually closed the various hatches, and patched up missile damage in the bulkheads and deckheads, in order to bring the flooding under control.
