Yakking for Argyll

You couldn’t make it up - but you can and will pay for it. In 2002 one of Faslane’s nuclear submarines, HS Trafagar, ran into the seabed close inshore off the Isle of Skye. The Inquiry report, released earlier this month, found that the trainee navigators had been using tracing paper to plot their course - so as not to mess up up the chart underneath. The tracing paper was heavy enough to blot out the delicate depth contours on the chart! It cost - us - £5 million to repair the damage to the sub. Admiralty charts cost from £45 upwards. Go figure.
Now another sub, the Superb, has also hit underwater rocks - in the Red Sea. She’s sitting on the surface, with damaged sonar which makes it impossible for her to dive. The Navy is trying to work out how to get her back to Faslane. Two questions. Was it tracing paper again? How much will it cost us this time?