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16 NAVY NEWS, DECEMBER 2009
Lights, camera,
S
AILORS on HMS Iron Duke
give viewers an idea of what it’s like to scour a missions, the ship’s company have been sharing
enjoy a fi lm night on the
potentially hostile vessel – with the additional their knowledge and skills with a clutch of
frigate’s fl ight deck under the
hindrance of night. British and Commonwealth nations around the
After a busy day and night ashore, the film crew Caribbean.
Caribbean stars. shifted to the frigate. The frigate visited St Lucia, Montserrat, Anguilla,
The film? No, not Close Encounters, but The film crew spent the morning with Offi cer and the British Virgin Islands in the space of a
the thriller Taken starring Liam Neeson (you’ll of the Watch 4 Lt Melanie Shortt, chosen as the busy two weeks, with a fl ying visit to the Turks
just have to take our word for it...). ‘poster girl’ for warfare offi cer recruitment. and Caicos Islands by Commanding Offi cer Cdr
But why watch a movie when you can star Scenes fi lmed ranged from football, running, Andrew Stacey in the ship’s Lynx, ‘Charger’.
in one? and gunnery to a fl ight deck barbecue. “Although the programme sounds idyllic, this
For three days, the ship’s company forgot “The advert plays on words, the shots are short was a very demanding and complex part of the
about the challenges of life aboard a Type 23 and snappy giving the viewer a small insight into deployment,” explained Lt Cdr Martin Hoather,
on patrol in the Caribbean to play, er, sailors the diversity of the job,” she explains. Iron Duke’s weapon engineer offi cer.
dealing with the challenges of life aboard a “I found myself changing from one uniform to We’ll begin our ‘cruise’ in St Lucia, where the
Type 23 on patrol in the Caribbean. the next capturing all the different roles including sailors bumped into the RN netball team (as
They’re the ‘stars’ of the RN’s new the work hard/play hard philosophy. you do), visiting the island for a two-week yo
recruiting advert which airs on television and “Filming was a great experience, one that at training camp and tourtra nament. Perhaps
cinema screens in the new year. I will always remember. Once the advert ert unsurprisinglyun , many of the ship’s company
Of course, being sailors and Royal comes out I hope it’s successful with the e went along to watch and lend their w
Marines they can’t command huge salaries, public.” support.
make outrageous demands or act like prima The afternoon and evening were Next to Montserrat, where the Soufrière
donnas... dedicated to yet more boarding ops Hills volcano erupted devastatingly a
Nassau in the Bahamas was picked as the and a lot of filming of the sea boat. dozen years ago, wrecking the island’s
location for the new ad. AB(WS) Daniel Hughes was the capital of Plymouth.
As for the scenario, well there’s a bit of bowman in HMS Iron Duke’s sea boat Recently, the fi ery peak has shown
counter-narcotics and disaster relief (which, for this long period: “I was nominated to fresh signs of activity (experts rate the
funnily enough, is Iron Duke’s reason for be bowman for the fi lming and took the danger level as three on a scale of one to
being in these parts). opportunity,” says AB(WS) Daniel Hughes. fi ve, fi ve being the fi res of hell raging)...
Mercifully, this year’s hurricane season “It was long, exhausting hours but luckily the ...something Iron Duke found on her arrival as
has not wrought havoc in the Caribbean on sea state wasn’t too bad and there were lots of she sailed under a huge cloud of ash.
a scale comparable with previous years. opportunities to get a drink.” Charger took island police offi cers up on a ‘crop
So the production team behind the film Of the non-alcoholic variety we might add... survey’ sortie to see if they could spot marijuana
created chaos – everything from broken The filming extended into the night and the crux
plantations from the sky.
telegraph poles to cars turned on their
of the mission: the boarding of a vessel suspected Then it was the turn of the island’s governor,
side.
of carrying narcotics. Peter Waterworth, his chief minister Reuben
Locals of all ages were hired to act as
The boarding team were ‘armed’ with rubber Meade and the director of Montserrat Volcano
victims of natural disaster and the sailors
SA80 rifl es and proceeded onto the vessel at Observatory Paul Cole to inspect the volcano at
were charged with doing what they do for
high speed from the sea boat after the immortal close hand.
real in the aftermath of a storm: provide aid
moviemaking word ‘action’. “Flying right up to an active volcano was both
to the needy and restore vital services.
“Filming the scene seemed very realistic: the an awe-inspiring and surreal experience which
Come nightfall and the Iron Ducks
director allowed me to instruct the team how a will probably end up never being repeated unless
removed their disaster relief ‘hats’ and
boarding is conducted,” said Mne David ‘Chats’ we’re lucky enough to come back,” said Lt Dan
donned counter-drugs ones (something
Chatterton, one of Iron Duke’s boarding team. Williams, Charger’s pilot.
they’re quite good at, having scored the
“It took a long time to set up and shoot however, “As we fl ew the governor and the geologist
biggest cocaine bust in RN history last
I felt the atmosphere and tempo were correct and I around the mountain to analyse the recent violent
month).
am looking forward to seeing the fi nal shot.” activity, we witnessed the summit kicking out
A set was mocked-up to replicate a
Which shouldn’t be too long off now as the huge clouds of ash and pyroclastic fl ows, which
board-and-search by night, with flashes
advert will ‘roll out’ early in 2010. ran down the mountainside into the sea like an
of white light piercing the darkness to
When not taking part in Ersatz disaster relief avalanche.
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