Bay of Bengal

Three miles off the coast of Shell bay.

Lat = 8 degrees, 32.1 minutes North

Long = 81 degrees, 17.5 minutes East

Sunday 1st January 1989

Zero-five hundred hours and twenty minutes local time

Five hours and thirty minutes ahead of GMT

At a depth of two hundred feet, lying in wait was the Royal Naval Trafalgar class nuclear submarine, HMS Torbay.

Commissioned on the 7th of February 1987 with a surface displacement of four thousand seven hundred and forty tons, and powered by a Rolls Royce PWR1 nuclear reactor giving her a speed of thirty-two knots.

Her Captain had just received word that the OSC unit was nearby; he gave the order to surface.

The valves on the top of the ballast tanks were shut; with high-pressure air being pumped into the tanks forcing the water out through the holes at the bottom. The tanks began to fill with air causing the submarine to ascend.

Thirty seconds later HMS Torbay broke to the surface, the

Captain gave the order for the forward hatch to be

opened.

The two rigid inflatables were two hundred yards away as they watched the submarine break to the surface; Max observed the forward hatch opening and gave the order to paddle.

One minute later they were being helped onto the submarines deck, to avoid too much time above water the OSC teams punctured the inflatables and left them to the elements.

Three minutes later the captain gave the order to blow tanks and dive.