By Jared Samuelson
In part 2 of this interview, Tom Sharpe joins the program to discuss his time as Captain of HMS Endurance, when the ship suffered catastrophic flooding and was nearly lost in Antarctic waters.
Tom is a freelance communications consultant specializing in managing reputations and capacity building for complex and often contested organizations. Prior to this he spent 27 years in the Royal Navy, 20 of which were at sea. He commanded four different warships, including a Type 23 Frigate and the Ice Patrol Vessel, HMS Endurance.
Download Sea Control 522 – Catastrophe in the Antarctic with Tom Sharpe (Part 2)
Links
1. “Mayday in Magellan; Leadership Lessons on Flooded HMS Endurance,” by Tom Sharpe, Wavell Room, December 16, 2018.
Jared Samuelson is Co-Host and Executive Producer of the Sea Control podcast. Contact him at Seacontrol@cimsec.org.
This episode was edited and produced by Andrew Frame.
Not as serious (fortunately) as Commander Sharpe’s story but on the subject of reporting problems to higher authority, as the Boilers Officer on a 1200 psi Adams class DDG, I wrote more CASREPs than anybody else. Our CO announced upon taking command that we would never have problems, only challenges. I quickly learned that he would automatically strike out the word “problem” and replace it with “challenge” without considering how the resulting message sounded. I consequently avoided the use of the word problem when I was drafting CASREPs. Unfortunately I was on leave when we had a feedwater consumption problem and the CASREP went out saying we had a “feedwater consumption challenge” which prompted a sarcastic response from the Commodore.