Institutional memory gives crews examples and standards for difficult decisions, including the reasons behind inherited traditions. The Royal Navy's submarine service understood its strengths to be intelligence gathering, information, and ambush, and had spent the interwar years developing that identity from First World War experience. Its history began with five boats ordered in 1900 and built by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness. The continuing use of Barrow and the reputation of the demanding Perisher command course connect that early service with later generations of submariners.
Chapter · 0:42-8:40
Institutional memory and the submarine ambush ethos
The Royal Navy submarine service developed an identity around intelligence gathering and ambush, supported by wartime experience and demanding command training.