Reflecting on the loss of the ARA SAN JUAN

It has been confirmed that the wreckage of the missing Argentine submarine ARA SAN JUAN has been found. This news, coming just over a year after her disappearance is sad, but will hopefully provide closure to the families of those affected.

The loss of the SAN JUAN is a timely reminder of how dangerous the sea is, and the risks that those who work on it face daily. The crew are now on an eternal patrol, but they will be remembered.

One bright spot emerging from this sad chapter is that it helped reinvigorate the Anglo-Argentine relationship. It is worth pausing to reflect that prior to this, the relationship had been in a challenging place, after years of the Kirchener administration using the issue of the Falkland Islands as a convenient distraction from internal political problems. Even though the arrival of the Macri administration had changed the dynamics, it had not really reinvigorated things.

Image by Ministry of Defence; © Crown copyright

The UK reaction to the call for assistance was immediate, unequivocal and without pre-conditions. It also demonstrated the phenomenal capabilities and global reach of the British Armed Forces. Within a very short period of time, the UK was able to provide two ships to participate in the search operations (HMS PROTECTOR and HMS CLYDE) and dispatched, via the longest peacetime flight in the history of the RAF, the Submarine Parachute Assistance Group to Argentina.  Additional searches were made using UK aircraft, and the Royal Navy was able to provide refuelling and support to the Argentine Armed Forces too.

Humphrey wrote on the incident at the time in this article - https://thinpinstripedline.blogspot.com/2017/11/for-those-in-peril-on-sea.html and many of the points made still ring true today.  This incident showed how the UK is able to quickly forge a close working relationship with nations that it does not traditionally work with, and provide meaningful assistance too. While the search was ultimately futile, it proved a valuable means of helping build trust and relationships at the working level that have opened new doors to co-operation in the future.

The intervening year has seen a genuine reinvigoration of the Anglo-Argentine defence and foreign policy relationship. 18 months ago the idea that HMS PROTECTOR would visit Argentina was incredibly unlikely, yet she was able, after the incident, to visit Buenos Ares, the first RN warship to do so since 2004. By all accounts the crew enjoyed a magnificent visit, which in turn has led to deeper co-operation still, helping foster a genuinely strong relationship again between the two navies.

One way the anniversary was marked was by the news that both HMS PROTECTOR and CLYDEs crews had marked a minutes silence in memory of the SAN JUAN, alongside well judged and timely tweets that marked the commemoration appropriately. It was a very powerful way to remember the SAN JUAN, but also take pride in the role that the Royal Navy played in trying to find the crew. The image below was tweeted in Spanish by the British Embassy in Buenos Ares, which seems to have had a positive response. 

The act of remembrance for the ARA SAN JUAN

The use of twitter here has also highlighted again the incredible value that social media plays in reaching audiences and educating them about the work of the British Armed Forces. Nowhere is this more true than in showing off the work done by the PROTECTOR on her patrols in the Antarctic.

The regular updates of hauntingly beautiful movie streams of passages into harbours, and shots of scenery that cannot be adequately described in a press release, go a long way to showing just how capable a platform she is. British Antarctic Territory is a remote and huge region (encompassing some 660,000 square miles, compared to the UK’s 92,000), which few people will ever visit.

By effectively communicating the work they do, the relationships that they have built with friendly nations in South America and clearly showing an enormous pride in their ship and people, HMS PROTECTOR has exemplified the way the Royal Navy can and should communicate its work.

There has been an encouraging growth in the use of social media accounts by RN ships in recent years. The Hydrographic Squadron have really led the way in showing what can be done with timely engagement to talk about their work. Between HMS MAGPIE, ECHO, ENTERPRISE and PROTECTOR (SCOTT doesn’t seem to have an account yet), they have nearly 18000 twitter followers. That’s impressive, but they really do deserve a lot more. If you do nothing else this weekend, then do follow @hmsprotector @HMSEnterprise @HMS_Echo and @hms_magpie!

The way these four ships have talked so effectively about their work, the roles they do and tried to highlight where the Royal Navy is deployed and why is incredibly encouraging. It is a genuine pleasure to see their tweets come up, and each time it feels like they are offering knowledge, humour or uplifting images.

It’s a shame that not all RN vessels are able to do the same, because the potential to reach out with a good twitter account and use of social media in an effective way seems to be so incredibly potent. There are so many good news stories to tell that often don’t easily get turned into a press release that would never be carried, but deserve to be shown. Twitter is the perfect medium for this.

It has to be hoped that more RN ships follow where the Hydrographic squadron have gone, and invest time and effort in their online presence. Twitter offers a means to get news out quickly, and in an age where it is easy to be cynical about the urge in some quarters to rely on silence and utterly ineffectual (and ignored) embargos, it is really uplifting to see RN vessels feeling empowered to show what they are up to.

Perhaps the solution to raise awareness on social media use is to provide an annual prize to the RN unit judged to have had the most effective twitter presence over the preceeding 12 months. It is likely that the media reach of these ships, powered by the initiative of junior personnel who want to rightly show off their ship and work, is playing a vital part in selling the work of the Royal Navy. Hopefully a ‘Herbert Lott’ award for the best ‘Tweeto’ will soon be forthcoming (if it isn’t already being considered?)

The loss of the SAN JUAN was a tragedy, but it helped remind us of the common humanity that brings us together, and we should be rightly proud of the work played by the British Armed Forces in this sad chapter.  We should also reflect that the work of our fellow citizens, thousands of miles from home in remote stormy seas and dangerous waters does make a real difference, and that we should be very proud of them for what they did, and the manner in which they continue to remember.