“We crashed on Wednesday lunchtime but they couldn’t even find us on the sea bed until Friday and finally started to lift us on Saturday morning.”It was extremely claustrophobic. The conditions were damp, dark and cold, no more than three or four degrees. We hugged each other to keep warm.”They stayed alive by rationing the air supply, “bleeding” pure oxygen from tanks into the craft every 40 to 50 minutes, which meant one of them always had to stay awake despite the fact they were operating on what Mr Chapman describes as “quarter-power” in a semi-conscious state to preserve oxygen.”The big advantage we had [over the Russians] was communication and we were kept informed of what was going on and that keeps your morale up My mate had three kids and that was a big stress. I had been married three years.”Eventually, the diving bell was located and by the Saturday morning lines had been attached to the submersible and the operation to lift it clear began “The most frightening part was being lifted up All mayhem broke lose.

The weather was very bad,” he said.Back home safely, the former Royal Navy submariner (his career ended in 1971 when he became short-sighted) began his quest to build the LR5, a rescue submersible that could attach itself to a submarine and transport trapped sailors to the surface.The craft was originally designed and built for the off-shore oil industry but the LR5 was earmarked by the Royal Navy for submarine escape and rescue duties 20 years ago. Originally built by a team, including Mr Chapman, at Vickers Oceanics, it has been owned by several organisations.In the last two years, the LR5, which is on permanent standby at Glasgow airport, has undergone a substantial refit, which increased its carrying capacity from nine to 16 evacuees.The LR5, crewed by a team of three, is reckoned by experts to be superior to any other submersible rescue craft, including the US navy version, which is more cumbersome and less versatile. It has never been used in a real emergency before but in practice manoeuvres earlier this year it engaged successfully with a Russian-built, Polish submarine, providing grounds for optimism that it is compatible with the Kursk.Mr Chapman hopes the rescue mission is not too late, but in a thinly veiled criticism of the Russian government, he says: “We had no political axe to grind at all [but] we could have been there two or three days earlier. The more time you have, the more chance you have of rescuing people.”. Whatever hopes there were of saving the lives of submariners from the stricken Kursk rested last night on a combination of a British rescue submarine, the LR5, and Norwegian deep- sea divers.

They arrived at the scene at 5pm British time yesterday ahead of schedule and immediately made preparations to dive. Whatever hopes there were of saving the lives of submariners from the stricken Kursk rested last night on a combination of a British rescue submarine, the LR5, and Norwegian deep- sea divers. They arrived at the scene at 5pm British time yesterday ahead of schedule and immediately made preparations to dive.
The diving teams were preparing to battle strong currents and swirling silt to try and dock with the hatch of the Kursk, which has now been lying 350ft down at the bottom of the Barents Sea for a week.The condition of the submarine, the fear of further explosions and the state of the nuclear reactors will pose further problems when they attempt the rescue manoeuvre.Last night the team received a briefing from Russian officers who were flown by helicopter to the Norwegian diving ship, the DSV Seaway Eagle, and then to the Normand Pioneer, the submersible’s mother ship, to discuss details of the rescue effort. It will take about four hours for the submarine to dive to the wreck and return to the surface.The Norwegian divers will position the LR5, considered the most sophisticated rescue submersible of its kind, over a hatch. This should enable any mariners still alive to be transferred from one vessel to the other. The LR5 is capable of carrying 15 evacuees at a time besides its own crew of three.Commander Alan Hoskins, who is organising the British rescue team, was refusing to give up hope last night despite the chill warning issued by Vice-Admiral Mikhail Motsak, chief of the general staff of the Northern Fleet.