Periscope Photos | Friends of the Royal Navy Submarine Museum

Orientation: 1

From Philip Marsden.This photo was taken from Valiant's search periscope in May (I think) 1985. We were operating in Area Jura acting as target for a Spearfish trial, the firing boat being Sceptre. The photo is courtesy of the then Lt Mike Davis-Marks, Photographic Officer, who developed and printed the photo on board. Visible in the distance are Sceptre's masts and the TRV. At the time, we were running with a reduced ship's company, allowing space for my 12 year old son to join us at sea for the three or so days. I would like to think the shot was taken with Valiant dived, but I'm sure we were on the roof at the time. The full story is recounted in an article called 'Boy Seamen' published in the 2009-2010 edition of All Round Look!

Persian Gulf 1966 - 1

From Colin Tabeart: Took these in the Persian Gulf in about Sep 1966 from HMS Rorqual using the standard Leica issue on the after periscope. As you can see we got quite close, but not at all sure who she was.

From Rob Day: In the second "Periscope Photography" section of the Gallery, there are two images from Richard Tabeart of a ship in the Persian Gulf in 1966. His caption says "not at all sure who she was".

The short answer is USS Valcour AGF-1, the command flagship for the US Com MidEastFor.

A more complete answer ...

The Valcour was originally a small seaplane tender (AVP) of the WW2 Barnegat-class. She and two sisters (USS Duxbury Bay & USS Greenwich Bay) were converted to command ships and shared the duty in rotation until Dec 1965 when the Valcour was re-classified as AGF-1 (miscellaneous flagship) and was assigned permanently to the Middle East. She served there until 1972.

Persian Gulf 1966-2

From Colin Tabeart: Took these in the Persian Gulf in about Sep 1966 from HMS Rorqual using the standard Leica issue on the after periscope. As you can see we got quite close, but not at all sure who she was.

QE2

Orientation: 1

Periscope attack

From Eric Thompson