Warship: Life at Sea - Second Season

I don't want to freak anyone out, but what is that in front of us?

HMS Duncan is a £1 billion warship...

...on a brand-new mission.

Closing my position, clarify your intentions.

You've seen the news, you know what's going on.

Britain is sending a second warship to the Gulf as tensions rise.

This is what we're here for.

This Royal Navy destroyer is packed with the most advanced weaponry

in the world.

Our Sea Viper missile system is secret.

By the time they're 50 feet above the ground, they're going three,

four times the speed of sound.

But 260 men and women also call it home.

Like a married couple but with no benefits whatsoever.

So, hopefully in the summer I'll come back. I love you.

With exclusive access, our cameras have been invited back

for Duncan's dramatic new seven-month deployment...

Something's about to happen.

It as a bit of a tense time. Illuminate contact at 390.

To be going to war, it is scary.

...as the crew join the fight to eradicate Isis in Iraq and Syria.

This is as close as you get to being on the front line.

Get ready for the worst scenario.

Your future, at the minute, is not certain.

And they find themselves at the heart of an international crisis.

We are not here to start a war with Iraq.

We might be here to finish one.

This is as serious as it gets.

It's early March,

and HMS Duncan is in port.

This has got to be the dream, hasn't it? To get your name painted in gold

on one of Her Majesty's ships.

This may be in a museum one day.

Tom Trent has just become the new captain.

You all right? Morning.

I think I'm the typical modern naval captain.

There's no space these days for the old-style

authoritarian-type approach.

Morning.

Maybe I might come across as a bit too nice.

How are you doing? Good, thanks.

Because I probably deep down want people to like me.

You all right?

But you need to find those opportunities to demonstrate the

hard edge.

Is that a legal haircut? Stop. Come back here.

Is that a legal haircut?

There's only one option, it all has to come off.

The captain is about to lead HMS Duncan on a seven-month deployment,

but they're running late.

There's a bit of frustration, I think, trying to get going.

Mechanical issues have delayed the ship by three weeks.

They've just been given the green light to sail.

We've got a plan, it now falls on me to tell the troops. I really want

to tell them as quickly as I can.

Clear lower deck. Clear lower deck.

All ship's company muster in the hangar.

Halt. Stand at ease. Good evening, all.

Right.

You're starting to get to know me now, and I think most of you are

realising that if I do know stuff, I'm going to tell you.

We're going to deploy the ship Friday.

There's a slight issue here. We're going to be a little bit late.

So we're going to have to kind of work pretty hard and fast then get

out the door, OK?

The crew now have just 36 hours to get the ship ready.

Happy? Crack on. Thanks very much.

Company...

Everyone's keen to go, they want to get going, so do I.

Yeah, I'm desperate to get out on this deployment.

How you doing? You've got your deployment haircut gone.

We've got hours now until we sail.

You all right? How's it going? Welcome back.

Just going around the department, making sure the deadlines are

being adhered to.

Ellen Laird is Duncan's logistics officer.

You're already do go? Yeah. Good.

Yeah? It's her job to get the shape ready to sail tomorrow.

How many pallets of potatoes would you say we are going to get? ten.

About ten pallets of potatoes?

So, about £30,000 worth of stores coming on today.

Everybody who's spare, then, start a chain.

We'll sail with about 80 days' worth of food for 260 people.

That's your baked beans.

Among the boxes and containers are 52,000 teabags...

...4,000 chickens add enough milk to fill 25 bathtubs.

That will be full before we sail.

And we essentially eat our way through the storeroom on deployment.

They reckon an army marches on its stomach,

and a Navy certainly sails on it.

I enjoy this dynamic.

I'm like a swan, you see.

They look peaceful and graceful but you can't see my legs

doing that underneath.

Right.

The delayed deployment means some of the crew have been allowed to say a

final goodbye to family and friends.

Most important thing for the deployment, that. My PlayStation.

20-year-old Connor Moore has been in the Navy for 18 months,

but the next seven will be

the longest he's ever been away from home.

Definitely made the right decision to join the Navy.

I didn't think there was anything here for me, and I thought about

joining the Army. My mum wasn't having any of it.

Found your passport? Yeah, it's in my bag now. Is it?

What else? What are you checking? My passport.

Feel like I've got to go through this routine

every time he goes back.

I definitely put it in here.

It's always something, isn't there, Connor, that you forget?

Deffo put it in my bag. I'm going to check your bedroom.

I come from a military family, so I've always been all for it, really.

Yeah, your mum will find it eventually.

In a sock drawer upstairs.

Why was it in there?

She had a few cries about me going away.

But the first couple of months will be hard,

just to see how my mum handles it.

And ring every single opportunity. I will.

Love you loads. Yeah, I love you.

Drive safe.

See you later.

Ta-ra, love. Love you.

The following day, and with everyone and everything on board...

Fall in properly. Take charge of yourself.

...HMS Duncan is ready to set sail.

This is it.

That bit we've all been preparing for, off we go.

There's a bit of adrenaline every time you take a ship to sea.

Steer 262.

A sort of raw excitement as well,

because it's just really good fun, it's great.

I'd love a Wagamama's now.

Bye, English food. Bye...

Hang on, Wagamama's, what is that? Don't know.

Now it's just straight through the gap.

Smile and wave, boys. Smile snd wave.

HMS Duncan... Halt!

Ship's company will extend.

Now at sea, the focus turns to what lies ahead.

Roger, ship has correct order.

The first part of the mission is going to be our critical

contribution to Op Inherent Resolve.

Operation Inherent Resolve is Duncan's most challenging

mission to date.

It will take her deep into the Mediterranean Sea, to the coastline

of Syria, where she'll join forces with a French aircraft carrier.

Together, their goal is to help eradicate the last remnants of Isis.

Duncan is going to play a part in strike missions into Syria

to defeat Isis.

It's a really, really important operation to defeat terrorism.

HMS Duncan is heading for the front line of the War on Terror.

HMS Duncan is on her way to the Mediterranean.

So far, it's not been a comfortable trip.

Past two nights, we haven't got any sleep.

Going through the Bay of Biscay, the swells were massive, so

everyone was rocking side to side.

Connor Moore is adjusting to life at sea.

Got to shave every day. I can't even really grow a beard.

But still shave every day or get picked up, so...

Been picked up a few times when I haven't shaved, so...

There's six of us in our cabin and it's sad, to be honest.

Decorated ours, unlike everyone else.

We put all the scarves up and then all the flags.

This is Connor's first full deployment after 18 months

in training.

Harry.

Yeah, tired.

There's a queue, dude.

It's like the Navy changed me, in the sense of being a

bit more mature.

To be fair, people will be saying, "You're not mature."

But my mum says I am, so I am.

Just holding conversations, knowing what to say and what not to

say now, whereas I was just so gobby when I was younger.

So I should be out of it.

For the next seven months, HMS Duncan is home to 260 men and women,

including a doctor...

You're looking much better. That's really good.

...a policeman and even a vicar.

Just going to do a Bible reading...

Knock-knock. You all right?

The ship is a community, it's a city afloat.

Captain Tom Trent conducts daily rounds to check in with his crew.

Right, so we're going to the ship control centre.

Now, LET Tom, his dad was a Lieutenant when I was

Lieutenant at HMS Kent. That's right, yeah.

Good. Right. Thanks, fellas. We'll push on.

Here we are. Big laundry day.

Morning.

How are you doing, you all right? Busy day?

The laundry must wash and iron an average of 100 shirts, 75 sets of

overalls and 200 socks each day.

There's so much.

All manner of people working, hopefully.

That's his office

and his sleeping quarters.

Right, get back to work.

Right... I shall don my protective headgear

and see the chefs. Chef Mansell, what's happening?