Plymouth warship torpedoed whales mistaken for Falklands submarines

[Jesus Malverde]

A DEVONPORT-BASED warship killed three whales after mistaking them for enemy submarines during the Falklands War it has been revealed.

Two were killed by torpedoes fired from the anti-submarine frigate HMS Brilliant, and the third was attacked by one of the ship’s helicopters

The previously undisclosed incidents are taken from the diaries of the ship’s crew, which have been published online by hmsbrilliant.com, a website commemorating the Type 22’s role in the 1982 war.

Brilliant’s job was to help defend HMS Invincible, one of two British aircraft carriers deployed in the South Atlantic, against Argentine submarine and missile attack.

http://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/Plymouth-warship-torpedoed-whales-mistaken/story-19737150-detail/story.html

[Royal777]

1. Technology

What kind of technology do we have that can't tell the difference between a whale and a submarine?

[arely staircase]

2. now or 31 years ago when this happened?

I would assume there have been advances.

[hack89]

4. A whale is about the same size of a small submarine

having spent hundreds of hours tracking submarines I can see how it would happen - active sonar merely tells you that you have detected a large under water object.

In peace time you have plenty of time to figure out if it is a sub or not. In war time you don't have time so it is easy to simply drop the torpedo - it is informally called "classification by ordnance."

[Royal777]

7. Expertise

I will bow to your expertise. At first it seemed unbelievable. But we use to do something similar - recon by fire

[hack89]

8. Given time it is easy to distinguish between a sub and a whale

in combat you may not have the time, especially if the contact is close to the high value ship you are protecting. You might literally have a couple of minutes to get a weapon in the water.

[Posteritatis]

9. It was also the first really significant naval conflict in decades

Quite a lot was up in the air, as nobody had really exchanged fire with modern warships except for some corvette battles in the Middle East (that I'm aware of). I can see people not being as certain about what was going on as many of us would like to assume they were with our decades of hindsight.

[arely staircase]

3. Irony

"torpedoes fired from the anti-submarine frigate HMS Brilliant"

[flvegan]

5. Frigate...for when you just don't care anymore.

The HMS Brilliant. The jokes, albeit unfortunate for those three whales, write themselves.

[hack89]

6. Its call "classification by ordnance"

you have to make a snap decision involving the lives of hundreds of men. Sometimes you can't take the chance so you drop the torpedo even if you are not certain. You have plenty of torpedoes but only one aircraft carrier.

[Initech]

10. Wanna get away?