You could call it that, only… it’s a lot more than a touch, not a TV series (or a spelling mistake!) Fost – OK, FOST – stands for ‘Flag Officer Sea Training’, and HMS Northumberland is in this officer’s unforgiving hands as she ploughs through the ocean off Plymouth. She’s being “worked up”, as the Navy say. That doesn’t mean getting in a tizzy (though I suppose it might!) What it actually involves, is having the FOST team exercise the ship and her company, to see that they make an effective team. Which means that a series of blood-curdling mock announcements – involving most of the catastrophes that can befall a ship – come barking out of the Tannoy, and the crew must respond. Effectively. And if they don’t..? Well then it’s literally like the song: “Go back – Jack – do it again!”
A Touch of Fost
28 May 2015
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About Rob
Rob is a TV producer, reporter and camera operator with 30 years’ experience at the BBC, Channel 4 and ITN, in news, factual and documentary production. He is a four times award winner, whose awards include a coveted Royal Television Society award for his work on Channel 4 News. His association with The Maritime Foundation goes back to 1995, when he won the first Desmond Wettern Maritime Media Award for a series of reports that led to a major documentary on the loss of the bulk carrier Derbyshire.