The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
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Polaris Nuclear Submarine in Plymouth Sound
An American nuclear submarine appears in Plymouth Sound.
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Overview
The USS Henry Clay is in Plymouth Sound for servicing by the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s RMAS Waterfowl. The attack submarine is a United States Navy Lafayette-class boat developed during the Cold War as a response to the threat of a potential Soviet nuclear missile attack. All NATO nuclear-powered submarines use the SSN and SSBN tags and carry on-board nuclear reactors. Only hunter-killer SSBNs are capable of firing nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles.
The Henry Clay SSBN 625 operated alternating Blue and Gold crews enabling it to stay at sea for long periods. In 1989 it spent a record 121 days submerged in the North Atlantic. In this film, the Blue crew enjoys a rest in the middle of a tour which lasted from April 1985 to October 1987. Plymouth was its only port of call. The Henry Clay was part of the Atlantic Fleet submarine squadron or SUBRON14 operating deterrent patrols out of Holy Loch in Scotland. Its homeport was Charlestown in South Carolina. The Henry Clay went into service in 1964 fitted with Polaris missiles and had the motto Preservation of the Nation. It was decommissioned in 1990.
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