Sailors at HMS Sultan today remember engineer and former instructor David Briggs whose death on HMS Sheffield inspired colleagues to save lives.
It is 40 years to the day that the petty officer – known to friends as Basher – bravely led efforts to help shipmates out of acrid smoke-filled compartments of the destroyer as fire raged when she was hit by an Exocet missile.
On his final attempt to recover colleagues and vital equipment, the 25-year-old was overcome by fumes.
Efforts to revive him failed and after his body – the only one of the 20 men killed aboard Sheffield recovered – was transferred to task group flagship HMS Hermes, he was buried at sea.
David was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his actions.
But his death inspired an award – presented to this day at the Royal Navy’s school of engineering, HMS Sultan, in Gosport – and inspired friends to ensure every effort is made to ensure no other sailor shares his fate.
Chief Petty Officer Alan ‘Sharkey’ Ward is one of a small band of Falklands veterans still serving in today’s Royal Navy and has dedicated most of his career to the art of fire-fighting and damage control on a ship.
As a junior engineer he was a friend of Basher – “a good bloke, nothing was too difficult for him and he was always encouraging the lads. He was always on top of his game and a stickler to have things done by the book, which he learnt to do from his teaching at Sultan.”
After the missile hit HMS Sheffield on the fateful May 4 1982, David was forced to abandon his regular breathing apparatus as it was too cumbersome to fit through a hatch.
Instead he used a respirator – but the filter was unable to protect him from the fumes emitted by the blazing ship and he succumbed to smoke inhalation on his third venture into the compartment.
“It just goes to show that in the heat of battle you make some courageous decisions whether they are right or wrong,” said Sharkey, who joined the Royal Navy in 1977 and continues to serve 45 years later, passing on his knowledge to future generations of engineering technicians at Sultan.
“I have spent most of my career teaching firefighting and damage control and saying just because you have been told you can doesn’t mean you should use equipment that is not meant for that purpose.”
He asks sailors under his tutelage to think: “Would Basher have done this and would he approve. I’m sure he would give you his blessing and thanks for thinking of him and doing it by the book.”
Aside from the David Briggs Trophy, presented to the trainee who has demonstrated outstanding leadership, courage and dedication to duty, the senior rating is remembered in the Marine Engineering Branch Falklands Memorial Garden (alongside another victim of HMS Sheffield, Leading Marine Engineering Mechanic (Mechanical) Allan Knowles) and his medals can be seen at the Marine Engineering Museum.
