The actual chariot was not too complicated as we had captured one from the daring Italian raid in Alexandria Harbour. I recall that at the time I was not too happy with my situation, I had volunteered on two previous occasions which had both turned out disastrously. As I imagined that the likely scenario of any operational raid would mean ending up behind wire in a POW camp, the whole thing seemed incredibly risky. However, the pay was good, much better than in submarines and at least for the meantime I could spend any time off with Aileen so I determined to make the best of things and really focus on mastering survival techniques. Whilst we were waiting impatiently for an actual Chariot, I was detailed to attend the Haslar Experimental Establishment with Sladen and Fell. On arrival we went straight to the tank which was more like a lake and on average twelve feet deep. The two Commanders put on their diving suits and then from behind a screen appeared our ‘Chariot’, a large wooden torpedo shaped log with two rough seats, metal box and a rudder, it looked like nothing on earth! Sladen and Fell donned their breathing apparatus, lowered the thing into the water and went under, attached to the overhead gantry. The ‘Thing’ moved up and down like a porpoise and as I was mentally thinking ‘Goodbye’ to my lovely wife, Fell got off and thrusting his gear at me, told me to jump on. Fortunately, after a short spell, Sladen ran out of oxygen and so we called it a day. The next morning, we all went to Horsea Lake and by this time the ‘Thing’ had been christened ‘Cassidy’, no idea why though! Lieutenant ‘Chuck’ Bonnel, one of the Canadians in our group and myself, were told to get on and as I was about to take the front seat, Sladen pointed to the back one and explained that because I was well versed in the diving and surfacing of a submarine, he wanted me to take note and report back. As we were being towed by the dinghy, I could see the planes were hard at dive although nothing was happening, Chuck had been carrying out the drill but to no avail. Back on shore I suggested to Sladen that Cassidy was too light, we should sink it and see. We found some rocks, went out again into the middle of the lake and we shot down to the bottom and remained, even as I blew the ballast tank.