A life on the ocean waves had instant appeal for Lieutenant Commander Matt Syrett, 35, who is in command of survey vessel HMS Roebuck. “I knew I didn’t want to be looking out of an office window at scenery that didn’t change,” he says. “It changes every day now.”

Since the age of 16, when Syrett and his father sailed a 34ft boat from the US to the Caribbean, he has felt comfortable at sea. However, it was his time at Tavistock College and its close connections with the Royal Navy that led him, aged 18, to enter the Navy on a university scholarship. Following two terms at Britannia Royal Naval College and five months’ sea experience in the Falklands, he spent three years studying geographical information systems at Kingston University.

“You can find yourself on a survey vessel producing Admiralty charts; doing special military tasks such as detailed surveys of a beach for landing craft; weather forecasting for the RAF or Navy at an air station; or on board a frigate, assault ship or aircraft carrier providing detailed tactical advice on how best to use the environment in a warfare or deterrent sense,” he says.

The Royal Navy is the only uniform provider of environmental support across all three Services and as such Syrett is critically aware of the importance of his job. “The one key thing that every Service needs is the ability to know what’s coming over the horizon in terms of the weather, the environment or [the] depth of water.”

While he enthuses about all aspects of his work, it’s his Specialist Navigator training that stands out as one of his most exciting times with the Navy. It means that he is one of only 40 people in the Navy who navigate aircraft carriers, and he teaches navigation throughout the fleet. “The course includes three weeks at sea doing twenty-hour days, not relying on modern electronics but doing it all by traditional methods. Lots of maths, lots of tiredness, lots of stress, but when you get it right, it’s incredible.”

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