Her Commanding Officer, appointed in November 1987, was Lt. Cdr G A R McCready, a recent MBE recipient who had previously served on a cruiser, a minesweeper, four conventional. submarines and the first of class nuclear submarine HMS Swiftsure. As a qualified Russian interpreter since 1977 and Assistant Naval Attache Moscow and Warsaw from 1981-3, he. was ideally suited to Upholder's intended deployment, silently patrolling the cold northern waters that formed the access corridor separating the Russian Naval Bases from the Atlantic, intercepting and interpreting their communications and reporting the intentions of Soviet submarines.
Upholder was only the second submarine to be raised by the shiplift at Barrow and the first to be traversed sideways onto the hardstanding and fully outfitted on North Quay.
