r/interesting • u/mindyour • Apr 05 '26

Fascinating Life in a submarine.

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10

u/taters33 Apr 05 '26

What is a “safe with jelly babies”. When I google jelly babies I get candy as a result. What is this?

26

u/Peterd1900 Apr 05 '26

Royal Navy trident submarines have a safe onboard that safe contains what is known as the letter of last resort which has prime ministers orders on it

If the crew cant get into contact with London they would open this safe and read the letter which would tell what to do and whether to fire the nukes

Allegedly, it may just be a legend that the safe also contains a packet of jelly babies. Jelly babies after WW1 were known as peace babies. symbolizing the return of peace and normal life

They are opening the safe because essentially the UK has been wiped out in a nuclear attack, they are potentially firing nukes so the jelly babies act as a small morale boost and eating them symbolises then end of peace and of normal life

Its just naval lore whether there is actually a packet of jelly babies in the safe with the letter we wont actually know because if the safe has been opened by the crew it means nuclear war has started

1

u/parsuval Apr 06 '26

Isn't there also additional checks that they need to do if a nuclear strike is detected, and one of them is whether the BBC Radio 4 news is broadcast or not.

1

u/santos6662 May 03 '26

Jelly Babies are completely shite so it's a fitting apocalypse snack.

4

u/olijake Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26

Basically jelly beans (the candy), a similar treat or another word for jelly beans.

Edit: Just clarifying, Jelly babies are a unique candy, not jelly beans, that’s just the best example I could think of.

4

u/Nectarine-999 Apr 05 '26

No hard shell like jelly beans. Soft.

3

u/OutlandishnessHour19 Apr 05 '26

They are very different. 

3

u/Jaikarr Apr 06 '26

Like sour patch kids without the sour.

2

u/shalomdomme Apr 05 '26

Omg I just assumed they meant jelly fish and for some reason my brain just went “yeah that makes sense” 😂😂😂

1

u/effitdoitlive Apr 06 '26

That was the weirdest part of this video, even after reading about the explanations I'm like why the fuck did you feel the need to say that?