This brings back memories. We were always in our poopie suits on the American nuc boats. Sub service was always a bit relaxed underway until about 1997-ish. Good times, gentlemen.
Went on the Otway in dry dock in Fremantle years ago. The biggest hero on these things is the cook, churning out moral boosting meals in the galley the size of a biscuit tin? Yea nuh not for me you can keep this part of serving your country, takes a special bloke to ride around in these things all day.
When I did my Submarine training at Dolphin in 1965 we had five or six Aussies and two Canadians in the class. Great oppos, great runs ashore, good memories with our true allies. Hooray for CANZUK.
I bought this O boat back from the UK in 1978, can't believe I just found this video lol. Frank Wolfe was the skipper, if I remember correctly. We got to Scotland 18 months before she was due to head home, to familiarize ourselves with the boat, and do the shakedown cruises before we headed home. Fond memories, except for the rain and cold weather. She was built in Paisley, Scotland, on the Clyde River.
*Yeah I was on skimmers, I took a look at one of those old subs inside and thought NOPE, and remained on the ships, DERWENT the DARWIN then got out after 11yrs, best move ever got into oil and gas earned far more than the NAVY was going to pay me.*
Well that was a nostalgia trip. I was in the Puss 83-06. Had two pstings to Plats 84 and 94. Dutchy the UW in the forends is the only name I recall but phark....alot of those faces are familiar!! I never got my Dolphins, got made PMU submarines after my skin kept festering up like a pepperoni pizza every time at sea in Oxley. Oh well of to the Bosuns Store/Boat shed at the end of the wharf at Plats for me!! Oh and that piss bar........that was something else.......!!!!!!
Their banter actually makes them look more professional, it shows the trust they have and need in their shipmates. I remember at Station Pier waiting 4 hours to go onboard during an "open day".
Great video. A nice reminder of my day on UK diesel boats. Love the pirate rig but come on !! Fekin sandals !!!??? "Upper lid shut, two clips, two pins". Brit O boats didn't have hand held walkie talkies as I remember. My last boat was Olympus. 1988. Happy days.
Man. There was a bucket load of faces that I haven’t seen in years. MTP Bevan June 86 intake nirimba Loved it. Never served subs. But recognise a heap of faces.
Haaaa....awesome clip Bevvie :-) thank you mate :-) only two types of ships, Submarines and targets! Miss my Boats time and days. The most incredible and amazing people.
The "Oberon" class submarine served Australia extremely well. Pity we don't buy off the shelf submarines. You could often visit them on open days. Memories of being a little boy being fascinated by these submarines.
Agreed. I got to go onboard 5 of the 6 on open days when I was a kid, Ovens being the exception. I was serving on Stuart when this was filmed and remember one time watching Oxley keeping station with us both submerged and surfaced, putting the periscope up and down, etc.
Sad ending to this great ship. Rotted away from 20 years in western porn bay only to end as scrap. Its currently at henderson being torn apart, they may have accomplished it by now.
They seem very casual. Singlets, shorts and sandals probably wouldn't be acceptable in today's navy. Mind you I imagine the conditions aboard the Oberons were a lot tougher than they are on a modern sub.
It would appear they dressed casually when they are not rowing. If they were rowing I am sure they would not be. As an actual man on board I am sure John Fisher could speak to that with accuracy. As for today's submarine Navy, I believe rowing attire is often acceptable. But then I may be wrong. You might have to join the Sub Service to find out. RSVP BYOO
Life aboard an 'o' class was shit. Hot as hell, and stunk of diesel. No washing machines or DVD to watch. Aussie submariners have the respect of all their colleages. That is all
Tip of the sword lol, I was in pussers at the time and on board HMAS Stuart, hunting you cockers with our Mulloka sonar, always jealous of you boys in pirate rig though.
Good to see in side one again i never served on one. But i worked on them 1985 to 1990 at Cockatoo I don,t think there was one place i did not work in great TIMES
I just had another look at the detail and unfortunately it was only an election promise by the LNP, so it may not happen either way (we all know what election promises are like)
Well, this Service sure wasn't Silent. Even the wardrooms were noisy. Either that or the microphone was very sensitive. I thought the engines were quiet though. Flip flops?
Bit different from the movies , all you land lovers, reminds me of " Dasboot" my mate left surface and went to subs in 80 and seen him year later , stank of desel fuel , in his skin , hair etc , he was a sparky like me , etp
Mates Daryl Cross, (DC), Phil Vine, Steve Buick all went to subs back in the 70's from the SWAN,, they stayed and loved it ??? Me stayed a Skimmer UC world rocks
There were gals aboard even then. Only contractors and civies from SWSC (Submarine Warfare Systems Centre) though. Making g sure we had UGM84 and link11 capability working rather than Tango Uniform. Slept on palettes on Mk48 mod3 and 4. Getting the smell of diesel out of my hair took ages after coming ashore.
I put a comment up here, but while editing it I accidentally deleted it. What I wrote was, ”Didn’t a person get killed when the submarine dived while he was still outside of the submarine.” Several people mentioned that there were actually two submariners who were killed. I googled it and there is a bit about the tragedy in Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Otama
@frauditorwatch No, you got the date wrong mate, we didn't bring the Otama back to Aus until late '79/80. My understanding is that it happened about 18 months after I left the boat, and I left her in 1980. How they missed 2 people before diving is beyond me, we used to do a head count in the Control Room before blowing main ballast and diving after the lids were confirmed shut.
Until someone has served on a submarine, been away for home for months at a time, living in each other's space, sharing big chunks of their life with each other, having good days bad days, not a lot of personal space, looking out for each other if it means a little self sacrifice, It's professionalism that you'd be hard pressed to find anywhere else.
welcome to Mchales navy, unbelievable, especially that clown on the bridge, a real class act. get your shit together fellas and get a lot more professional, I really wonder what the Australian public think of all this, I bet you don't care.
That clown and "Mchales Navy" crew were the same crew that were dived, underneath a Russian warship taking pictures gathering intel during the cold War. That crew never saw daylight for those 6 weeks. That crew lived in conditions that pale in comparison to detention centres. With fresh water limited that crew would be lucky to shower once a week. What would the public think? Don't know and your probably right don't care... but they don't award medals to clowns. These guys received the Australian service medal special operations for their professionalism and bravery.
From your remarks you obviously never served in boats. There is an adage I was taught from an early age " It is better to be thought a fool, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt"
