Onslow. Narrowcasters Audio production. adult text

Transcription

1 Onslow Narrowcasters Audio production adult text

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3 Onslow Adult s Audio Stops - Track Codes Page Number 40 Introduction 4 41 Armament & Torpedoes 6 42 Forward Escape Hatch 7 43 History of Oberons and Onslow 8 44 Additional Sleeping Accommodation The Forendies Torpedo Tubes Sleeping Area Senior Sailors Mess Batteries and Watch & Bill Batteries and Watch & Bill Galley Drinking Fountain Coxwain's Grot Wardroom Officers Mess The Control Room Fire Control System Display Consoles Sound Room Conning Tower Periscopes Helm Contact Evaluation Plot Captain's Cabin Heads & Showers How a Submarine Dives Engines Collins Class and US Nuclear Submarines Motor Room Motor Room After Ends Life at Sea Museum Store 27 Shading indicates that this track code has been deleted on the new audio tours as of June 2002 The deleted text has been left in the manual for the information of guides. Most tracks have had information deleted within each trackcode on the new audio tour. This has not been changed in the manual as it reduces information that still may be of interest to guides. Page 3 Revised July 2002

4 40. INTRODUCTION Hello and welcome to the Australian National Maritime Museum. This player is easy to use. To operate it, look for an audio tour symbol inside the circle. Simply enter the number inside the symbol on the keypad of your player and press the green button. To pause, press the red button. The volume control is on the right hand side. If your player stops functioning, check to make sure the switch on the bottom is in the on position.make sure your earphones are plugged in and try adjusting the volume. If the player still doesn t work, please return it to the audio tour counter. [the sound of the Naval Hymn and/or Naval Prayer, as performed at decommissioning.] Sean: "Welcome aboard Onslow, this great Oberon-Class submarine that served Australia well for 30 years, until March, My name is Lt Commander Sean O'Dwyer I had the honour to be HMAS Onslow's last Commanding Officer. My time spent on Onslow brings back many happy memories, but nothing can change the fact that sadly, the end has come, and I was fortunate enough to be there for it. I felt strongly then, and I feel now, that there's something magnificent about a job well done, executed with courage and dignity. Onslow's record will remain for all time. First up, let me give you a couple of basic statistics on this retired lady of the deep blue sea, built and commissioned in Greenock (pronounced Gren-nock), Scotland... For a start, she's a 90 metre long and eight metre wide boat. Submarines are always called boats, not ships. This is because the origins of submarines stem from submersible torpedo-boats and the word boat has remained in submarine terminology to this day. Onslow clocked up 358,000 nautical miles that's the equivalent of a journey to the moon and three quarters of the way back again. Impressive when you think that submarines travel slower than most of us walk - in order to be as quiet and efficient as possible. Page 4 Revised July 2002

5 As you move around, observing the cramped conditions, keep in mind that on decommissioning, Onslow carried a complement of 8 officers and 60 sailors; but on average carried 64 crew. Sometimes she carried up to 75 or more! Believe me, you will find yourself wondering aloud just how so many adults squeezed into so little space! Answer: With great difficulty [laughs] - although ducking and weaving soon becomes second nature. BE WARNED, crouching is definitely called for to make it through these bulkhead doors in one piece and be careful when standing up on the other side and watch you head, feet, elbows and knees! Now, just as on Vampire, you'll need to keep your wits about you here, to ensure you stay safe on the tour...things to watch out for are the following... Mild claustrophobia can temporarily hit some people. In the unlikely event that happens to you, we suggest some nice deep breaths, and remind yourself the exit is not far away. Remember too that we're tied up to the wharf... you're not exactly at the bottom of the ocean! [laughs] Another golden rule: traffic is one-way only. DO NOT BACKTRACK! And please don't fiddle with any of the knobs and valves. Any time you have a question, you'll find the staff and volunteers a friendly lot so feel free to ask about anything on board... Let's get started... " Page 5 Revised July 2002

6 41. ARMAMENT & TORPEDOES: Sean: "This compartment is the most forward section of the submarine, hence its name - the fore-ends. In many ways this compartment is the whole reason of being for HMAS Onslow in that this is where Mark 48 torpedoes, mines and Harpoon anti-shipping missiles are stowed and fired from. What we have here on display are two Mark 8, and two Mark 23 torpedoes. These are older models, which have been superseded by the Mark 48s. If you look forward - pronounced "for'ard" in navy speak - you'll see the six 21- inch torpedo tubes. By the way, the dimensions of the tubes are standard for most Western submarines. On decommissioning, HMAS Onslow was capable of carrying up to 22 torpedoes and missiles, the main weapons aboard Onslow. The torpedo tubes, which release their deadly charges, can also be used for laying mines. Known early on as 'tin fish', torpedoes are the teeth of the submarine force, and are the most up-to-date of the non-nuclear weapons. I'll hand over to one of the men to tell you about another, unofficial use for this part of the boat...[man is not identified]: "If someone needs to get away from it all for a while, they can go into the fore ends where there's generally less people..." [["Hi, I'm Chief Petty Officer Andrew Florence...in charge of the torpedo compartment on board the submarine; at sea, I also go into the control room and operate the one-man control which is diving the submarine, driving around under water. On the surface I do navigation... I've been on Onslow now for 2 years and I have been in the Navy for 17 years."]] [["Hi, I'm Able Seaman ET Matt Wernas... [pick up again several paragraphs later]...it's my job to make sure things like the weapons are secured, make sure there are no leaks, problems. Any sort of emergency I'd be the first to attend to, and alert others to in the fore ends and accommodation space. If we were in a wartime situation, I would be one of the people responsible for loading and unloading the torpedoes and harpoon missiles."]] Page 6

7 42. FORWARD ESCAPE HATCH... Sean: "There are two escape hatches on Onslow- one here in the foreends, and one in the after-ends - right down in the tail of the submarine. If an accident happened and the submarine sank, crew members could escape from the disabled boat at depths of up to 600 feet. There were three methods that could be used if escaping from the fore ends. The first was via a Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, which would "mate" onto a special ring on the outer casing of the submarine, and the crew would open the upper lid of the escape tower and climb into the rescue submarine. Until 1996, Australia had to rely on the DSRV's of the US Navy, which could take up to a few days to get to the area of the submarine accident, however Australia now has its own Submarine Escape and Rescue System. The second method was known as a Single Tower Escape. This involved putting one man dressed in a special inflatable escape suit which you can see on display, into the tower at a time. The lower lid was then closed and the tower flooded with seawater. He would breathe air from the submarine through a special connection between the suit and the tower. Once the pressure in the tower was equal to that of the sea outside, the upper lid would pop open and the escapee was disconnected from the tower and shot to the surface, breathing normally inside his suit all the way up. Unfortunately, from 600 feet there was a large chance that the escapee would contract decompression sickness, or the bends, from the escape, as well as painful ailments such as burst eardrums. The third method of getting out was known as a Rush Escape. This was used when the submarine was flooding uncontrollably and/or the air was becoming toxic. Using the Built In Breathing System, which is only in the escape compartments, the survivors would flood the compartment and equalise it with the sea, then duck into the tower and swim to the surface on a single breath. The difference between this and the Single Tower Escape is that the escape compartments are open to the sea - the escape tower upper lid was open all the time. This was an extremely dangerous method of escape, because of the time spent under pressure by the survivors, and would only be used as a last resort. Most submariners consider escape training as purely for their wives' and mothers' peace of mind.[laughs]" Page 7

8 43. HISTORY OF OBERONS AND ONSLOW... Sean: "The OBERON class submarine, such as the one you're in now is a descendant of the German Type 21 U boat which came into service in 1944, too late to have any impact on the outcome of World War II. These boats incorporated the "Schnorkel" and the Diesel/Electric propulsion that we still use today. In the early 1960s, plans were set in place for an independent Royal Australian Navy underwater force and orders were placed for four of the Royal Navy Oberon class at a cost of $9 million per submarine. An additional $2.2 million per boat was allocated for spares, ammunition and reserves. They were to be called, Oxley, Otway, Ovens and Onslow. Designed for quiet running, with the ability to stay submerged for many weeks - both rather handy if your job involves sneaking up on other vessels [laughs], the Oberons were anti-surface and anti-submarine vessels, capable of Seventy - day patrol cycles. In October 1971, two new boats were ordered - Orion and Otama. Onslow, the diesel-powered submarine you're now visiting, was built on Scotland's Clyde River and was in service by December, She was to spend 30 hard-working years in the service, with barely a controversial word spoken about her...well there was a bit of an embarrassing mix up with a cargo ship in Sydney harbour, on her way to making a grand first impression all those years ago [laughs] - not Onslow's fault, I hasten to add. Then there were headlines again in 1971 over an incident while exercising with the United States fleet near Hawaii. Onslow was forced to pull into Pearl Harbour for repairs after being unintentionally hit by a practice torpedo fired by a US Coast Guard cutter. I'm please to say the long-standing friendly Australian/American relationship survived that accident [laughs]. I want you to know Australia operated a submarine force pre-1960s, and special mention should go to the AE1 and AE2 in World War I...both these submarines having been completed for the newly formed RAN in Page 8

9 Tragically, AE1 with its crew of 35 disappeared in September, 1914 in New Guinea waters. After the loss of her submarine twin, AE2 returned to Sydney, and in early 1915 joined Britain's squadron in the Gallipolli campaign. It was the first to force the Dardanelles and harass Turkish shipping and the first Australian unit to commence the Gallipolli campaign. In April 1915, AE2 was disabled and scuttled and crew members were interned in a POW camp. In 1998 a search for AE2 located her in the Sea of Marmara in Turkey. Now for you history buffs - here's where the name Onslow came from...she's named after the Western Australian town which in 1885 was called after the then Chief Justice of that state, Sir Alexander Onslow. If you sight the Onslow coat of arms anywhere as you move around the boat, note that it features a judge's wig - in honour of his worship. I'd like to explain something else to you - HMAS Onslow is the third vessel of her name in Naval history; the earlier two were destroyers in the British Royal Navy - the first saw action in the First World War and her successor won fame in action in World War II." Page 9

10 44. ADDITIONAL SLEEPING ACCOMMODATION Sean: "During normal peacetime operations, up to 16 trainees slept amongst the torpedoes, in temporary bunks which were brought on board - and we have one rigged up for you to see. The fore ends was also a stowage space for a diverse range of every-day items such as crew members' bags, orange juice, potatoes, onions and toilet paper. It's amazing how much can be fitted into a small space on a submarine. As you walk through Onslow today, you'll notice a heck of a lot of things that do double duty as no space is wasted...seats that open up to become storage areas, and so on." 45. THE FORENDIES Sean: "The men who worked in this compartment were nicknamed the Forendies. The last four have left a momento of their time on board Onslow. Can you find their photograph?" 46. TORPEDO TUBES Sean: "If you look at the torpedo tubes you'll see a torpedo in Number one tube ready for firing. And if you look at Number Two tube you can see its innermost workings." 47. SLEEPING AREA Sean: "The boat is divided into five main compartments, separated by pressure tight bulkheads, and you have just been through the first of four. You are now standing in the For'ard Mess which housed Sonar operators, Cooks, Electronic Warfare sailors and Radio Operators. About 18 sailors lived in this confined space. Legend has it that RSPCA inspectors deemed submarine accommodation as not large enough for animals and described it as inhumane! [laughs] But the Navy looks after us when we come ashore. Page 10

11 When dived, Onslow operated in "two watches". This means that there were two shifts of people to run the boat. Whilst one shift was on watch, the other shift was asleep. Occasionally if a large number of soldiers or trainees were carried we would be required to implement what is known as "hot bunking". This means that a sailor who was on watch knew where his opposite number was sleeping - because it was the same bunk - or "rack" - that he got into when he came off watch. Hot bunking continued all the way through to the end with Onslow - although in the latter stages it was only in place when we were undertaking war games. Submarine crews were expected to live like this for up to 70 days dived... that's when the food ran out. The mess was not only a sleeping area. Crew members ate, four sittings per meal, and relaxed here as well. The only privacy was your bunk curtain. You will notice that the bunks are not long enough for a 6 foot man to lie flat on, so they slept in the foetal position. Some bunks have less than 10 cm from your nose to the bunk above - it's not surprising that the smallest bunk was known as "the coffin". Can you find it? In fact many a submariner has reported having so-called 'coffin dreams' which is peculiar to submarines, due to the extremely confined sleeping spaces. On several occasions on Onslow, a certain Navigation Officer, who had the bottom rack outside the Wardroom, almost sent the submarine to Emergency Stations - because of the screams and thumping coming from his rack, as he was desperately trying to push up the rack above him to get more air - screaming at the top of his voice in the process. It doesn't happen very often, but when it does - oh boy, everyone knows about it! See for yourself... try sliding yourself into one of these racks. Good luck! As you walk through Onslow you'll see various TVs, videos and sound systems. These aren't standard issue Navy items; they were bought by the sailors themselves to help relax and pass the time. They watched videos and played video games. Other below deck activities took the form of listening to music, playing cards, reading books and reading and writing letters home to families." Page 11

12 48. SENIOR SAILORS MESS Sean: "About 12 Petty Officers and Chief Petty Officers lived here. These sailors were the backbone of the submarine arm. They were often the most experienced submariners on board. Leading Seaman Michael Foster worked as a radio electrician on board and he lived in the accommodation space. I asked him what's the main thing he misses when he's away at sea, lying in his bunk at night." Andrew Florence: [["The Senior Sailors' Mess - I sleep in there... consists of 10 bunks...there's normally all POs sleep in the Senior Sailors Mess, and you have 3 Chief Petty Officers which sleep in the Grot, which is the Coxswain's cabin, and that's a lot smaller than the Petty Officers' Mess...[pick up again a few seconds further along on tape]...we all try to be mates. If we have any problems on board, we have to stamp them out, so we all get along together; it's such a confined spaced - there's nowhere you can hide. You can't get away from somebody."]] Sean: As you go along the passageway to the next stop, notice the plaques on the right hand side. Onslow won the Navy Efficiency Award for 1997." 49. BATTERIES AND WATCH BILL Sean: "The watch and station bill you can see on the wall to your left is centrally located and accessible by all crew. It indicates the position for each crewman for any nominated activity whether it be daily duty or an emergency situation. The hatchway under your feet leads to the No 1 Battery." 50. BATTERIES AND WATCH BILL Sean: "The watch and station bill you can see on the wall to your left is centrally located and accessible by all crew. It indicates the position for each crewman for any nominated activity whether it be daily duty or an emergency situation, At this point you can see below to the No 1 battery." Page 12

13 51. GALLEY Sean: "The galley was staffed by three cooks and they prepared four hot meals a day for up to 82 people. You may ask why four meals a day instead of three. While working in two watches, each sailor and officer worked six hours on and six hours off, with each watch changing at 1 o' clock and 7 o' clock. When the watch changed over at 1 o' clock in the morning it was important that the oncoming watch were bright eyed and bushy tailed, and a hot meal (which was usually meat pies, sausage rolls, hot dogs or chiko rolls) really helped to wake them up. To their credit, the cooks of Onslow produced up to three choices for each meal and despite rumours in the outside world of hard tack and salted beef, the meals were always very tasty. There was of course the incentive of living with angry customers if the food was bad! The most sacred night for submariners is Saturday, which ALWAYS meant pizza and chips, followed by ice cream. Definitely the dinner of champions! [laughs]. After 7 or 8 days at sea, a submarine runs out of fresh milk - so out comes the long-life or powered varieties. Meanwhile the bread is just about finished too, so some Messes produce their personal electric bread-making machines, kept out of sight until required. Also, you wouldn't believe how many lollies and chocolates blokes bring on board... well they have to last until the next port. And I'm pleased to say that sharing is part of the culture! Close your eyes for a second and imagine this hearty selection at a typical Onslow meal... Wombat - which is our nickname for meatloaf - or corned dog: that's corned beef to you, done with honeyed mustard. All served with carrots, beans and baby squash. This is followed by tinned fruit salad and ice cream. Another speciality that was served on Onslow was Mrs B's also know as boiled fruitcake." Page 13

14 52. DRINKING FOUNTAIN Sean: "This drinking fountain was for the entire crew. During a trip to South East Asia in 1995, the submarine embarked water supplies whilst in a port not noted for its pristine condition. Later during the trip, some of the crew became inexplicably sick, and later on, the stream of water reduced to a trickle. Investigation found an 8 foot long worm blocking a water pipe. Samples of this were sent to a lab for identification with the result of "Unknown Species" coming back a week later." Naturally the submarine crew generated a lot of rubbish. In Navy speak this is galled gash. You can see the gash ejector opposite the galley door where all the rubbish, but no plastic, was put. The gash was put in special gash bags (which by the way are made by prisoners) and then sent to the bottom of the sea in these weighted bags. The rubbish wasn't allowed to float because then it could give away the submarine's position. To the right is the can crusher. Gash was made as small as possible. Of course the ejector was only used on long sea patrols." 53. COXSWAIN'S GROT Sean: "This small compartment is the "Coxswain's Grot" (pronounced Cox-on's). This is where the most senior of the sailors on board ONSLOW lived - the Coxswain, and the deputy heads of the Electrical and Engineering departments." "In case you're wondering about that strange title, 'the Grot' the true meaning has been lost in the midst of time but it is generally thought that the cabin was originally nicknamed the grotto which was shortened to grot. On the other hand, there are those who say it's because of the grotty, smelly submariners who live there. (laughs) Page 14

15 54. WARDROOM - OFFICERS MESS Sean: "The typical make-up of the Wardroom would be the Executive Officer, the Sonar Officer, the Navigator, the Torpedo Officer, the Engineer and the Electrical Officer. The Officers ate and worked in this small space. At times, up to 14 Officers would be embarked, and to try and fit 14 people in the Wardroom to watch a video is not easy [laughs]. Let me explain the training these blokes put in...typically, a submarine seaman officer would spend approximately 8-10 years in boats before achieving command. To actually gain command of a submarine, Officers went to the UK or the Netherlands for the six month Submarine Command Course, also known as Perisher, because if he didn't pass, he never set foot on a submarine again, and his career came to an abrupt end. In my case, I originally went to sea on surface ships, did my time there and enjoyed that; then I spent two weeks on the submarine, Otama - and the camaraderie and the way people got on just drew me towards submarines. thought, this is the life for me, this is what I want to do. I was a 29-year-old Lieutenant when I got my first command - so it was an extremely quick rise to command. If you want to be captain, submarines are the way to go. Apart from the obvious physical comparisons between life on a submarine and life on a surface vessel, let me also point out that submariners get paid more, have to volunteer to serve on board - and can get moved off if they don't pass all the necessary tests. If you look over in the back left corner of the Wardroom, you'll notice our trusty mascot, the raptasourous Diesel Dinosaur. And like all dinosaurs, it was his fate to become extinct. As Lieutenant Commander Ian Bray, Onslow s one-time Commanding Officer, said in "It won't be long until boats like Onslow are dinosaurs of the submariner's world." But Onslow, like Diesel, may have been old but she was silent and deadly. Page 15

16 55. CONTROL ROOM Sean: "Here's something I think you'll find amusing...in submarines during the night, the control room lighting is all switched off-this is known as black lighting --while the wardroom is in red lighting. This is done so the Officers' eyes, and particularly the Captain's, are adjusted should he be needed urgently while the submarine is at Periscope Depth. Unfortunately, it also gives title to "red-light vegetables". Carrots, Spanish onions and beans, because of their colour, all appear white when looking at them in red lighting, making it difficult to discern what is what [laughs]. You're about to enter the Control Room and you'll see it's switch to red lighting. The Control Room was the nerve centre of the submarine. It was controlled by the Executive Officer or the Sonar Officer. These officers were trained in warfare skills and were able to fight the submarine should the situation require it. They were the Captain's representatives in the Control Room, and were known as the Watchleaders, and were responsible for carrying out the Captain's intentions controlled by the Executive Officer." 56. SUBMARINE FIRE CONTROL SYSTEM DISPLAY CONSOLES Sean: "In the Control Room while dived, there were usually 12 men doing various tasks. At the Fire Control panels, an operator would determine a target's bearing, range, course and speed. This is known as a Fire Control Solution. Once the Solution was determined, the submarine could fire Mark 48 torpedoes and Harpoon missiles using these consoles. The ones you see were fitted in 1984 as part of the weapons update program. At the time, the computing power used in these was state of the art. However, now a home computer has more power than both consoles... how times change!" Page 16

17 57. SOUND ROOM Sean: "To assist in compiling a solution, Fire Control was aided by a number of means. The first of these is Sonar. Sonar is an acronym for sound navigation and ranging. Through a number of hydrophones on the outside of the boat, the submarine could determine the true compass bearing of a contact, and track it through to Fire Control. Contrary to popular opinion and Hollywood, submarines rarely go "ping" - instead, relying on radiated noise from the target contacts to travel through the water to them. The survival of a submarine is dependent upon its stealth, so HMAS Onslow did not transmit on anything that could be detected by another submarine. The Sound Room you are viewing is fitted out with the equipment that it would have had in the 80s. Normally four sailors would be on watch here at any one time." 58. CONNING TOWER Sean: "The hatchway you can see leads to the Bridge, on top of the Fin. It was only used of course when we were on the surface. Inside the fin are seven masts - the periscopes, radar, electronic warfare, communications and snort masts. Tragically, on the third of August 1987, two sailors on HMAS Otama were left in the fin when the submarine dived in heavy seas off Sydney Heads, and were lost, as the fin is not a sealed compartment. Today, RAN submarines use a checkout board that every person must write their names on before leaving the pressure hull. I have been very moved recently upon reading questionnaires filled in by my men in the final days of Onslow. In answer to 'What is your worst memory?' more than a few reflected on the sadness they still feel, having been on board Otama on that terrible day. One Chief Petty Officer wrote that his worst memory is - "Losing two shipmates because we let them down." Page 17

18 59. PERISCOPES Sean: "Like most of us, you've no doubt watched heaps of wartime naval movies - none of which would be complete without the classic periscope scene! Come over to our periscopes and pretend for a moment at being the Commander of this fine submarine. Take a look around and select a target [laughs]... OBERON class submarines have two periscopes - an Attack periscope and a Search periscope, which is the one you can sit at. The difference is that the top of the Attack periscope was much smaller in width and harder to detect. When the submarine was at Periscope Depth, an Officer would always be on the Search periscope, keeping Onslow safe from collision with shipping and looking out for aircraft that may be searching for the submarine. A camera fitted to the Search periscope allowed the submarine to conduct reconnaissance of enemy shipping or coastlines. Occasionally the submarine conducted what is known as an Underwater Look. This involved coming up beneath the ship and photographing its underwater fixtures. This was an extremely dangerous operation, and the submarine was sometimes forced to conduct this at high speed." Chief Petty Officer Colin Coke recalls a funny story " [not on tape] Colin Coke: "Among my funniest memories was seeing a Seaman Officer after he had been on the search periscope. As a joke, one of the guys had put shoe polish on the periscope's eyepiece, so he ended up looking like a panda bear. No-one let on." Page 18

19 60. HELM Sean: "One of the most important jobs in the Control Room is to steer the submarine. This position is called the helm, or one-man control. The wheel is used to steer the submarine in whichever direction is ordered. Pushing the column up or down controls the depth of the submarine. Just behind the helm is a bench seat and this is where the Ship Control Officer of the Watch sat. He was responsible for carrying out all the boat's routine tasks - from making sure there was fresh air to ditching the rubbish. More importantly, he was responsible for keeping Onslow "in trim" - that is, at the depth ordered and on an even keel. He carried out all emergency drills and many trainee Ship Control Officers did not pass the rigorous emergency assessments given to Onslow three times a year. To the left of the Ship Control Officer's position were the Panel Watchkeepers. These men were the experts on hydraulics and high pressure air for when the submarine was surfacing or diving." 61. CONTACT EVALUATION PLOT Sean: "The paper grid you can see is the Contact Evaluation Plot, or CEP. This is a paper representation of all contact information received by any sensor, and a log of what is happening within the submarine. All navies still use this, despite advances in technology. The CEP operator controlled the flow of information from each of the positions. In layman's terms - if the submarine was an orchestra, he was the conductor. To the right of the CEP is the plot table used for all the navigation of Onslow. A number of methods were used to navigate the boat. Compass bearings of charted objects could be taken through the periscopes. A satellite navigation system and GPS were also used. In some submarines, a periscope sextant was available to determine the boat's position by using stars, the sun and moon." Page 19

20 62. CAPTAINS CABIN Sean: "The only person on board to have his own cabin was the Captain; in other words - me [laughs]. I've left it just as it was, complete with family photographs - to give you a sense of how I lived. Whilst it's compact, as you can see, it offers the only privacy in the boat. The bunk is one of the smallest in the submarine, and not very comfortable -but I assure you, I didn't complain. The Captain's sleep on Onslow was disturbed on numerous occasions every night for routine reports from the Watchleader, and consequently the Captain would count himself lucky to have more than 2 hours of continuous sleep at a time. Unlike how things were on Vampire, I in fact had an open invitation from my Executive Officer, who was President of the Wardroom, to have my meals there any time - so I rarely ate alone, and that was great. And when it comes to snacks between meals - I'm widely known for being particularly fond of Tim Tams. Some believe I've been notorious for hogging all the Tim Tams on board. (laughs) In this cabin, as in every other corner of Onslow, there has always been the powerful smell of diesel. It gets in your clothes and it gets in your books. It's so strong that when I get home, my washing stays in the garage until I get around to it (laughs) - but having said that, I know my wife, Carmel, will often think of me as she calls into a petrol station as inhaling the smell of diesel reminds her of me. She gets all nostalgic at the smell and says it makes her feel as though she can't wait until I get home. Most people can't stand the smell of diesel, but Carmel's quite keen on it." (laughs) Page 20

21 63. HEADS AND SHOWERS Sean: "The four toilets that you can see were known as "Traps". At sea, sailors would take off their overalls and back into the heads before shutting the door because as you can see, it is very cramped. Twice a day, the main sanitary tank was emptied with high pressure air. If anyone was in the traps and tried to flush during this time, the contents of the tank would be blown back into the trap, leaving them covered in you-know-what, and creating what's referred to on board as 'a Hiroshima shadow' on the wall behind them. The showers aft of the Control Room were rarely used - most people had a shower or "tubs" once a week whilst at sea, lending to the reputation of "smelly submariners". Indeed, when the submarine was at Action Stations, the ventilation was shut down, and the heat from the equipment built up rapidly. Everyone began to sweat, and after about 30 minutes, it was an extremely uncomfortable place to be. The only good thing to say about that is that we were all in the same boat, so to speak [laughs]. You sometimes hear blokes say, 'One shower per man per week. Per-haps." [laughs] Matt Wernas: [[ "1 tend to shower about every four days or so - you can have a bird bath between that time. Some people need to shower more often than others... there are some people who start smelling the first day out to sea, and you wish they'd shower more often, but it's generally one of those things you tend not to notice until it gets really bad." Sean: "No doubt most of you are thinking, how can they stand it? I guess you're having that same thought about plenty of aspects of life on board... asked Chief Petty Officer Andrew Florence to tell me honestly whether time over, he'd go round again." [[Andrew: "Umm... put it this way: if I had my time over again, I probably wouldn't do it - but I did enjoy it; I can't say I didn't enjoy it. It's had its moments."]] Page 21

22 64. HOW A SUBMARINE DIVES Sean: "Onslow's pressure hull is surrounded by ballast tanks that have holes in the bottom of them and hydraulically operated vents in the top. A submarine dives by opening the vents in the ballast tanks. This allows air to escape through the vent, and water to enter from the bottom. The change in bodily weight makes the submarine neutrally buoyant, and therefore it allows hydroplanes and propellers to drive the submarine to the ordered depth. To surface, the main vents are shut, and high-pressure air fed into the ballast tank. This air pushes the water out of the bottom of the ballast tank, and the submarine becomes positively buoyant, or floats. When submerged, to stay on depth, the submarine needs to be neutrally buoyant - neither rising or sinking. HMAS Onslow has seven Main Ballast Tanks, two of which are used for fuel. The exact depth an Oberon can dive is classified information, but it's certainly more than 100 metres. It's a spine-tingling and almost theatrical moment when the announcement comes over the PA..."Diving stations. Diving stations". You've never seen men move so fast as they rush to their posts. In theory, an Oberon can stay submerged as long as supplies hold out. They come close to the surface (periscope depth) and raise a mast to let fresh air in (called a snort mast or snorkel). The whole point of diving is to give the vessel the advantage of stealth - giving it the maximum opportunity to seek and destroy enemy surface ships and submarines." Page 22

23 65. ENGINES Sean: "The two engines on Onslow are known affectionately as Bonnie and Clyde. In this case, the term of endearment came about because Onslow was built on the Clyde River, so of course the companion just had to be Bonnie. For the rev heads amongst you, they are English Electric Company main propulsion motors, and two Admiralty standard range diesel generators. HMAS Onslow is a diesel electric, or conventional, submarine. This means that the boat when dived, runs on a battery-powered electric motor. To charge the batteries, the submarine comes to periscope depth which is about 17 metres or 56 feet and raises the Induction mast. This is basically a hollow pipe that allows air into the submarine, so that the diesel engines can be started. These engines, "Bonnie and Clyde", run generators that charge the submarine's two main batteries - which you walked over in the Accommodation Space and Control Room. Bonnie and Clyde are so powerful that they could generate enough electricity to run a small city. Gases are exhausted through a mast at this time. Because Bonnie and Clyde are diesel engines, they need diesel fuel. Onslow carried 100,000 gallons - the equivalent of 8 road tankers. In addition, the submarine carried 10,000 gallons of fresh water, and 70 days worth of food and stores." 66. US NUCLEAR AND COLLINS CLASS SUBMARINES Sean: "The Oberons have been replace by Australia's new Collins class submarines. The Collins are conventionally powered diesel-electric submarines, like Onslow. They're a bit shorter at 78 metres in length and carry 41 crew. The Collins' range and operational characteristics have been tailored specifically for its defence and surveillance role. They're armed with 48 Mark 48 torpedoes and encapsulated Harpoon missiles. Of course our diesel-electric submarine are very difference to nuclear powered submarines. Because they don't need to refuel, America's nuclear submarines can stay underwater for months at a time (subject to supplies for the crew of course). Their strategic importance lies in he fact that they can fire medium-range missiles without surfacing. The US submarines are about twice the size of Onslow at 170 metres. Page 23

24 67. MOTOR ROOM Sean: "The Motor Room of HMAS Onslow controlled all the electrical supplies of the submarine, as well as the electric motors which drove the two shafts. Normally three people would be on watch in this cubicle. Charging the submarine's batteries was also regulated through the Motor Room. The main batteries of Onslow are massive. Each battery has 224 cells, with each cell being a metre high and weighing in excess of 500 kilos. No.1. Main battery is under the accommodation space, and No.2 main battery's under the forward half of the Control Room. Without recharging, Onslow could remain deep for about four days." 68. MOTOR ROOM Sean: "The Motor Room of HMAS Onslow controlled all the electrical supplies of the submarine, as well as the electric motors which drove the two shafts. Normally three people would be on watch in this cubicle. Charging the submarine's batteries was also regulated through the Motor Room. As you can see from the battery in front of you the batteries which were on Onslow are massive. Each battery has 224 cells, with each cell being a metre high and weighing in excess of 500 kilos. No1. Main battery is under the accommodation space, and No.2 main battery's under the forward half of the Control Room. Without recharging, Onslow could remain deep for about four days." Page 24

25 69. THE AFTER ENDS Sean: "The After Ends is home to the Aft Mess - the domain of the technical sailors. 19 sailors lived in this mess. When on the surface in rough weather, the aft mess was definitely not the place to be for those susceptible to seasickness. The aft mess was constantly noisy when the engines were running, but as perhaps a kind of compensation, these guys somehow managed to get the most food, and live a better existence than those up forward - it was always reputed that once something went into the aft mess, it never came out again! [laughs]. One Australian OBERON even had a pet budgerigar in the aft mess, which they taught to make disparaging remarks about the Captain. Not me, I hasten to add. Well not as far as I know [laughs] The budgie led an idyllic life, well-fed and looked-after, until one day it was let out for its daily flight around the mess and landed behind a sleeping sailor who promptly rolled over. It was buried at sea. The After Ends is also an escape compartment with the same escape features as the Fore Ends, with the exception that the After Escape Tower cannot take a Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle. Prior to Onslow's weapon update in 1984, two stern torpedo tubes were in use. The two after tubes discharged Mark 20 anti-submarine torpedoes." After Onslow's modernisation refit in , the use of Mark 20s was discontinued... actually the Royal Navy withdrew theirs from service and the RAN didn't acquire any more. Following that, the after tubes were sealed off on the outside. And submariners being the resourceful characters they are, found a new use for the tubes...each tube could hold 45 dozen can of beer! (laughs) Of course beer ration had to be approved by the CO!! So as you can see, Australian ships aren't dry - unlike the United States Navy. Typical of Aussie naval humour is the classic saying - "Two cans per man per day. Perhaps." Eventually the tubes were removed - making more space available for the after mess. Smoking was allowed on board ONLY at the discretion of the Captain and only when the engines were running and only at bulkhead 77 and only by 6 men at a time." Page 25

26 70. LIFE AT SEA Sean: "Whilst you may walk through Onslow shaking your head and wondering why anyone would subject themselves to living in a submarine, life wasn't all that bad as OBERONS. Once you got over the initial shock of being doubled over everywhere you walked, and hitting your head 14 times a day, and reducing your sleep to 4 hours at a time, things were good." "When travelling long distances, OBERON class submarines would travel on the surface. If the weather was good and the water was calm, the Captain would let the crew have a BBQ and a sunbake or a swim." [laughs] It's not wise to try and engage in madly physical activity up on the casing - you'd be liable to fall into the water - so as far as trying to stay fit, blokes had to do the best they could in the comparative safety of down below." Matt Wernas: [["Yeah, we bring some weights on board and use the structure of the submarine to do chin ups; that sort of thing."]] Sean: "Submariners have always been renowned for the "Work hard, play hard" ethic. Certainly, ports that a submarine has visited can attest to this. After weeks at sea, all that a submariner looked forward to was a long hot shower and a large cold beer, and the closest pubs to the wharf always did a brisk trade. Whilst you may imagine that after being cooped up in a boat for weeks with 70-odd of your best friends, a person would seek a little solitude, but this wasn't the case. Submariners can always be found in large groups, and are an invariably happy group of people. So if you see any - and you can tell by the hard earnt "Dolphins" badge that they wear with pride - say hello and buy them a beer. You'll have a friend for life. In my case, I mostly go off sightseeing with the Wardroom guys, but I'd certainly wait to be asked." Able seaman Curtis Dixon: [[ "... We all sort of hang out together...that's the thing, funny though it may seem after livin' with each other for weeks on end. You'd think the last thing you'd want to do is go hangin' round with them, but usually all the boys go out and get on it, and have a good time in the town or wherever you may be and whatnot."]] Page 26

27 Sean (asking Chief Petty Officer Andrew Florence) "...What kind of life do you see for yourself after this one?" [[Andrew: "An easier one." ]]. Sean: "Fair enough; but to balance things out, let me share with you this moving answer I received from Able Seaman Danny Ellem when I asked him to sum up the Onslow experience." Danny (not on tape): "Being a submariner is not for everyone, and the few of us who have served on board know exactly how tough life can be. Most people say I'm crazy, but not knowing what tomorrow will bring is half the enjoyment. Being able to tell people I'm in the Navy is great, but telling them I wear the "Dolphins", which are the submariner chest pins, make me feel even prouder. It surely has been an experience serving as a submariner, one which I can be proud of for the rest of my life." 71. MUSEUM STORE "Remember that the Museum Store is open today. It stocks a great range of books, nautical artefacts, children's books, toys, games, leisurewear, souvenirs and models. Just pop into the Museum's foyer and browse around. And keep in mind that if you haven't had the time to take in everything today -remember that Membership to the Museum gives you free entry to the Museum and to Vampire and Onslow, plus other great benefits. Ask at the Ticket Desk for details." Page 27