Ahoy - Mac's Web Log

The casing and Fin of HMAS Otway

Introduction.
The Canadian Navy has some very old Oberon Class Submarines, not much more than Old Iron, at this stage of their life, that they would like to dispose of. But you should give up any ideas of being Captain of your own O Class Boat standing watch on  her conning tower at sea.

They appear to be beyond recovery to allow them to sail once more in the proud way they served in the Canadian Navy over 40 years ago. They are of little value than as scrap or " Old Iron."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/05/25/subs050525.html

For sale: 4 submarines, not shipshape
Last Updated Wed, 25 May 2005 19:17:15 EDT
CBC News

HALIFAX - Four mothballed submarines, acquired from the British navy nearly 40 years ago, are being put up for sale, the defence department has announced.

HMCS Okanagan, an Oberon-class submarine.
"We are anxious to get rid of them," Pat MacDonald, the department's disposal co-ordinator, told the Halifax Chronicle Herald.

"We have been for some time."

The Oberon-class submarines are presently docked on the Dartmouth, N.S.,
waterfront. HMCS Onondaga, HMCS Ojibwa, HMCS Okanagan and the Olympus
were purchased between 1965 and 1968. (The Olympus was not commissioned,
but used instead as a training vessel.)

HMCS Onondaga was the last of the subs to be taken out of service in 2000.

MacDonald estimated they may be able to get $50,000 to $60,000 each as
scrap metal.

He said it would take a lot of resources to make the vessels seaworthy.
Very little maintenance has been done on the submarines since they were
taken out of service.

The navy would have liked to use the subs as museums but they've
deteriorated too much even for that.

The Australian Navy also ran this class of Submarine.
The Royal Australian Navy also ran submarines from this same Oberon Class, but unlike their Canadian sisters, they were in service until but a few years ago.

In the middle of the 850 kilometre Hume Highway that links the two largest Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne by road sits the country town of Holbrook, named after the WW 1 British Naval Officer and Captain of the submarine B-11, Lieutenant Norman Holbrook R N. he was awarded the Victoria Cross for his exploits in the Dardanelles.

His story has been recorded on Ahoy.

As you drive into this small town, you become aware of the large casing and fin of the Otway, cosily sitting in its concrete cocoon.

It will be swarming with young children, the girls just as intrigued as the boys, as they inspect every inch of this remnant of a once fine  submarine that flew the Australian White Ensign over a long period of service in the Royal Australian Navy.  It could not be much further from the sea unless one moves it to central Australia, an unlikely event.

There is another O Class boat HMAS Otama, initially launched in UK by Princess Anne, sitting off the small town of Hastings on Western Port  in Victoria. It was supposed to have been acquired to turn into a Maritime tourist attraction at Hastings, but much discussion is taking place as to whom  it will belong, who pays for what etc, in the meantime, the boat is slowly turning into what finally developed over in Canada, a pile of scap iron.

It is well time for some decisive action over Otama, before time runs out,and the proposed project is defeated, strangled by red tape, defeated by inaction.