Hitchcocks Forum

Hi guys------ just thought you might like to see a 100year old U-Boat Diesel engine start up and run ??----Two per boat and so very cramped and noisy for the Engine Room crew..........

That was brilliant. I went on a submarine once when it was in port. People could go and look at it and for a fee could walk through it. We went in down a hatch at the front and came out of a hatch at the rear. This was the HMAS Oxley and was part of the Australian navy.It was built in Scotland and commissioned on the 23.01.1967. I went on board in 1975. When I walked through I all I could smell was diesel. Diesel smells pervaded every single area. It was like being inside an empty diesel delivery tank. The engines looked very similar to the engine in the video with one on each side of the engine room. There was a small galley for cooking the meals and one thing that I remember was that there was a cockroach sitting on a valve near the galley entrance. He stood there just waving his antennae at every body as they trooped past. Another thing that I noticed was that you can not look out of the hull. The sailors just had to hope that the boffins navigating the thing across the oceans knew what they were doing. It is a strange feeling not being able to get out of something like this or see where you are going. Not my cup of tea at all. Any way I could not be a sailor on a submarine. The Oxley was decommissioned on the 13.02.1992. She was an Oberon class of submarine with 9 officers and 56 sailors. It was made in Britain and so it was a proper submarine. We tried to build our own Collins class submarines here in Australia but they turned out to be not the best submarines to ever put to sea.

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That is neat!

The conditions were a bit more cramped in the engine room:-

Back in the day I served as an ERA ( Engine Room Artificer ) but didn't do any time in a tinfish !!------ The British designed Oberons or "O" boats were powered by 2 Admiralty Standard Range Diesels for surface running and battery charging ( Via a Snort or Snorkel )...........I think it's fair to say that virtually all post war ( 1 and 2 ) submarine design / development was as a direct result from captured German boats..........Remember that the engine's type shown in the video was probably designed circa 1908--1910 ??.......

Incidentally it was built by the German company M.A.N. ( Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nuremberg ) which is why those two Cities were so heavily bombed during WW2........Next time you see an MAN lorry on the motorway watch out !!..it just might be trying to torpedo you --LoL !!..............http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4586249

Totally agree with binary re claustrophobia of being in a sub....but then I had a conversation with my son ( who as in the Royal Navy at the time) long story short....he said, imagine being in a sardine tin, going down, no control, can't see ahead of you, 1000s of feet......then a big splash as you hit the water and start to sink to the bottom of the sea!

Made me think differently about flying Often!

I do not fly any where either. Same reason just a submarine in the air.

Flying is MUCH safer than riding a bike 😀

PeteF "Flying is MUCH safer than riding a bike"

Not in Alaska.

[center]I take the choo-choo!

When I go abroad I use eurotunnel

quite soon after Ashford it goes into a funnel.

it's dark for a while, then into the light,

and everything's French as you look in delight.



An hour and a half, you fly through that nation

300KPH till you reach Paris station

then hop on a metro (Well, RER 'D')

to the Gare Du Lyon and a bright TGV



Down through the country, the choo-choo does roam

bringing me closer and closer to home.

Just up ahead Besancon station I see

Oh good, at this rate, I'll be home for my tea.



I could have used 'Squeezy' and taken a plane,

but between you and me, it's too much of a pain,

a hour at the airport just to wait for my bag?

no, it's straight off the train with my case and I'm glad.



Arrive at the farmhouse, drive into the barn,

a well pleasant trip that has caused me no harm,

Excitement increases, as from car do alight,

Just there in the corner stands 'Kevin' the bike!



You can take your tin coffins, that charge £££'s for baggage,

An amount only accurate since Charles Babbage,

'Sick guy' hogs the toilet whilst you sit in pain,

Naa, you go and fly mate, I'll stick to me train!








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REOC 15084

Tabellarius de verbis. Ostensor gaudium[/center]