HMS Ocelot

[sailorman]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25019489

At the height of the Cold War, HMS Ocelot secretly served on the front line. In the clandestine battle against the Soviet navy, she would stay submerged for weeks at a time, silently watching and listening to the enemy. Five members of her crew during the 1960s recall their extraordinary life below the waves.
Brian Defurey, Ron Hitchin, Norman Hart, Richard Dixon and John Wakelin are now all pensioners, but still call each other by the Navy nicknames given to them 50 years ago - Billy, Ted, Nobby, Dixie and Wacker. They often reunite to reminisce about the cramped conditions and camaraderie of working, living and breathing with 65 other men.

 

[FullCircle]

That is always the highlight of my visits to Chatham.

 

[sailorman]

That is always the highlight of my visits to Chatham.

Its difficult to believe Jim that she was actually built in Chatham by local highly skilled men

 

[wingdiver]

I believe she is one of the subs that used to moor alongside HMS Forth - the submarine depot ship - when my Dad was serving on board (in Singapore 1968-1970). The 'Oberon' class and 'Porpoise' class were the ones I remember seeing most of.
Most of the time HMS Forth was docked in the Naval Dockyard and the subs would be moored alongside. They also used to replenish at sea alongside the Forth.

Here's a model from the Sub museum at Haslar

 

[FullCircle]

Its difficult to believe Jim that she was actually built in Chatham by local highly skilled men

Not difficult for me to understand - look at the support buildings in Chatham - reminds me of my days at British Rail Engineering at Ashford Kent. Virtually all skills and facilities onsite, not much at all was sub contracted. Rivetting and Welding heavy gauge steel was my meat and drink.

 

[Habebty]

Too true Jim
Eastleigh works also was a town in its own right. Everything and I mean everything was made there for trains, track, buildings, road vehicles and so on.

Pompey dockyard was the same, with sheds fabricating everything ( including time sheets no doubt )


Mate of mine was an AB on the Ocelot when I was living in Gosport. I can remember seeing rafts of O class. boats in HMS Dolphin

 

[iainbluk]

My first g/f's father was Captain of the Ocelot in the late 60's

 

[Eyore]

I'd highly recommend a visit to the Haslar museum for anyone who hasn't been, absolutely brilliant.

 

[macnorton]

Went on it in the dry dock, nothing but respect for the crew!

 

[sailorman]

Went on it in the dry dock, nothing but respect for the crew!

I even managed to swing through the bulkhead hatches submariner style :encouragement:

 

[xyachtdave]

Ocelot is about 100 metres from our house and have been around it more than a few times!

A fox named 'Sonar' was living up one of the torpedo tubes/water intakes for a while a few years back. We visited Ocelot with some friends and during the Q&A session at the end of the tour (after the submarine anoraks had finished asking about the amp hours in the batteries and the size of the donk...), enquired after Sonar the fox.

The submarine anoraks looked confused until our guide enthused about the fox's well being. He's moved on now apparently, probably when they last slapped another coat of paint on her.

 

[macnorton]

I even managed to swing through the bulkhead hatches submariner style :encouragement:

I tried but it didn't go well, so resorted to the girls method for the rest.

http://s174.photobucket.com/user/macnorton/media/Mobile Uploads/DSCF1048_zpsdd6b6ecd.jpg.html

still trying to post pics?

 

[Biggles Wader]

I can remember being taken round one as a boy(cant recall the name)when a squadron of three visited Dover.Most people went on the one moored to the Prince of Wales pier,but we got a launch out to one anchored in the harbour.My grandad(WW1 veteran)bunged the AB who showed us round a few bob as a thank you and we got a cup of coco.Im sure their was some rum in it.

 

[Mariner69]

Hearing the mention of the boats being built in Chatham reminded me of a friend who was a Junior Engineer in the MN. He had undertaken an apprenticeship at the builders.

One of the jobs he was given, was that he was to fix the high piping and insert valves at eyelevel so the operator could read the label on the valve stem.

He had been working on them for about a month when all hell broke out as they discovered he had fitted the valves too high for everybody.

It was only then that they realised that his eyelevel was somewhat different to most; since he was 6 foot 6 and a bit!!

 

[sailorman]

That is the result of thinking what you told somebody was understood.
The other thing is why it took a month to notice he had misunderstood the instruction.
Managing a labour force is an art