Last Oberon

[besilarius]

It is sad, but so typical of the RCN.
At the start of the Battle of the Atlantic, the ASW assets were miniscule.  Within like two years, their forces were the bulk of escorts fighting the Uboats.  An amazing growth, and absolutely professional.
My dad was on a US destroyer before 43, and he had a lot of good things to say about them.
My one experience with the Royal Canadian Navy was at Port Everglades in Florida.
The Iroquios was coming in to dock.  The layout of the docks was in the form of a T.  You sailed in the long tail, and turned right or left to get into the secure docks.
Well, Iroquios came in at a pretty good clip, at least fifteen knots, maybe more, and made the turn.  Now at that point, they only had about a couple of hundred yards before the end of the piers.  It was solid concrete.
After turning, a normal ship would immediately start to slow down, and carefully - slowly ease into the slip.
I have a vivid memory of Boatswain Mate Charley Brown pointing up at the bow of Iroquios and saying something calm like, "Those f***ing a******s are going to ram the f****g pier!  Get back!!!" (I never knew he could yell in a falsetto like Frankie Valli.)
As the linehandlers ran for their lives,  the Iroquios' captain was laughing up his sleeve. 
This class had revolutionary variable pitch propellors.  With just a twist of a knob, they could go from full ahead to full astern, by changing the bite of the propellors.
Normally a ship of that size would take maybe five hundred yards to come to a full stop, as the propellors would be disconnected from the forward drive, and then carefully engaged into reverse, before the turns could effectively bite into the water.
Iroquios did it in no time, and maybe a quarter of the distance.
(Of course, if the system malfunctioned, they would have rammed the concrete pier, smashed in the bow, destroyed the sonar dome, not to mention the captain's career.  But hey, it was a great joke on those yanks, eh?)

[MIGMaster]

Thanks for sharing, Dude! Neat story....  Some of those little stories are the best!

[LongBlade]

It is sad, but so typical of the RCN.
At the start of the Battle of the Atlantic, the ASW assets were miniscule.  Within like two years, their forces were the bulk of escorts fighting the Uboats.  An amazing growth, and absolutely professional.
My dad was on a US destroyer before 43, and he had a lot of good things to say about them.
My one experience with the Royal Canadian Navy was at Port Everglades in Florida.
The Iroquios was coming in to dock.  The layout of the docks was in the form of a T.  You sailed in the long tail, and turned right or left to get into the secure docks.
Well, Iroquios came in at a pretty good clip, at least fifteen knots, maybe more, and made the turn.  Now at that point, they only had about a couple of hundred yards before the end of the piers.  It was solid concrete.
After turning, a normal ship would immediately start to slow down, and carefully - slowly ease into the slip.
I have a vivid memory of Boatswain Mate Charley Brown pointing up at the bow of Iroquios and saying something calm like, "Those f***ing a******s are going to ram the f****g pier!  Get back!!!" (I never knew he could yell in a falsetto like Frankie Valli.)
As the linehandlers ran for their lives,  the Iroquios' captain was laughing up his sleeve. 
This class had revolutionary variable pitch propellors.  With just a twist of a knob, they could go from full ahead to full astern, by changing the bite of the propellors.
Normally a ship of that size would take maybe five hundred yards to come to a full stop, as the propellors would be disconnected from the forward drive, and then carefully engaged into reverse, before the turns could effectively bite into the water.
Iroquios did it in no time, and maybe a quarter of the distance.
(Of course, if the system malfunctioned, they would have rammed the concrete pier, smashed in the bow, destroyed the sonar dome, not to mention the captain's career.  But hey, it was a great joke on those yanks, eh?)

I'm glad it worked out. I hate reading stories about navy commanders that made one mistake and it was game over.

[OJsDad]

Will Kelsey Grammer be the skipper?

[Centurion40]

LOL.  Why not??!!

[mirth]

Will Kelsey Grammer be the skipper?

Good call. We'll also be adding Lauren Holly to the cast list

[Centurion40]

Aye, aye cabin (as Stimpy would say).

[mirth]

The Ojibwa is on it's way to it's new home -

http://www.heavyliftpfi.com/content/NewsItem.aspx?id=4311

[MIGMaster]

Thanks for the update, Mirth!

[mirth]

Turns out there is a great site dedicated to the Ojibwa restoration project, including details on the move -

http://projectojibwa.ca/

I wish I had known it sooner, but it would have been possible to track the barge up the Saint Lawrence using this site -

http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/

The site above is damn cool. It shows you the location, course and a bunch of other info for commercial shipping all over the world. It's pretty close to real time too.

[mirth]

HMCS Objiwa has arrived at her new home in Ontario

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/distribution-and-transportation/news/submarine-arrives-at-military-museum-photo-gallery-85791

[MIGMaster]

Thanks for the update, Mirth!

[Centurion40]

I used to look at them all, tied-up in a surplus pen in the CFB Halifax Dockyard Annex in Halifax, whenever I was in the area.  Seemed like such as waste.

[mirth]

I surprised to learn how many of the Oberon's have been preserved. From Wikipedia:

The Oberon class was a 27-boat class of British-built diesel-electric submarines based on the successful British Porpoise-class submarine.

As of 2006, at least fourteen Oberons are confirmed to have survived in some form: Seven as museum boats or tourist attractions, two preserved in partial form as monuments, while five are to be converted into museum boats, or are otherwise awaiting disposal.

[MIGMaster]

We might as well refurbish them all and put them back to sea  ;)