Helen Stephenson's Chatham Dockyard Pictures - September 10th, 2006 - Submarine HMS Ocelot

HM Submarine Ocelot was the last submarine to be built in Chatham Dockyard for the Royal Navy. She was launched in 1962, and it is fitting that she returned to Chatham Historic Dockyard at the end of her service in 1992, in order to go on permanent display there.

When we went aboard HM Submarine Ocelot, we had a tour guide, who was a retired Naval man. Conditions inside the submarine are somewhat cramped, and the first thing our guide did was demonstrate how to negotiate the hatches between the compartments. He had let go of the bar above the hatch when I took the picture on the left, but when Stephen was coming through a hatch in the centre picture, he still had his hands on the bar as he swung through.

I didn't have a wide enough lens to be able to photograph the forward escape tower and the torpedo tubes in one shot, so I've presented them in two. If you visit the Historic Dockyards website (follow my Kent Places link at the bottom of this page) they have a picture which shows everything in one photo. I had an extreme wide angle zoom, so their official photographer must have had something really special. Judging by some of the other photos on the site, I think that "something really special" may have been a shift lens, as all their verticals really are vertical despite the confined spaces.

The living and sleeping accommodation was cramped, to put it mildly. This class of submarine did not run to washing facilities, and not even the captain had more than a tiny washbasin, but as everyone was in the same boat, they undoubtedly got used to the rank smell during a tour of duty. I think the crew must have made a beeline for the showers when they arrived in port!

The periscope was a popular part of the tour.

Here are some pictures of the operational part of the submarine, including her diesel electric power plant.