HMAS Otama
Encyclopedia

HMAS Otama (SS 72/SSG 72) was an Oberon class
Oberon class submarine
The Oberon class was a 27-boat class of British-built diesel-electric submarines based on the successful British Porpoise-class submarine....

 submarine of the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...

 (RAN). Built in Scotland, the submarine was commissioned into the RAN in 1978; the last of the class to enter service. Otama remained in service until late 2000, when she was decommissioned and sold to a Victorian community group, who planned to preserve the submarine as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...

.

However, permission to build an information centre to moor the submarine at was repeatedly denied by the local council, and Otama was listed on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

 in late 2008. Although the submarine was not sold, several expressions of interest were made, including one by a group believed to be interested in restoring Otama for use as a drug-smuggling submarine
Narco submarine
A narco-submarine is a type of custom-made ocean-going self-propelled submersible vessel built by drug traffickers to smuggle drugs. They are especially known to be used by Colombian drug cartel members to export cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, which is often then transported overland to the...

.

Design and construction

The Oberon class was based heavily on the preceding Porpoise class
British Porpoise class submarine
The Porpoise class was an eight-boat class of diesel-electric submarines operated by the Royal Navy. This class was originally designated patrol submarines, then attack. They were the first conventional British submarines to be built after the end of World War II...

 of submarines, with changes made to improve the vessels' hull integrity, sensor systems, and stealth capabilities. Eight submarines were ordered for the RAN, in two batches of four. The first batch was approved in 1963, and the second batch (including Otama) was approved during the late 1960s, although two of these were cancelled before construction started in 1969, with the funding redirected to the Fleet Air Arm
Fleet Air Arm (RAN)
The Fleet Air Arm , known formally as the Australian Navy Aviation Group, is the division of the Royal Australian Navy responsible for the operation of aircraft. The FAA was founded in 1947 following the purchase of two aircraft carriers from the Royal Navy...

. This was the fourth time the RAN had attempted to establish a submarine branch
Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service
The Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service is the collective name of the submarine element of the Royal Australian Navy. The service currently forms the Navy's Submarine Force Element Group and consists of six Collins class submarines....

.

The submarine is 295.2 feet (90 m) long, with a beam
Beam (nautical)
The beam of a ship is its width at the widest point. Generally speaking, the wider the beam of a ship , the more initial stability it has, at expense of reserve stability in the event of a capsize, where more energy is required to right the vessel from its inverted position...

 of 26.5 feet (8.1 m), and a draught of 18 feet (5.5 m) when surfaced. At full load displacement, she displaces 2,030 tons when surfaced, and 2,410 tons when submerged. The two propeller shafts are each driven by an English Electric motor providing 3,500 brake horsepower and 4,500 shaft horsepower; the electricity for these is generated by two Admiralty Standard Range supercharged V16 diesel generators. The submarine could travel at up to 12 knots (6.5 m/s) on the surface, and up to 17 knots (9.3 m/s) when submerged, had a maximum range of 9000 nautical miles (16,668 km) at 12 knots (6.5 m/s), and a test depth of 200 metres (656.2 ft) below sea level. When launched, the boat had a company of 8 officers and 56 sailors, but by the time she decommissioned, the number of sailors had increased to 60. In addition, up to 16 trainees could be carried.

The main armament of the Oberons consisted of six 21 inches (533.4 mm) torpedo tubes. The British Mark 8 torpedo was initially carried by the submarine; this was later replaced by the wire-guided Mark 23. Between 1977 and 1985, the Australian Oberons were upgraded to carry United States Navy Mark 48 torpedo
Mark 48 torpedo
The Mark 48 and its improved ADCAP variant are heavyweight submarine-launched torpedoes. They were designed to sink fast, deep-diving nuclear-powered submarines and high-performance surface ships.-History:...

es and UGM-84 Sub Harpoon
Boeing Harpoon
The Harpoon is an all-weather, over-the-horizon, anti-ship missile system, developed and manufactured by McDonnell Douglas . In 2004, Boeing delivered the 7,000th Harpoon unit since the weapon's introduction in 1977...

 anti-ship missiles. As of 1996, the standard payload of an Australian Oberon was a mix of 20 Mark 48 Mod 4 torpedoes and Sub Harpoon missiles. Some or all of the torpedo payload could be replaced by Mark 5 Stonefish
Stonefish (mine)
Named after a venomous fish, the Stonefish influence mine is manufactured by a British company . Originally, the weapon was supplied to the Royal Navy, but it has also been exported to friendly countries such as Australia, which has both warstock and training versions of Stonefish.Stonefish mines...

 sea mines, which were deployed through the torpedo tubes. On entering service, two stern-mounted, short-length 21 inches (53.3 cm) torpedo tubes for Mark 20 anti-submarine torpedoes. However, the development of steerable wire-guided torpedoes made the less-capable aft-firing torpedoes redundant; they were closed off, and later removed during a refit.

Otama was laid down by Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company
Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Limited, often referred to simply as Scotts, was a Scottish shipbuilding company based in Greenock on the River Clyde.- History :...

 at Greenock, Scotland on 25 May 1973, launched on 3 December 1975, and commissioned into the RAN on 27 April 1978. Otama was the sixth and final Oberon class submarine to enter service with the RAN. The boat's name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning "dolphin"; this was a break in RAN tradition, which used the names of explorers and pioneers for previous submariens.

Operational history

On 8 September 1980, Otama joined five other RAN vessels to form the Australia Squadron. The Squadron, which included HMA Ships , , , , and spent two months in the Indian Ocean as part of a flag-showing cruise; the largest RAN deployment since World War II.

On 3 August 1987, two sailors were killed aboard Otama. At 09:00, the submarine left to test a new towed hydrophone
Hydrophone
A hydrophone is a microphone designed to be used underwater for recording or listening to underwater sound. Most hydrophones are based on a piezoelectric transducer that generates electricity when subjected to a pressure change...

 system. Foul weather prevented the trials, and two sailors were sent into the fin
Sail (submarine)
In naval parlance, the sail or fin of a submarine is the tower-like structure found on the dorsal surface of submarines...

 to recover the equipment. At 10:35, the submarine was prepared for diving, and she submerged four minutes later, with the two men still in the fin. Their absence was not noticed until around 11:00, and was not confirmed for at least another half hour. The coronial inquiry found that the sailors had climbed to the fin's bridge and attempted to contact the control room but were unsuccessful before being washed away and drowning. The bodies were not recovered.

Decommissioning and fate

Otama paid off on 15 December 2000: problems with the introduction of the s kept Otama and sister boat in service for several years beyond their planned decommissioning date.

The submarine was sold in 2001 to the Western Port Oberon Association, a community group with the intention of preserving her as a museum ship
Museum ship
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational or memorial purposes...

 in Hastings, Victoria
Hastings, Victoria
Hastings is a suburb on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia, as a part of the urban enclave on Westernport comprising Hastings, Bittern, Crib Point, Tyabb, and Somerville. Its Local Government Area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula...

, for A$50,000. Otama was towed to Western Port Bay in 2002, where she was to wait until the Shire of Mornington Peninsula
Shire of Mornington Peninsula
The Shire of Mornington Peninsula is a Local Government Area in Victoria, Australia. It is located to the south of the city of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula. It has an area of 723 square kilometres...

 council approved plans to construct a purpose-built tourism and information centre, where the submarine would be docked. However, the council knocked these plans back on three separate occasions, each at a different location. In late 2008, the submarine was listed for sale on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...

, as the group could no longer afford to maintain Otama while waiting for council approval.

The submarine was not sold, but several expressions of interest were made; among these, the owners received enquires about the possibility of restoring the submarine to operational condition. Although claiming to be a tourism operator, Otamas owners believed that the enquirer wanted to use the submarine for drug smuggling
Narco submarine
A narco-submarine is a type of custom-made ocean-going self-propelled submersible vessel built by drug traffickers to smuggle drugs. They are especially known to be used by Colombian drug cartel members to export cocaine from Colombia to Mexico, which is often then transported overland to the...

, and advised the Australian Federal Police
Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police is the federal police agency of the Commonwealth of Australia. Although the AFP was created by the amalgamation in 1979 of three Commonwealth law enforcement agencies, it traces its history from Commonwealth law enforcement agencies dating back to the federation of...

 and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
Australian Security Intelligence Organisation
The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation is Australia's national security service, which is responsible for the protection of the country and its citizens from espionage, sabotage, acts of foreign interference, politically-motivated violence, attacks on the Australian defence system, and...

.

External links

- location of this submarine as of 2009.
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