HMS Oxley was an O-class

Odin class submarine

The Odin class submarine was a class of nine submarines developed and built for the Royal Navy in the 1920s. The prototype was followed by two ships originally ordered for the Royal Australian Navy, but transferred to the RN in 1931 because of the poor economic situation in Australia, and six...

 submarine

Submarine

A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...

 serving in 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) (as HMAS Oxley) and the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 (RN).

Construction

Oxley was laid down by Vickers-Armstrong Limited at Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness

Barrow-in-Furness is an industrial town and seaport which forms about half the territory of the wider Borough of Barrow-in-Furness in the county of Cumbria, England. It lies north of Liverpool, northwest of Manchester and southwest from the county town of Carlisle...

, England in March 1925. She was launched on 29 June 1926, completed on 22 July 1927, and commissioned into the RAN on 1 April 1927.

Australia

Oxley and sister ship

Sister ship

A sister ship is a ship of the same class as, or of virtually identical design to, another ship. Such vessels share a near-identical hull and superstructure layout, similar displacement, and roughly comparable features and equipment...

 HMAS Otway

HMS Otway

HMS Otway was an of the Royal Australian Navy and Royal Navy .Otway was laid down by Vickers Limited of Barrow-in-Furness in England in March 1925...

 departed England for Malta on 8 February 1928, where the submarines were based until November 1928. The submarines then sailed to Australia, arriving in Sydney on 14 February 1929. Oxley remained in New South Wales waters for the remainder of her RAN career, and was paid off into Reserve on 10 May 1930. Oxley underwent diving exercises every second week until 9 April 1931, when the submarine was paid off in full prior to transfer to the RN.

United Kingdom

Oxley was recommissioned into the RN on 10 April 1931. On 29 April, Oxley and Otway (which had also been recommissioned into the RN) left Sydney for Malta. During 1939, the submarine was based at Portsmouth as part of the 5th Submarine Flotilla. Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Oxley was assigned to patrol duties off the coast of Norway

Norway

Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

.

Loss

On 10 September 1939, was also patrolling in the area. The two submarines had been in regular contact, and when Triton spotted an unidentified submarine in the area, it was initially assumed that this was Oxley. Recognition codes sent by signal light to the unknown boat were not responded to, causing Tritons commander to assume that she was an enemy submarine and fire two torpedo

Torpedo

The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...

es. Oxley was the submarine; both torpedoes hit and sank her with only two survivors, which were recovered by Triton. A Board of Enquiry found that Oxley was some way out of position and that Triton had acted correctly and was not culpable for the sinking.