HMS ''Otway'' (originally HMAS ''Otway'') was an of the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

(RAN) and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

(RN).

Design and construction

The s were built to a slightly modified design for Australian service. They were in

length overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

, with a beam of , and a mean draught of .Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 110 Displacement was 1,350 tons when surfaced, and 1,870 tons when submerged. The boats had diesel motors for surface running and electricity generation, but when underwater ran off electric motors. They had two propeller shafts. Maximum speed was on the surface, and when dived. ''Otway'' had a boat's company of 54. Armament consisted of eight torpedo tubes (six facing forward, two facing aft), one deck gun, and two machine guns. ''Otway'' was laid down by Vickers Limited of

Barrow-in-Furness Barrow-in-Furness is a port town in Cumbria, England. Historically in Lancashire, it was incorporated as a municipal borough in 1867 and merged with Dalton-in-Furness Urban District in 1974 to form the Borough of Barrow-in-Furness. In 2023 the ...

in England in March 1925, under the designation ''OA2''.Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 111 She was launched on 7 September 1926, and commissioned into the RAN on 15 June 1927.

Operational history

After commissioning, ''Otway'' and ''Oxley'' were temporarily assigned to the Royal Navy's

5th Submarine Flotilla Fifth is the ordinal form of the number five. Fifth or The Fifth may refer to: * Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, as in the expression "pleading the Fifth" * Fifth column, a political term * Fifth disease, a contagious rash tha ...

. On 8 February 1928, the two submarines set out for Australia in the longest unescorted voyage undertaken by a British submarine. En route to Malta, cracks were found on ''Otway''s engine columns. On arrival in Malta, similar fractures were found in ''Oxley''s engine columns, and the two boats were detained while improved columns were fabricated and installed. They resumed their voyage in November, and reached Sydney on 14 February 1929. Because of the deteriorating financial conditions leading into the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the two submarines were placed into reserve a year later; ''Otway'' was paid off on 10 May 1930. The submarines were maintained in operational condition, and left the harbour twice a month for diving exercises. The ongoing cost of maintaining the boats, coupled with the tonnage limits imposed by the

London Naval Treaty The London Naval Treaty, officially the Treaty for the Limitation and Reduction of Naval Armament, was an agreement between the United Kingdom, Japan, France, Italy, and the United States that was signed on 22 April 1930. Seeking to address is ...

prompted the Australian government to offer ''Otway'' and ''Oxley'' to the Royal Navy. The submarines were transferred and commissioned on 10 April 1931, and sailed to Britain. HMS ''Otway'' operated during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

with the

pennant number In the Royal Navy and other navies of Europe and the Commonwealth of Nations, ships are identified by pennant number (an internationalisation of ''pendant number'', which it was called before 1948). Historically, naval ships flew a flag that iden ...

51.Bastock, ''Australia's Ships of War'', p. 112 In 1942 it was under the command of Commander

Howard Bone Captain Howard Francis Bone (20 October 1908 – 12 August 1981) was a British Royal Navy officer, who was highly decorated during his service as a submarine commander during the Second World War. Early life Bone was the son of Howard Bone CB ...

. The submarine left RN service in 1945, and in August was transported to Thos. W. Ward Inverkeithing, Scotland to be broken up.

Citations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Otway 1926 ships Ships built in Barrow-in-Furness Odin-class submarines of the Royal Navy World War II submarines of the United Kingdom