April 4th, 2014. HMS Alliance.

[Carruthers]

The Royal Navy's HMS Alliance, the only surviving British WWII era submarine, stands in dock following a £7M conservation and restoration project at The Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport, Hampshire.
Launched in 1945 as one of fourteen A class submarines built for service in the Far East, HMS Alliance is now open to the public allowing visitors to gain insight into life onboard.

[Diaphone Jim]

San Francisco has a comtemporary of the Alliance in the USS Pampanito.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Pampanito_(SS-383)

It is a great tour, but the idea of cruising in it to the icy depths makes me glad I was in the infantry.

[xoxoxoBruce]

They've done a shitload of work on the Alliance in the last year, good thing they finished before the money got diverted to Scott's negatives or something.

However, they've changed the look a lot by closing all the holes, like the torpedo tubes.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

However, they've changed the look a lot by closing all the holes, like the torpedo tubes.

Yes, it's something of an odd move, isn't it? It wouldn't surprise me if there was an obscure paragraph in an arms reduction treaty somewhere that's behind it.

It is a great tour, but the idea of cruising in it to the icy depths makes me glad I was in the infantry.

Dad served in the RN during the last unpleasantness and is thankful that he wasn't on subs. I imagine that people suited to that role are pretty few and far between.

[Sundae]

I don't remember your Dad being around during the last unpleasantness.
Then again, when I've got a bit of kebab-belly I do tend to lock the bathroom door.
Keeps out the looks-loos

I'm not sure I could even take the tour.
Even being below decks on the Cutty Sark freaked me out, nd I was a skinny little schoolgirl then.

Interesting project though, thanks.

[Carruthers]

Originally Posted by Sundae

I don't remember your Dad being around during the last unpleasantness.
Then again, when I've got a bit of kebab-belly I do tend to lock the bathroom door.
Keeps out the looks-loos

As ever, Sundae....

[Sundae]

Damn auto-correct.
Looky-loos.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by Carruthers

Yes, it's something of an odd move, isn't it? It wouldn't surprise me if there was an obscure paragraph in an arms reduction treaty somewhere that's behind it.

I got the impression the revamped presentation concentrates on the human experience over the mechanical accomplishment. Here's what it was like for the boys who went to war in this metal thingy.

[monster]

It's a shark!

[Griff]

You're thinking of HMS Dolphin in her WWII iteration.

[SPUCK]

I think it's kind of insulting to weld over the torpedo tubes. Makes it look really weird.

[xoxoxoBruce]

The way it's welded up and all black it's like they're presenting it as a spectre rather than a detailed object.

[glatt]

When you go to a park, often, you'll see cannons that have been plugged. But you can still see that they were cannons.



I think welding over the openings really ruins the look and historical accuracy of this sub. They should have put a round plug in if they just needed to block the tubes.

If they were trying to make leaking tubes water tight to make the sub sea worthy, then I could understand welding patches over them like this, but this sub isn't in the water. It's on land.

[Sundae]

The external torpedo tubes had already been removed, if that makes a difference...

[xoxoxoBruce]

I remember reading an article about this before the started this renovation, and there were a lot of pictures online showing the decrepit condition. Now I can't find any except this one showing the aft.

Closing everything up changed the profile a lot, but as I said before I think they're now promoting the lives of the sailors over the machine.

Oh, I was surprised to learn it was built specifically for anti-sub duty in the far east, hadn't noticed that last year.