A day in the life of OTUS (well, two actually)

By David Saxby and Philip Marsden

1. Families Day at Sea or ‘Ladies Day Out’

The date: 20 September 1971.

Mission: Families Day at sea, from Dolphin.

Guests: Wives various. Not sure we allowed children as there was a certain amount

of alcohol flowing into the ladies.

Viv Saxby gets the run-round from David on how to keep on depth, and gets a dit in

the Navy News to boot. Hard to see whose hand is whose.

Also onboard was the above mentioned Sandra Roberts. As you can see in the next

photo, Someone wasn’t impressed. And Chief Mech Mick Backhouse was in the

usual Wrecker’s pose, leaning against the fin. We can’t recall who the trot-sentry

was.

Sandra Roberts welcomed onboard by Philip Marsden prior to sailing

Also on the same day, perhaps?

Maybe that was also the day we were obliged to sail since we had managed to jam the

Attack Periscope half way up. It would go neither up nor down. We creep sheepishly

to sea and dive … At 200ft, the periscope was freed with a bit of a bump. On

surfacing, a length of rope found sculling in the fin was the guilty party.

“SCRATCHER!!!! ……”

Or maybe it was the day after the Mexican Party – you know, the one where the

Wardroom became the prison (embellished with strikes counting the days and

ROMFT scribed on the wall). (“What does that stand for, dear?”. “I’ll tell you later,

darling …”). And tequila was served to everyone arriving at the Senior Rates Mess

door. (It gave everyone flying speed, you see.) And the periscopes were papered to

look like palm trees, the sheets suitably held in place by liberal bands of pusser’s

maskers. Except that the Leading Stew (must have been him) was less fastidious

about removing same after the party. It got jammed unnoticed in the periscope hull

gland which leaked like fury at the next dive. Oopsy – quickly back alongside to fix

that one.

2. David Saxby’s Germany day out

Fast forward a year or two (near on 40). Dear old OTUS has escaped the cutters torch

and emigrated to Germany – see dit of 14 December 2016 on our Home page. (Her

emigration must have been during the halcyon days of Merkel’s immigration open-

door policy.)

In May 2008, David, accompanied by Gordon Coles (the R Mech during David’s

second stint in OTUS in 1976-1977) and Barry (Baz) Whittaker, a CERA in other

diesel boats but not OTUS. OTUS had arrived in the Sassnitz museum in 2003. A German entrepreneur couple

had bought her from Pound's scrapyard in Portsmouth where she had been for several

years – he said they paid several hundred thousand pounds for her. Moreover, the

German government wouldn't let him have a U-Boat! It took two tugs to drag OTUS

off the mud at the scrapyard. For restoration, she was towed to Stralsund. The

submarine was in a bad condition - her bows had to rebuilt, many holes in the hull

repaired, rust removed and certain parts demilitarised. They apparently made more

money in admission fees in the first year than the Royal Navy Submarine Museum!

(We are grateful to Franka Strübing of Erlebniswelt U-Boot GmbH www.hms-

otus.com for filling in some details for us.)

David recounts:

“We were greeted by the museum owner and his staff plus the press photographer.

After an extensive tour around OTUS with countless explanations from us, we were

invited on board his other tourist craft for a trip around Rügen Island. We were given

lunch on board with drinks and helped them to amend their OTUS publicity literature.

Back onboard we were asked to choose free "gizzits" from their on sale

merchandise!”

The rest of the story is told in the pictures below:

OTUS alongside in her new home, Sassnitz, Germany

A joyful David back with the old girl again

Best seat in the boat and a room with a view

David with R Mech Gordon Coles and CERA Baz Whittaker

Wrong part of ship

David more at home, in the Motor Room

Trapped

All too much – so back into my old bunk