HMAS Otway (I)
HMAS
Otway
(I)
 |
| Class |
Odin Class |
|---|---|
| Type |
Submarine |
| Builder |
Vickers Armstrong Ltd, Barrow-in-Furness, England |
| Launched |
7 September 1926 |
| Commissioned |
15 June 1927 |
| Decommissioned |
24 August 1945 |
| Dimensions & Displacement | |
| Displacement |
|
| Length | 275 feet |
| Beam | 27 feet 7 inches |
| Draught | 14 feet 9 inches |
| Performance | |
| Speed |
|
| Complement | |
| Crew | 5 officers, 48 ratings |
| Armament | |
| Guns | 1 x 4-inch gun |
| Torpedoes | 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes (6 bow tubes, 2 stern tubed) |
HMAS Otway commissioned on 15 June 1927 under the command of Lieutenant Commander George JD Tweedy, RN.
Otway departed Portsmouth, in company with her sister ship HMAS Oxley, on 8 February 1928 and proceeded to Malta where both submarines were based until November 1928.
On 15 November they departed Malta and proceeding via the Suez Canal and Singapore, arrived in Sydney on 14 February 1929. The remainder of Otway’s service with the Royal Australian Navy was confined to exercises off the NSW coast.
HMAS Otway at sea. Note the 4-inch gun mounted forward of the conning tower.
On 10 May 1930 both Otway and Oxley paid off into Reserve, alternating with each other once weekly for diving exercises. Otway paid off on 9 April 1931 for transfer to the Royal Navy, commissioning as HMS Otway on 10 April 1931. She sailed from Sydney on 29 April 1931, in company with Oxley, for Malta.
During the Second World War Otway saw service in the Bay of Biscay, the Mediterranean and in home waters around England.
Otway paid off on 24 August 1945 and was handed over to the British Iron and Steel Corporation. She was subsequently scrapped by Messrs TW Ward of Inverkeithing, who completed demolition towards the end of 1946.
Rating wearing a HMAS Otway cap tally.
HMAS Otway's ship's bell now on display at the Naval Heritage Centre in Sydney.
Further reading
'Australian Submarines: A History' by Michael WD White - published by AGPS Press, Canberra, 1992.
