AUSTRALIAN NAVY

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 16377, 27 June 1927, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN NAVY

TWO NEW SUBMARINES TRIALS ABOUT TO COMMENCE LONDON, .Tune !>. The Australian submarine Otway will shortly commence carrying out her trials, which will last for several weeks, after which she will leave for Australia, accompanied by her sistership, the Oxley The Oxley will lease Vickers’ yard at Barrow on dune 13. It is believed that the route will be via Singapore and Port Darwin, where the submarines will meet Aus-. tralian units with which they will travel to Sydney in December.

The Oxley, one of the two new submarines built by Vickers for the Australian Navy, was commissioned at Barrow-in-Furness on April 1. More than ordinary interest attaches to this event, because it marks the addition to the Australian fleet of a new type of under-water craft. The Oxley and her sister boat, the Otway, rank next to the Royal Navy’s giant XL as the largest and most effective submarines yet built. Officially these are described as “improved Oberons.” This conveys that their design, though following upon the lines of Unit of the submarine Oberon, which recently went through her trials at Chatham, is in some respects a better one. For one thing they are somewhat largeT. Constructional details of these craft arc a closely guarded secret. But it is known that the displacement of the Oberon is 134(5 tons at the surface and 1750 tons submerged, while the Oxley and the Otway each displace 1400 tons at the surface and 1800 tons when submerged. They are understood to be faster under water than any class of submarine built prior to XL Increase in submerged speed is an aim of the submarine designer. In all the large craft now under const ruction for various Powers an effort lias been made to lessen the wide margin of difference between the speed of a boat while it is awash and the rate at which she will travel after submerging. Italy is credited with having made the best progress in this direction, though no comparative figures are available, as the designed speeds, of Britain’s “()” class of submarine have not been divulged. Neither has their armament

The Oxley and Otway are io be attached to tile submarine depot at, Fort Blockhouse, where they will do exhaustive trials before proceeding to Australia.