HMS Ocelot is one of 27 Oberon-class diesel-electric attack submarines designed in the United Kingdom and built between 1957 and 1978 for the Royal Navy, Royal Australian Navy, Royal Canadian Navy, Brazilian Navy, and Chilean Navy. Oberon-class boats were in service from 1960 to 2000, reflecting the quality of their construction and their stealthy performance. Ocelot was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 17 November 1960 and commissioned into the Royal Navy on 31 January 1964. She was one of six Oberon-class submarines built at the Chatham Dockyard and the final one built there for the Royal Navy, which operated 13 of the boats. Initially posted to the 3rd Submarine Squadron in Faslane, Scotland, HMS Ocelot conducted a range of tasks, including surveillance of Soviet ships and submarines, insertion and retrieval of special forces teams, and serving as a target during anti-submarine warfare training for Allied naval ships. With the Royal Navy transitioning to an all-nuclear submarine fleet in the 1990s, HMS Ocelot was decommissioned in August 1991 and sold the next year for installation at the Chatham Historic Dockyard as a museum vessel.
Specifications: HMS OcelotDisplacement: 2,030 tons full load while surfaced, 2,410 tons full load while submerged
Length (overall): 90 metres (295.2 feet)
Draught: 5.5 metres (18 feet)
Beam: 8.1 metres (26.5 feet)
Propulsion: 2 x Admiralty Standard Range V-16 diesel engines, 2 x 1,280 kilowatt generators, and 2 x 3,000 shaft horsepower electric motors driving two propellers
Range: 10,350 nautical miles (19,170 km) at surface cruising speed
Top speed: 17 knots (31 km/h) submerged, 12 knots (22 km/h) surfacedTest depth: 200 metres (650 feet)
Armament: 8 x 21-inch torpedo tubes (6 forward, 2 aft) with 24 torpedoes or up to 50 naval mines
Complement: 68 (6 officers and 62 sailors)
Photos taken 21 September 2015
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| The Oberon-class submarine HMS Ocelot, the last warship built for the Royal Navy at the Chatham Dockyard, launched on 5 May 1962 and commissioned 31 January 1964. Today. HMS Ocelot sits in the No. 3 Dry Dock at Chatham Historic Dockyard and is open for guided tours. The bulbous dome atop the forward pressure hull houses the Type 186 and Type 187 sonars. |
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| HMS Ocelot was one of 13 Oberon-class diesel-electric submarines built for the Royal Navy between 1959 and 1964. The Oberon-class carried improved detection gear compared to the preceding Porpoise-class boats, and featured soundproofing of all equipment, which made them the quietest submarines then in existence. Their low noise signature made the O-boats ideal for submerged patrolling, surveillance, and intelligence-gathering missions across the European Arctic region that were a regular part of the Royal Navy's Cold War submarine operations. |
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| HMS Ocelot's six forward torpedo tubes. Britain's Oberon-class subs carried Mark 24 homing torpedoes. |
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| Looking aft through one of the watertight hatches from the torpedo room to the crew accommodations. |
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| Some of the crew accommodations aboard HMS Ocelot, showing the cramped quarters in which the boat's sailors lived. Unlike in previous submarine classes, in which crew were forced to 'hot bunk', each of Ocelot's crewmen had their own bunk. Ocelot carried a crew of 68, comprising 6 officers and 62 ratings. |
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| A view down Ocelot's main passageway, flanked by storage cabinets and crew bunks. |
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| The combination officers' mess and ship's office. |
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| The steering position in HMS Ocelot's control room. |
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| The chart table used for plotting the submarine's course. A map of the River Medway is currently displayed on the table. |
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| One of the cramped heads (toilets), located off the main passageway traversing the length of the submarine. |
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| The cramped galley aboard HMS Ocelot, from which all meals were prepared. |
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| The two Admiralty Standard Range 16 cylinder supercharged VMS diesel generators that produced the power used by the boat's two 3,000 shaft horsepower electric motors. The Oberon-class submarines were capable of making 17 knots (31 kph; 20 mph) while submerged. |
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| The electrical control panel. |
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| HMS Ocelot served 27 years until being decommissioned in August 1991 and moved to the Chatham Historic Dockyard as a museum ship in 1992. The submarine's two propellers, each measuring 2.1 metres (7 feet) in diameter, have been removed. |
