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Science Technology Engineering Maths

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3/4Welcome to HMS Onyx Virtual Submarine

Museum at Barrow in Furness

Please take your time to look around at all the exhibits and information that we have made available to you. You can of course do all this from the comfort of your own classroom or home! We’d like to give you an idea of what life might have been like for you on board HMS Onyx and so this museum guide contains some little questions and quizzes that will help you to get the most out of your visit. Enjoy… and remember to breathe quite normally! Let’s have a walk down to the Rear Torpedo Room and remind ourselves of some of the basic challenges that a submarine presents.

When we breathe in air, our bodies consume the oxygen in it and convert that to carbon dioxide, which we can’t use. A submarine like Onyx is a sealed container of people with a limited supply of air. There are three things that must happen to keep the air on Onyx breathable. See if you can work out what they are?

Of course other important things happen in this part of the submarine, but we’ll have to go abast (walk forward!) to have a look at those in a little more detail in the Forward Torpedo Room.

O---------- has to be replenished as it is consumed

C------------ D------------- must be removed from the air

The m------------- that we exhale in our breath must be removed

Using the equipment that you see around you in the Rear Torpedo Room, what equipment do you see that will do these things?

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There’s no such thing as an ‘ordinary submariner’, everyone was very skilled and could usually do many things. There were approximately 70 men and officers living and working on board HMS Onyx. So where did the crew of up to 70 men live when they were not on duty?... Walk forward first of all to the Junior Rates Mess. This was where the most junior submariners lived. Now walk forward and

have a look at the Senior Ratings’ Mess. Have a good look around each of these spaces. You had to share a bed space!

As you can see, space is very tight, so you can only bring very few personal possessions aboard.

The Junior Rates Mess would have been noisy, based as it is near to the Engine Room, but it meant that if anything went wrong in the Engine Room, they were close to hand. Whilst we are abast, let’s go next door and have a look in The Galley. We know from some of the diaries and accounts of some of the men who have served on HMS Onyx that some of the chefs were better than others! On one occasion in Lisbon, Portugal 20 young Portugese schoolboys came aboard and then the men helped the chef to make jelly trifle and sandwiches for them, all in this tiny space!

What does the number of bed spaces or bunks tell you about how many people are on duty, or ‘watch’ together at the same time?

Which possessions of yours would you take on board Onyx for a three month tour of duty?

If you were going to be at sea for three months onboard HMS Onyx, which of your favourite foodswould you miss?

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As well as fresh water for Let’s have a little look inside the accommodation provided for some of the more

senior staff – The Chief Petty Officer. What do you see here that might have made you feel a little more comfortable? Walk forward again to have a look in The Wardroom.

Now you’ve had a look round and seen where you might get a reasonable night’s sleep and a square meal, let’s focus on doing the job! Imagine the expertise you would need to have to keep Onyx watertight, airtight, able to dive and surface, travel huge distances under the seas of the world, and sometimes to deliver deadly torpedoes and mines.

Enter the Operations Room and have a good look round.

Although some of Onyx’s equipment might now look a little dated, in her day she was capable of high underwater speeds, had good detection equipment and was able to maintain continuous submerged patrols in any part of the world, armed with some very deadly torpedoes. So don’t press any buttons in here!

As well as fresh water for cooking, what else might you need it for?

Why was it so important to manage the garbage produced by the ship?

Have a little competition with your friends and see how many separate storage spaces you can see where officers might be able to stow their personal kit and belongings?

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Look for the following… • Something that will help the submarine stay submerged or dive

• Something that will help a navigator

• Something that will help to position the submarine anywhere in the world • Something that will help detect other vessels to a range of approximately 100 miles • Something that would calculate the torpedo range, course and speed

Abaft the Engine Room is the Captain’s Mess. Although it is the only individual bunk on the vessel, it is still very cramped. It is well-equipped however.

Let’s have a look around the Engine Room. If you’re going to be a good submariner, of whatever rank, you’ll have to understand how Onyx works.

Onyx has a pair of eyes in addition to her sonar. These are the two periscopes. What are the two different types and how do they differ?

What items of equipment would tell you that this is the Captain’s Mess? Why do you think that he is positioned between the Operations Room and the Engine Room?

• Onyx has four engines. What are these and why are different types needed?

• If you were working in the Engine Room, how might you get rid of the oil used?

• Onyx is a type of submarine called an ‘Oberon Class’, constructed in the 1960s. Nowadays, all submarines are nuclear-powered: what are the benefits that they might have over Onyx and why?

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KS3/4Have a look in the Motor Room.

With all those switches and wheels you would really have to know what you were doing! The speed and direction of the main motors were controlled from here as well as the battery charging and the power for all the vital circuits on board.

Now go forward to the Forward Torpedo Room - in many ways the most exciting part of the submarine. Amongst other displays, you will see some artefacts here from HMS Onyx’s part in The Falklands War. Have a walk round and see if you can have a race with a friend to answer the following quick-fire questions… well, we are in the Torpedo Room!

How do you think that you would feel working in here for a ‘watch’?

• How many torpedoes were usually carried? • What colour is the Special Forces/Escape

Suit? • How many torpedo tubes are there? • Why does everyone have to sign the Visitors’

Book? • Why is it particularly important that this room

is isolated by a watertight door? • Would you use the escape tower?

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As well as adding to the submarine deterrent for the Falklands War at the other end of the globe, she was also very important in gathering information, surveillance work and in landing members of our Special Forces. Amongst other operations, this is one of the main reasons that she has been restored and rests in her retirement so proudly where all UK submarines are now built - Barrow in Furness. Thank you for visiting us. Perhaps it’s time for you to go ashore now, but do come and visit us again soon.