Sub surfaces in Sydney

HMAS Onslow majestically passes under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, on her way to Garden Island for a new coat of paint. Photo by ABPH Bill Louys.

The Royal Australian Navy retook command of one of its old timers recently...but only for a few hours.

RAN pilot LEUT Geoff Reis and a RAN team went aboard the decommissioned Oberon Class submarine Onslow at the Australian National Maritime Museum at Darling Harbour.

With DMS tugs Bronzewing and Currawong supplying the pulling power, the Navy team guided the 33-year-old submarine to the ADI drydock at Garden Island.

The RAN gave the submarine to the museum in 1999 when she was paid off.

Since then thousands of tourists have seen over the submarine, one of the principal exhibits at the museum.

The one hour transit to Garden Island on Friday, November 22, was the first time Onslow had moved since her original presentation, said Peter Scutts, the museum’s fleet operations officer.

The submarine is expected to be in dry dock for about three weeks in which she will be cleaned and a new coat of black paint applied.

In addition plates will be welded over some ports below the water line.

Tourists on Mrs Macquarie’s Chair watched with interest as the black hulled warship came under the Harbour Bridge and past the Opera House.

• By Graham Davis

.