Its been another tiring weekend and another Living History event. I recently said that the last major event (on my calender) had been and gone but I'd sort of forgotten about this one. The Chatham Docks 1940's Weekend is an annual event and has an interesting mix of Vehicles, reenactor's and period entertainers all contained within the Chatham Docks Museum site. As this was a bit more of a family event I only took my Olympus compact digital - which limited some of the shots I could take - but was probably a good idea, especially on the tour of HMS Ocelot (a cold war era Submarine). Anyway here are the best of my pictures:
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| HMS Ocelot is a Diesel-Electric Submarine from the cold war era. Built and Launched at Chatham in 1962 she was state of the art for her time but was one of the last Submarines to be built on the Medway |
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| This is the forward torpedo room |
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| More dials and nob's than you can shake a stick at. |
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| A Naval Ensign in the Submarine exhibition |
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| The Polka Dot Dolls |
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| Fire fighting demonstration |
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| The sloop HMS Gannet was built on the River Medway at Sheerness in 1878. She is a hybrid vessel powered by both sail and steam and with a hull constructed from wood on a strong iron frame. |
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| HMS Cavalier was built in 1944 and was a veteran of the Arctic Convoys. |
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| Inside No3 Big Slip - At the time it was built in 1838 this immense covered slip was Europe’s largest wide span timber structure. |
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| The Diesel Locomotive 'Overlord' was brought to Normandy by the allies for use on the shattered French rail network. It was operational by August 1944. |
As always there are plenty more pictures on my Picas Webalbums page and these can be found here:
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| Chatham 40's Weekend |
As always, great pictures!
ReplyDeleteI'm suprised by how little has changed inside a submarine. I visited the last exisiting Type VII/42 sub a couple of weeks ago (see my blog) and it almost looked the same inside!
Cheers,
Thomas
Nice pictures on your Sub post as well. I don't know what modern subs are like but these oldies are very claustrophobic with 101 ways to bash the head.
DeleteAbsolutely - I still have a headache!
DeleteMy Dad served in submarines and was on a number of the O and P boats.. I remember visiting Odin, think I visited Ocelot as well... I only remember how small the officers wardroom was for the number of officers... and my Dad telling me one of them slept on the table... :o)
DeleteVery cool...wish I was there.
ReplyDeleteGreat pics Lee, I need to take my kids here, after all its only just down the road.
ReplyDeleteThere is plenty of variety and several separate exhibitions so something for everyone. there are also the two ships and the sub you can go on and there is a large play area for the kids. Not a bad day out if the sun is shining.
DeleteI envy you, Lee. You seem to have sooooo many weekends of fun!!!! I spend half of them at the supermarket (at least one day)
ReplyDeleteLoL. We do try to go out at the weekend a lot...if we stay at home we just end up doing housework and DIY so its a big incentive to get out with the kids!
DeleteSome great photographs Lee, not long been there myself and my lasting impression was how cramped the Ocelot was, not a boat for a big man.
ReplyDeleteI have a fairly 'chunky' frame (hence my nickname of course) so I had to walk sideways just to fit through the corridors. You'd think everyone aboard would be chosen from sailors of small stature, but apparently the last Captain of the Ocelot was 6ft4in tall!
DeleteI heard that, could believe it when I saw his bunk; it really is a great day out.
DeleteWhat an awesome day out! I spent two weeks in an exercise onboard an Oberon class submarine, sister boat to Ocelot. Not for me thanks very much! My sister is a qualified submarine warfare officer though and she enjoys it. To each their own!
ReplyDeleteMakes for good Christmas table banter when we get together :-)
Aside from the obvious fact that I'm too large (and broad) to be comfortable on a sub I'm not sure I could take the claustrophobia of it. Being locked in for 90 days or more just seems like hell. As one sailor on the tour put it the navy recruitment motto is "join the Navy, See the world" but you wouldn't see much of anything in one of these tubs.
DeleteHats off to people who can work in those subs, the living conditions seem nightmarish IMHO LOL :)
ReplyDeleteThis sub actually had a separate bunk for each crew member but the space allocated was hardly bigger than a coffin!
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