We finally hit the road to Lake Erie and stopped in Port Burwell to take the full tour of the decommissioned Oberon Class Cold War submarine as we had previously only been in the torpedo room. Port Burwell is just over two hours south west of Toronto, but a world away from the hustle and bustle - and extensive construction happening in the city, full of long beaches and cool places to see.
Over 5 stories high and almost 300 feet long the naval ship provides an interesting view of the tight spaces that sailors had to endure on month long voyages around the world. You learn on the tour that the ship was an electric-diesel propelled submarine, designed to run on batteries and be recharged by their diesel engine. It was quiet and apparently sounded like a school of fish to anyone listening.
Made during the turbulent times of the sixties when the USSR was our main potential enemy, an enemy that could ignite a new world war. Instead they played cat and mouse games with each other and occasionally got into wars by proxy. Ojibwa was constructed in England and transferred to Canada before it was scheduled to go into service with the British and after a long period of service for Canada it was decommissioned in 1998 and towed to Port Burwell in 2012 to be part of a future naval museum planned for the town. The museum is still to come but the submarine is open for tours.
The amusing part of the tour is that it seems like the exploits, both exciting and routine are highly confidential and secret so you really come out of the submarine without knowing what it really did during the cold war.
See more photos of the vessel after the jump.
Looking into the torpedo tube
One of the two diesel engines that charged the batteries. This one is called Bert, the other is Ernie
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