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Brief History of HMS Onyx
HMS Onyx, like her surviving sister HMS Ocelot at Chatham, is an Oberon class attack submarine. Originally ordered for the Canadian Navy she was transferred to the Royal Navy whilst under construction. Built at the Cammel Laird dockyard, Birkenhead she was launched in August 1966. Commissioned the following September, she joined the 3rd Submarine Squadron at Faslane on the River Clyde. HMS Onyx was powered by two supercharged V16 – ASR1 diesel engines when running on the surface, and two battery powered electric motors when running submerged. These batteries, although allowing the submarine to travel underwater up to speeds of 17 knots, only last for relatively short periods before requiring a recharge from the main diesel engines.
HMS Onyx is 295ft (89.4m) in length, 26.5ft (8m) breadth with an 18ft (5.5m) draught and the class is quite unique in the fact that the casing is constructed of glass fibre and alloy, the first time a plastic had been used in any submarine construction. Her weapons were deployed through six, 21" forward torpedo tubes and comprised of the standard Mk. 8 free running torpedo, the wire-guided Mk. 24 Tigerfish torpedo (which HMS Onyx extensively tested), and later the Sub-Harpoon missile. She was also capable of deploying mines.
The working life of HMS Onyx comprised of four different commissions that were to ultimately take her around the globe. Her first commission centred largely on home waters, including a visit to Swansea for the investiture of The Prince of Wales in July 1969, but also included visits to a selection of European ports. In October 1971 she entered Portsmouth for the first time for her first scheduled re-fit. Re-entering service two years later she was based with the 1st Submarine Squadron in Gosport. Her duties this time were to take her further
a field and included exercises in the Mediterranean and the 1976 American bicentennial celebrations, before returning to Portsmouth for a second re-fit.
Her third commission saw her again with the 1st Submarine Squadron participating in various European exercises, as well as a spell in the Mediterranean. In 1981 she was involved in training exercises out of Portland before being called upon to join the Falklands task force where she was to excel in a ‘special operations’ role, silently moving close inshore to land special forces and gather intelligence.
After a triumphant return to Gosport, HMS Onyx made her way to Rosyth for a further re-fit before commencing her 4th and final commission. It’s highlight being a five-month return to the Falkland Islands as part of the South Atlantic patrol. Her final service days were ironically to be with the Canadian Navy, returning for the last time to Gosport on the 14th December 1990, before being purchased by the Warship Preservation Trust at auction in October 1991. Saved from the scrap-yard, HMS Onyx now shares pride of place next to another Falkland Veteran, HMS Plymouth, just a short way from the shipyard that built her.
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