Commissioning Cruise
Just four
days after commissioning, cruising the inky surface of the English
Channel, headed for Portsmouth naval base, when Lieutenant
Commander George Tomlinson, skipper of Canada's first killer
submarine gave the order to dive. The captain watched the descent
through the sharp eyes of the attack periscope. In the eerie
red light maintained in the control room to protect vision for the
periscopes, five men guided the submarine on 45 minute voyage down
100 feet into the sea and back to the surface. At the
airplane-like, one-man control column on the port side, veteran
submariner M.P. Keough pushed the column to tilt the forward diving
planes and began calling off the depth in feet…42…65…74 till the
required depth was reached.
HMCS Ojibwa, was not long in proving
her worth. Less than four months after commissioning, Canada's
newest submarine crossed the North Atlantic from the coast of
Britain to the coast of Nova Scotia without once coming to the
surface, a feat that would do credit to a well seasoned submarine
and crew. The Ojibwa submerged off the Lizard (England's
most southerly point) on January 14th 1966 and surfaced
10 days later off Halifax. The complete log transit read, surfaced
420 miles - 33 hours average speed 12.75 knots and underwater 2525
miles - 307 hours average speed 8.22 knots. The reliability of the
submarine, its machinery and systems were such that the underwater
passage and the accurate landfall at the end proved to be
completely routine. It was an accomplishment that brought much
satisfaction to her builders and her crew.
(Account by Fred J. Schatz, Canadian Submariner
(23 March 1969 - 30 January 1991) and avid historian of the
service)