A photo tour of the Oberon-class HMAS Ovens submarine (pictures)

The HMAS Ovens, a museum ship dry-docked inFremantle, Western Australia, served in the Royal Australian Navy for 26 years.

The diesel-powered ship was not named after a gas range. Rather, it honors Irishman and Australian explorer John Ovens (1788-1825).

For the full story behind the tour, check out "Hot sub time machine: A photo tour of the HMAS Ovens submarine."

Before you head out to the ship, in themuseum itself is one of the 448 battery cells. Each is 2 volts, run in seriesin two batteries, for a total of 440 volts.

As you walk out to the ship, on display isa nose cone from an Oberon-class boat. The torpedo with the orange stripes is aWWII-era diesel-powered torpedo.

Quite a tight fit, though I guess that makes sense. Up top, sonar array. 

On the walk to the sub is a hydrophone,the "ears" of the sub. Never knew what these looked like before.

Three torpedo tubes on each side. Originally there were two more in the stern, but as you'll see, they're gone.

No fancy pump jets for this sub, just twoold-fashioned screws, driven by electric motors (and electricity from two V16diesel generators).

Originally the Ovens was just equipped with torpedoes, but eventually it was ableto fire Harpoon missiles, horizontally, from the torpedo tubes. They'd head tothe surface, light their booster rockets and scream through the air toward their target.

You enter the Ovens by going up a fewflights of stairs, and climbing down through the torpedo loading tube. This issurprisingly common, since the original way of entering the sub involvedenlistment (kidding; a ladder).

Silence IS golden. Note the Jolly Roger.

The railing is for the safety of sailors so theywouldn't slip off into the sea (from which there's no easy way back up again).

Down you go! This is the view back up theentrance. It's a fairly tight fit.

Here you can see all six torpedo tubes.The orange suit is used in an emergency evacuation. The silver tube at the topof the picture (with the two lines of red tape) is the escape trunk.

The next room down is the main crew bunks.Each main crew member gets his own bunk. This is also where the crew ate theirmeals.

The main entrance. Rather nondescript,isn't it?

Really nondescript. Also, shut.

The senior sailors' mess. The higher-rankingofficers got this spacious playground. The mannequins, as you'll see, are alittle…odd.

Check out that big-screen TV! Andcassettes! Love it.

The galley. According to tour guide, formerCPO Coombs, Navy food was good, and submarine food was even better.

The chief engineer's cabin…and also thesick bay.

The wardroom was for the officers. Checkout that laptop. One of my favorite things about tours like this is when theyleave era-appropriate technology around as sort of mise-en-scène.

Here are the two main fire controlterminals. The six rows of six buttons are for each torpedo tube. The happygent on the right is the sonar operator.

Sorry for the picture quality, it was abit dark. You can also see my arm! GoPros are really wide-angle. So yeah, thisis the sonar station.

In the middle of the bridge is access tothe conning tower. I've never actually been up in one of these. I'd like to.Anyone know where? In the lockers are a .50 cal machine gun and varioussidearms and ammo.

Dials, knobs and tubes. Miles and milesof tubes. Every sailor on the sub would have to know what every knob and dialdid and showed.

Not sure if there’s a clutch. The box tothe right is the autopilot/inertial navigation.

Just off the bridge are several toilets,or heads. The space in the middle of the image is one of the showers. "Once aweek, whether you need it or not."

The huge 16-cylinder engines didn't actually drive the props, at least not directly. Instead, they generated electricity to recharge the batteries and power the electric motors.

Dials for every aspect of the sub'sdrivetrain and power.

The crew at the back of the ship generally stayed at the back of the ship, and the crew at the front stayed in the front.That’s because subs are very carefully balanced fore and aft.

Engineers slept and ate back here. Notethe small rectangular hole in the center-right of the image. Movies wereprojected through this hole into the next room.

LaserDisc! Like I said, I love the era-specifictech and signage.

The aftmost space on the ship; once therewere two torpedo tubes here, but they were removed. This room has had muchrenovation; it used to have bunks and extensive emergency escape gear.

The Ovens, like all museum ships, looksslightly out of place out of the water, but there’s a certain stately majestyto it.

The Western Australia Maritime Museum andthe HMAS Ovens are well worth a visit if you’re in the Perth area. A bit of ahike for most of you, I imagine…

Check out the full story behind the tourat "Hot sub time machine: A photo tour of the HMAS Ovens submarine."