Robert Zwikielberg - Navy veteran - submariner

Joining the Navy

I grew up in Elsternwick in Victoria and my brother ended up going to Vietnam, in that war. and I don't know whether that triggered it or not, but I decided to join the navy. I finished an apprenticeship as electrician and then applied to join the Navy after I'd completed that … and then I went and did trade training at Nirimba in New South Wales in Quakers Hill … 

That was the apprentice training school. That's where they used to do all the technical training … Nirimba used to be Schofield's Airfield out in Blacktown In New South Wales … I was there for about two or three, about three months and, again, that was just going over all the trade theory that the Navy wanted you to learn because being on a ship, it's different to normal electrical systems, so you had to sort of get converted to the way the Navy operated and way ships operated.

HMAS Cerberus and communal living

In those days, that was four people into a room, there's four single beds in one room and it was fairly luxurious for the time, I suppose. Lino floors, so you had to polish the floors every night and the big thing was, a lot of people living in close concentration together, the main thing they try to teach you at recruit school is living in communal harmony. 

So, watching TV, there might be 100 people trying to watch TV, and deciding to watch one channel and things like that. The first six weeks you don't have leave then, after that, depending on your roster, you'll get the weekend off. Every third weekend, you had to stay back and work. So, a weekend off base … Most people went into Melbourne and partied and stayed overnight, like the Travelodge or YMCA, so some somewhere cheap so you can have more money to spend doing other things.

HMAS Supply

The ships used to have a lot of electricians specializing in various fields. I was looking after lighting and motors and then they had other electrical systems that were after computers and nav aids, and others that looked after the radar, and things like that. Once you finish the course, you go to sea … My first ship is HMAS Supply. So that was the fleet oiler. So went on that, it was based out of Sydney. So, we went wherever the fleet went, because we supplied them all fuel. So, it was an old, used to be an EFA, the English Fleet Auxiliary. So, it was a bit different to the rest of the Navy ships. 

It was, I think, tonnage wise, it was bigger than the Melbourne, but it only had a crew of about 150 on it, as opposed to the other warships that had like the DDGs had crews of 350 and not sure how many the Melbourne had, but it had lot of people on it … Felt a bit ordinary, the first couple of days at sea, but then got used to it. But Supply was a bit funny because it, when the tanks were full, it was good, but when the tanks were half empty, it didn't have any baffle plates in it, so developed a roll. So, you could be in rough weather, then three or four days later, it would still be rolling, because the fluid inside was still going from side to side.

Submarine training

I was due for a posting to a shore depot, or another ship and I decided I wanted to stay with small crews. So, I volunteered for submarines, because they only have a crew of 64, 65 people and patrol boats had a small crew as well and after I put my application in, I was going away to England on course for submarines very shortly … On Supply, it was a big ship, but a very small crew, so you knew everyone. I

 had friends on Melbourne and on a couple of DDGs, you'd go down to visit them and there's 300 people. So, you'd walk through, and you wouldn't know anyone. You might know a few people, but not many … Obviously when you're at sea on a ship, and were doing exercises, you did see submarines every now and then and other ships and go, "That looks pretty interesting. I'd like to go and have a look at that." 

When I applied, because they were, I think they were short at the time. From when I applied to when I was on course was probably only two months, which is pretty quick for the Navy … So, we're on course for about three months … and you're basically on loan to the English navy for the three months, you're there, doing part one and two training, do the wet escape and then come back to Australia to do your part three training on a submarine, which is a task book … and you basically have to know your own job and you have to be know all the systems on the submarine. 

So, if you're anywhere on the submarine, and an emergency happens, you have to know what to do in that particular position, because there might not be anyone else there. So, you have to be able to be competent in all areas in the submarine for all emergencies. So, part two was more to do with the actual ship was it? Yes, how it's built, how the systems operate, and all of that and part three is the actual doing bit.

Gosport, England

Gosport, it's probably the coldest, it's colder than Victoria. So it's bleak, we were there in January, which is winter and the water coming off the English Channel was just freezing. It was just bitterly cold and wet … We had study to do, but we also had the bar at the base. 

The English pubs were different then, they still had sessions. So, on a weekend, you'd go to the pub, thinking you could do what you did in Australia, go to a beer garden and they said, "Nah, the bar's closed now and doesn't open until five o'clock." So, you'd be stuck in town with nothing open, wondering what to do. So, it took a fair bit to get used to it.

Living and working on a submarine

I did my part three on Oxley and then I was posted to Onslow, sorry, no, not on Onslow, Otway … It was really exciting. Little bit frightening, bit of trepidation but it was exciting and, "How many people do I know who are going to do this or can do this?" So, it was really quite exciting … We were just going out exercising with ships, because we also had to train the ships up for anti-submarine warfare and we would train them up and be a target for them and unbeknownst to them, they'd be a target for us. 

We used to sail, usually a week before the fleet went out. If we went to Jervis Bay to exercise, we'd normally sail the week before, so we'd be there for when the ships got there. The best way to describe living on a submarine is being in an aircraft that's full of people and there's nowhere you can go except to the toilet where you're by yourself. That's basically the only place you can be where you can shut the door. 

Again, it didn't, some people got a bit, now I don't think anyone got claustrophobic, people used to suffer from living in close quarters with people. It was just little habits that would annoy you, someone tapping their teaspoon on the edge of a cup making a clunking noise when you're just about dozing off to sleep would be extremely annoying. It's little things like that. 

There was never, I don't think I ever saw any really major blow ups, but it was just being able to control yourself and a lot of people could switch off to a lot of things. The other thing is everyone had a tremendous sleep debt because we, depending on what exercise you're doing, used to work six hours, have six hours off, then six off that was your eating and sleeping time. So, you'd never get more than five hours sleep in a stretch. 

So, if you're at sea for a couple of weeks, you end up with a good sleep debt and continually tired, You had the watch going on and the watch coming off. If you were the watch going on, half an hour before you had to go on, you'd be served your meal, so someone would go from your mess to the galley to pick up the meals, come back, eat them and then you go to work, go on watch, relieve your counterpart, and they'd come down and have their meal. Most sailors eat very fast. 

They don't talk much because they're about to go on watch. One of the social highlights of the day was mealtime because you're all sitting down together but then it was usually fairly quiet because you had to eat to go on watch. Depending if you're doing a serious exercise, you'd be in that but if you weren't in a really big exercise, you could be in a different, you might be on a four hour watch and have eight hours off. Or if you're in transit, you could be on four hours on or an hour on and, you know, 10 hours off. It really depended on what mode of operations you are performing. 

The coxswain was trained as basically a senior First Aider, and he had all the good books and all the good drugs, and they also had a radio, so if they needed more help, they could get it. We had one guy maybe backed off because he had an abscess in his tooth and every time the diesels ran, the air pressure changes. So, he was in a lot of pain. I think we had an appendicitis attack. I think he got medivacked off. I think that was about all. Not too many major accidents.

Collins class submarines

I was on Orion at the time when Collins was coming online and they were taking a lot of the guys to do the training for Collins, Collins class and that and after I left Orion, I went to do the training for Collins, and was going to be working at Stirling in the workshop to doing the maintenance on it … 

The Oberons were basically a 60s boat designed by the British and Collins was a hybrid of the Scandinavians and that was, everything was designed in the 80s. So, there was big CT screens, that was modern at the time and look at the big CT screen now and everyone's got flat screens. So in in 20 years, the technology changes rapidly. When I left the Navy, I ended up working for ASC which built the submarines and I worked with them for 18 years doing maintenance on the Collins class submarines.

HMAS Platypus

Platypus was the submarine base that was in Neutral Bay across the road from the Customs Office and we had the five submarines or six submarines. There's always one in Cockatoo Island. So, we had five submarines running out of there in various stages. So, basically, you nearly always had a submarine in. It was very rare that you had an empty wharf because the submarines all had designated maintenance periods. 

The dailies, weeklies, monthlies, maintenance but then they had set maintenance periods, bit like an aeroplane, they have to have mandatory maintenance, that has to be done in a set timeframe to keep it in standard … It's a pretty dynamic and stressful environment for machinery being underwater and under pressure. 

I think the American Admiral said, "You've got a big battery, a couple of miles of electrical cable and you put it all in water. It's technically quite dangerous." … You'd have a leak every now and then. We had one or two major hoses blowout. We had, you know, a few ton of water come in very quickly but nothing, they were major but not too many of them.

Transferring from HMAS Penguin to HMAS Stirling

I was at Penguin most of the time until I got married and then after I got married, I was in the naval married quarters wherever they sent me. I was on Orion, and we homeported, that was when the Navy moved the submarine base from Platypus to Stirling in Western Australia. 

So, we homeported Orion at Stirling, and posted over there, so we then ran out of Stirling … Platypus was a five-minute walk to Kirribilli station in the middle of North Sydney and from the front gate at Stirling to the workshops was five kilometres and you had to have a car to do it because you weren't allowed to walk on the causeway. And Stirling is Garden Island which is an island, half of it is National Park and the other half is the Navy base. 

So, it's quite remote and isolated. Again, that was only work, we all lived in Rockingham or in Warnbro in the married quarters there but, again, coming from Sydney, Western Australia at the time still had rosters for the petrol stations. So, everyone was shut at eight o'clock, nine o'clock, coming from Sydney 24-hour service for anything, took quite a while to get used to.

Sailing in rough weather

When we homeported Orion, we come around the bottom of the coast into the Bass Strait, we had a following sea of about 25 to 30 feet and every second wave was breaking over the top of the fin of the submarine. We're on the surface, we had to slow down to five knots for about three days and we were rolling over about 45 degrees. So, everyone was sick. It was horrendous. And in that rough weather. You can't submerge the submarine? 

You can but it's extremely dangerous, then you can only stay dived for so long before you have to come to periscope depth to recharge the batteries and get fresh air and that, so we waited, they eventually did it but it was still quite rough … I was on Supply in rough weather and the waves were breaking over the top of Supply and that was a huge ship … even in the submarine when it's like that, when you're two or 300 feet down you can still feel the, you still get the motion of the rolling. You might have to go fairly deep for it to calm right down.

Naval exercises

If you're going to Hawaii you knew it was going to be pretty good because going to Hawaii was always a bit of fun, you get nice weather and it's, working with the Americans is always good. Just working off Sydney or off the West Australian coast, just training up ships gets pretty boring and monotonous and if you're working with aircraft, we'd have to sail out the week before waiting for the aircraft to come out to do their training and we'd get a signal, the captain would get a signal saying, "oh, the aircraft has to go back now, the pilot's fatigued" and we're stuck there for another couple of days. It gets pretty demoralizing.

Wargames

In all the war games they'd have the Americans and us and the Brits and whoever we're playing with, designated partners or allies against the others, and try to get them and see who could, who was the best at it and it was always exciting … 

They had cameras set up over all the weapons computers, so they could work out the course speed to see a fast-firing solution was correct and when we assumed it was correct, we'd fire a green grenade, which is launched from the submarine which breaks the surface and goes into the air like a flare. The green grenade simulates a torpedo firing. So, the ships would know that they've been fired upon and then what you have. 

We normally have the judge on board, they also had all the documents to review, to see the firing solutions, the course speed of the ships that you are targeting, you would have got them and to see if the other ship had any idea we were there or not … 

When you look at the ocean you see a ship on the surface and you go, "Is there a submarine there?" You don't know, it's a lot harder to pick and with the war games, they made it hard for the submarines, they gave them certain areas they had to be within and choke points that you had to go through to give the ships more of a go but, see, most of the ships travelled at speeds where the sonar was not really effective.

Last posting and leaving the Navy

The last posting I had was, we always maintained a posting at recruit school, and I got that posting. So, went there as an instructor, and of course, with all the new recruits, that's the dolphins, had all different branches there. So, you could teach the people or show people or talk to them about the branch you're in. 

So, they might get more people to think about submarines or think about the other instructors and so they could talk about their life in the service. So that was my last posting. I left the Navy from there. I was going, I would have happily stayed there but they're going to bring me back to Stirling to do maintenance again and by that stage I was over that … I did some contract work up north and then I did some Reserve time and then I was asked to do another two years continuous full-time service with the Navy. 

So, I did that and then I left the Navy again and I was working with ASC, which was the firm that built the Collins class, and I stopped doing Reserve time then because it would have been a conflict of interest working with ASC during Reserve time, I thoughtit wouldn't be … I still had contact with a lot of the people I was on Oberons with, and I knew most of the guys that changed over. So, it was a really good transition for me without a doubt.

Submariner pride

Out of 10 trainees, you probably might get only five that pass at their part three, but the submarine arm used to be 500 then, that was in the mid-80s, and the submarine arm now is still about 500. The numbers haven't changed a great deal. That's just the nature of the beast, the conditions and work does burn everyone out and it's just real commitment … 

When I joined submarines, you're meant to have been at sea for two years before you went to a submarine so you knew what life was like at sea, so they didn't have to teach you that and then to help the shortfall, they decided to recruit people straight in the Navy as submariners, and they had to come to sea, learn what it was like to be at sea and being a submariner at the same time, which was a lot harder and I think they didn't do as well as they thought, because the guys thought it'd be better than general service, but like anything, you give up something and you get something back … 

So there was a bit of pride in it, and of course, we got paid the extra money and we got to stay in hotel accommodation when we're in foreign ports, because the conditions were so bad on the submarine. So, it was always nice to be in a nice five-star hotel in Hong Kong or Singapore, as opposed to having to go back and live on the ship.