Oberon arrived in Singapore in September and secured alongside the ageing depot ship HMS Forth, sister ship of the Maidstone. As in a few months the Forth would be returning to the UK, Conley elected whilst in harbour to live in the wardroom of the shore base, HMS Terror, a very comfortable, airy, colonial-style building, cooled by overhead fans as opposed to air conditioning. Living in a non-air-conditioned building had the benefits of rapid acclimatisation to the heat and humidity of Singapore where it rained most days, with a tropical downpour occurring generally in the afternoon.
The Singapore naval base of 1970 was very different in character from that which Conley had left in 1965. Confrontation had ended later that same year when President Sukarno’s power base collapsed and the Indonesian threat faded. Fewer warships were now supported by the dockyard which had been taken over by a civilian entity, Sembawang Shipyard. This company had quickly turned it into a thriving commercial ship repair and maintenance facility. Everywhere else it was evident that the Royal Navy was winding its presence down and in the process of shipping equipment and stores back to the United Kingdom.
Being populated predominantly by immigrants from China, Singapore had withdrawn from the Malaysian Federation owing to its increasingly ‘Malaysia for the Malaysians’ policy which favoured those of Malay origin. The latter had sparked riots in several of Malaya’s major cities in 1969 leaving hundreds dead, most from the minority Chinese communities. However, in late 1970 the region was enjoying peace and prosperity, despite the Vietnam War raging with increasing intensity a few hundred miles to the north.
Life in Singapore for the crew of Oberon was a far cry from that experienced at home. What was known as ‘tropical’ routine was worked in harbour, the crews arriving for work at 0700 in the morning and those not on duty securing at 1230. As there was a shortage of naval married quarters, accompanied ship’s company members were found rented housing locally. For reasons of economy, most of the ratings’ families were housed in the Malaysian district of Johor Bahru, across the causeway which linked Singapore Island to the mainland. Although living in very reasonable houses and sometimes electing to employ domestic help, many of the young ratings’ wives found their existence in Johor when their husbands were at sea a very lonely and boring one, with no TV and a lack of family or friends. For this reason, although Oberon experienced few disciplinary incidents during her time in Singapore, a host of family welfare problems occurred, many exacerbated by the tropical climate and refuge being sought in alcohol to counter homesickness.
For Conley and his fellow officers, apart from the many attractions of the very cosmopolitan city of Singapore only a few miles away, there was an excellent officers’ club on the base with swimming pool, golf course and other sports facilities. He and the boat’s other bachelor officers invested in a second-hand ski boat and many afternoons were spent waterskiing on the flat calm waters which separated Singapore from mainland Malaysia, taking picnics onto the smaller islands or many pristine beaches. During weekends there were often trips with his peers and their families into the Malaysian jungle to an idyllic, secluded spot with a river pool suitable for swimming, fed by a very picturesque waterfall. For both officers and ratings it was a very different existence from that of the Clyde submarine base, Faslane, with its cool, wet climate and much more onerous demands upon crews, with longer periods spent at sea and fewer port visits. However, it was somewhat surreal and was, in effect, the end of an era and it would be a real shock to their systems when they returned to Scotland.
As there was no naval threat in the region nor Soviet presence, the boats of the Seventh Submarine Division (Oberon, Finwhale and Orpheus) were primarily tasked to provide anti-submarine training for the still substantial number of Royal Navy warships in the area. Oberon, acting in the role of Soviet submarine, was to take part in several major exercises involving very large numbers of American and allied warships. There was also a fair number of port visits ‘showing the flag’, each involving a very crowded cocktail party in the crammed confines of the wardroom and control room where conversation with people having a limited grasp of English was difficult. On one occasion the commanding officer hosted a black-tie candlelit dinner party for a dozen dignitaries in the torpedo compartment, a table being set out between the weapon racks in close proximity to thousands of pounds of high explosive.
Whilst on long surface passages, in calm seas the opportunity was taken to hold barbecues on the casing or to stop and broadcast ‘Hands to bathe’, keeping a sharp lookout for sharks. At night in flat-calm conditions, the folded-in fore planes provided an excellent means of securing a cinema screen, enabling the watching of movies under the stars.
On one occasion, on surface passage in very poor weather conditions in the East China Sea off the southwest coast of Japan, as the submarine dived in readiness for exercise with Japanese warships, the bridge OOW brought below a racing pigeon which he had found resting in an exhausted condition just above the upper conning tower hatch. With the sea racing up towards the hatch, it had made no resistance to being picked up and stuffed down the OOW’s foul-weather jacket. The bird was taken forward to the torpedo compartment, and having been dried off and given some food and water, made a very rapid recovery from its ordeal. Within a few hours it had made itself completely at home using the top of one of the torpedoes as a roost. On the final day of the exercise the submarine surfaced briefly to embark a party of Japanese admirals. On reaching the torpedo compartment the visitors pointed excitedly to the bird and very clearly thought it was an emergency communications system. Their guides having used sign language to signify it was a racing bird, their excitement gradually subsided on grasping that the Royal Navy Submarine Service did not embark messenger pigeons.
A day later Oberon arrived in the port of Shimonoseki situated on the southwestern region of Japan and the pigeon was released, quickly heading off on its interrupted journey. No doubt a Japanese pigeon racer received his bird safely back, albeit the best part of a week late and, of course, with no idea that it had spent several days under the sea in a British submarine.
Both the civic dignitaries and the naval community of Shimonoseki were outstandingly hospitable to the crew of the British submarine and arranged a host of activities. Perhaps the most memorable of those was a large reception in the city hall, which included a performance of traditional Japanese singing and dancing. On its completion the convivial hosts, fired by copious quantities of sake, demanded that their British guests perform on the stage. A number of very enthusiastically delivered verses of ‘Old MacDonald had a Farm’ had the Japanese audience reeling in fits of laughter.