WELCOME TO UP PERISCOPE
Thank you for taking the time to drop
in, I hope that you will find your visit was enjoyable. This
site is maintained for all members of the submarine community,
regardless of nationality, as a means of keeping in touch
with current Australian submarine community activities and as a
means of finding and keeping contact with shipmates from the
past.
 This is an Australian submariner's
site, not a submarine site. What's the difference? There are
plenty of sites about submarines and it is not intended to
compete with them. Our focus is on the people, those members of
The Trade that proudly served, or are currently serving
in submarines of the Royal Australian Navy.
Submariners world wide are
a special breed, rarely understood by mere mortals. Submariners
of all nations understand this and show respect to each other,
knowing the hardship and danger that each has faced to achieve
membership to that elite club to which submariners belong.
So welcome to the Aussie
Submariner's site - Up Periscope.
|
Like the
destroyer, the submarine has created its own type of officer and
man, with language and traditions apart from the rest of the
service, and yet at the heart, unchangingly of the Service". |
|
Rudyard
Kipling, The Fringes of the Fleet, 1915 |
| |
WARNING
Skimmers
beware! The content of this site may offend. It contains images
and stories of the RAN's elite submarine force at work and play
and it may give you that sinking feeling of inadequacy.
SKIMMERS ENTER HERE
 |
In The Beginning.........
In the beginning was the word. And
the word was God and all else was darkness and void and without form. So
God created the heavens and the earth. He created the sun and the moon
and the stars, so that the light might pierce the darkness. And the
earth, God divided between the land and the sea, and these he filled
with many assorted creatures.
And the dark salty slimy creatures that inhabited the seashore God
called Royal Marines, and dressed them accordingly and the flighty
creatures of the air he called WAFUs and these he clothed in uniforms
which were ruffled and foul. And the lower creatures of the sea God
called Skimmers. And with a twinkle in his eye and a sense of humour
that only he could have God gave them big grey targets to go to sea on.
He gave them many splendid uniforms to wear, he gave them many wonderful
and exotic places to visit, he gave them pen and paper so they could
write home every week, he gave them make and mends at sea and he gave
them a laundry to keep their splendid uniforms clean. When you are God
you tend to get carried away.
And on the 7th day as you know God rested and on the 8th day at 0700 God
looked down upon the earth and God was not a happy man. So he thought
about his labours and in his infinite wisdom God created a divine
creature and this he called a Submariner. And these Submariners whom God
had created in his own image were to be of the deep and to them he gave
a white woolly jumper, he gave them black steel messengers of death to
roam the depths of the sea waging war against the forces of Satan and
evil. He gave them hotel rooms when they were weary from doing Gods
will. He gave them subsistence so that they might entertain the ladies
on Saturday nights and impress the hell out of the creatures called
Skimmers.
And at the end of the 8th day God looked down upon the earth and saw all
was good but still God was not happy because in the course of his
labours he had forgotten one thing, he did not have a Submariners white
woolly jumper but he thought about it and finally satisfied himself
knowing that not just anybody can be a SUBMARINER. |
