Submarine museum

I didn't know that there is a submarine museum at Gosport, but I saw a poster for it on the way from Portsmouth dock to my sister's place.  I decided to take a look.

I think that I was the only visitor at the time, so I got a personal guided tour of the big sub on display, HMS Alliance.  I expected it to be cramped inside, but when you think that a crew of 64 men was on board, that water was scarce and they didn't wash much, I can't imagine what they smelt like when they came ashore.

There were many interesting exhibits, so here's just a few that I found especially interesting:  A B40 communications receiver.  When I was a kid, I had a friend who had one of these, and we listened in to the radio hams around the world.   The wonders of SSB transmissions, and the strange sounds of the wireless world.  Actually the sub had a B41, but it was as I remember the B40, although smaller than I thought.

How about these for a bunch of push rods and rocker arms?  I bet the make a racket when they're going.

Apparently, submariners would keep the beer in the torpedo tubes to keep it cool.  I was sadly informed of The Great Beer Tragedy when the tube was evacuated without checking for beer first.

In a different part of the museum I came across this massive piece of ironwork.  It looked solid and must weigh several tons.  It is a chain tester; it was used to test the breaking strength of chains.  Here's the thing:  it was bought second-hand in 1901 and was in use until 2020.  That's more than one hundred and nineteen years of useful life.  I think we have become too complacent about things that stop working after 10 years or even less.

Finally, there was a squirrel in the grounds, cue my latest offering in my portfolio of wildlife pics, in an attempt to be accepted as a BBC wildlife photographer.