By Carol Driver
HMS Alliance – the only British surviving Second World War-era submarine – has reopened its hatches following a major £7m restoration project.
The 281ft sub, based at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, has been completely restored with new interpretation, lighting and soundscapes to form one of three major exhibitions marking 100 years of untold stories at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Tours on board now begin with a new film narrated by British Hollywood star Ian McShane, highlighting life on HMS Alliance from WWII through the Cold War until the 1970s.
Makeover: HMS Alliance, based at the Royal
Submarine Museum in Gosport, reopens to the public this week following a
£7m renovation project
Panoramic view: The submarine, Britain's only surviving one from the World War II era, is close to Portsmouth Harbour
New look: Portsmouth Harbour can be viewed from
the submarine's working periscopes, and, right, walking through the
madeover hatches
With new dressing, lighting, noises and smells inside the submarine, as if the crew have just gone ashore, from Thursday, visitors can discover more about every decade of the submarine’s service from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Former submariners will be heading the guided tours, offering anecdotes and insights into their time serving in the Navy.
And sightseers will also be able to peer through the working periscopes to view Portsmouth Harbour, and meet submariners who will tell their own personal stories of working beneath the waves.
Chris Munns, Director at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, said: ‘A visit on board HMS Alliance will assault all the senses and really bring to life what it is like to work and live on a submarine.
‘We are very proud of HMS Alliance, and delighted that she has been saved for future generations.’
A memorial to 5,300 British submariners, HMS Alliance was designed during WWII for service in the Far East, launching in 1945, as victory was achieved.
Transformation: HMS Alliance has undergone a £7m conservation and restoration project
Stories to tell: Photographs show members on board the bridge, and, right, in Portland, both taken in the 1950s
Historic vessel: This picture, taken in 1947 on
board HMS Alliance, shows crew members relaxing, writing letters,
reading and smoking cigarettes
In 1981, the sub – the only surviving example of the Royal Navy A-Class submarine - became the centrepiece of the museum on the Gosport waterfront.
It closed its doors last year to undergo the conservation work.
Guide John Buffery, from Gosport, who served on RN submarines during the Cold War, said of HMS Alliance: ‘She is the last Second World War submarine that the public can visit and walk through and what we have done during the refurbishment is we have tried to reflect her as she was in her working life in the Forties, Fifties and Sixties.’
Describing life on board, he added: ‘It did get a bit smelly, the gas, the diesel smell permeates, gets in your clothes, gets in your hair, gets in the pores of your skin, hygiene was not really a concern, we got dirty, we wore the same clothes, we didn't wear uniform, we wore t-shirts, shorts, trainers, any old rags which we would afterwards just throw away.’
'Untold stories':Former submariner and volunteer guide John Buffery on board HMS Alliance
£7m makeover: HMS Alliance opens to the public
on Thursday. Left shows the stern raised from the ground, and, right, an
aerial view
Another submariner, Bill Handyside, now 86, from Portsmouth, has his experiences as an engine room artificer onboard HMS Alliance from 1956 retold as part of the exhibition.
He said: 'When you are on the surface you are rolling around and you feel sick and it's horrible and you can't wait to go down and once you go down it's lovely and it's stable.
'Mostly we worked hard and we played hard, when we went ashore we drank a lot.'
He added: 'Everybody says that submariners were volunteers, when I left the navy I looked at my discharge papers and they said I had volunteered but I didn't and most of my friends didn't, we were drafted into the subs, there was no such thing as volunteers.'
Stuart McLeod, Head of Heritage Lottery Fund South East England, which awarded a grant of £3.4m to the tourist attraction, said: ‘We are delighted to have made a significant contribution to the restoration of HMS Alliance.’
A ticket to HMS Alliance, which costs £12.50 for adults, also includes the Royal Navy’s first submarine Holland 1 and the only surviving WW2 midget submarine X24.
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