Jim Perks – Wanted to experience ‘O’ boats

I’ve been very lucky with Captains, very, very lucky. They’ve all taught me something, they’ve all been brilliant and all been very supportive of what I wanted to do next, with one exception.

I wanted to go to a conventional submarine next, and my Captain (laughs) at the time had driven a conventional submarine, Onyx, and blankly said, “No, I’m not recommending you for a diesel boat, because you’ll have too much fun and you’ll end up in the shit. No, it’s not for you” and of course that was exactly the reason I wanted to go, is to have that bit of fun.

We could see the demise of the ‘O’ boats, were on the way out, the Upholder Class was coming in, we only ordered 4 of them.

You could kind of see the writing on the wall, so I wanted to have that experience and even to this day, you hear the guys that had the diesel boats, they have a I think a more intense experience, especially on the ‘O’ boats. It’s like walking onboard Alliance in the Museum. It’s proper world world stuff.

Simon: Because of the intensity of the space.

I think so. The intensity of the space, where you sleep. I mean blimey, there are bunks everywhere. Yeah I just wanted to experience that really and because a conventional submarine you can go more places, you get more runs ashore.