This was a Russian submarine that I found floating in the waters of Darling Harbour in Sydney Australia. I can't remember its name but it had been decommissioned for a sometime, and was now living out its retirement letting visitors like myself have a glimpse of one of these instruments of the cold war. I had never been in a submarine before, so I did not expect its cramped small interior. After awhile in there, I had already started to feel a sense of claustrophobia. Officer's quarters were literally only slightly bigger than a toilet cubicle. While men lower in rank slept next to their stations, whatever that may have been. I wondered how those who were in charge of handling the torpedoes slept being so close to the noisy drone of the engine.

The submarine itself was a tubular structure that had watertight compartments at regular intervals along its length. These compartments were closed off thick metal doors that you could only crawl through. I hate to think what could have happened had water leaked into one of the middle compartments. Officers on other side of this section would have been separated from each other. Clearly living in a submarine for months on end was dangerous. It would most definitely not be something that I would have tried.

I did not take photographs of the interior of the submarine not because it wasn't allowed but because when I was in there I felt like getting out quickly. Somehow, I was eagerly aware of how easily I could have been trapped in there. Also, my 35mm lens could not accommodate the cramped interior. I thought I needed something like a 17mm to have done justice to the details of the submarine. However I did take a number if photographs of the submarine from the outside because I was interested in the little details that it was made of.

The front of the submarine.

This is a view of the rear of the submarine. Notice the railings.

Closer view of the top of the submarine. Of interest, the periscope.

Human beings for scale.

An overall view of the Harbour with the Submarine attached to the big ship whose name I have forgotten but it historically important.