IN 2002 I advised readers that two Oberon-class submarines built by Scotts’ of Greenock were to be preserved.

The Royal Navy’s former HMS Otus had just been towed from shipbreakers in Portsmouth to be part of a German maritime museum.

Many may have considered the submarine’s new home inappropriate. However, I published a report from the Portsmouth Evening News in which a spokesman for the Royal Navy Submarine Museum in Gosport stated: “As long as the German museum is tasteful then it is a much better fate than turning her (HMS Otus) into razor blades.”

My story said the second Greenock submarine scheduled to be saved was the Otama, built for the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She was to be preserved in Hastings, Victoria.

HMS Otus remains in the German museum in Sassnitz. However, I have just learned that over the years various attempts to preserve the Otama had failed and scrapping of the submarine is nearing completion.

The sad news about the Otama was sent to me by David Richardson, of Perth, Western Australia. He was in the RAN for 20 years and served in Collins-class submarines.

David has produced several YouTube videos about RAN ships still in service or decommissioned. The videos include three about the Otama and David is creating a new one as a tribute to the submarine.

The Otama occupies a significant place in Lower Clyde shipbuilding history as the last submarine produced by Scotts’. David told me the Otama was also the last of the Oberon class worldwide to be decommissioned, leaving RAN service in December, 2000.

In 2007 I carried an article illustrated by an image of Scotts’ which showed Oberon-class submarines. The photograph was loaned to me by Roddy MacAskill who had been a foreman shipwright with the company. I would like to contact Roddy or a member of his family.

TODAY'S flashback photo shows Port Glasgow’s fire station when new in 1969.

The photograph was taken during July when it became operational, with the official opening scheduled for later in the year.

Please get in touch if you have a photograph of the town’s former fire station in Anderson Street.