HMS Otus (N92)

HMS Otus (N92) was an O-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Vickers-Armstrongs of Barrow-in-Furness on 31 May 1927, launched on 31 August 1928 and commissioned on 5 July 1929.

She was first commissioned for service with the 4th Submarine Flotilla on the China Station, and when the war broke out in 1939 she was deployed with the 1st Submarine Flotilla based at Alexandria with the Mediterranean Fleet. From July to December 1941 she was based in Malta from where she carried out interception patrols with the 1st Flotilla.

During 1941 she carried out patrols off Azores in defence of HG convoys on passage to and from Gibraltar, and with HMS Olympus (N35) for patrol of Oran to intercept Vichy French battleship Dunkerque reported to about to attempt passage to France during Operation PRINCIPAL.

On 14 Aug 1941 she was involved in a friendly fire incident, when the submarine HMS Talisman (N78) under the command of Lt.Cdr. M. Willmott, RN mistook her for an enemy submarine and fired several to torpedoes at her, approximately 140 nautical miles north-west of Alexandria (position 32°41'N, 27°35'E).

On 3 September 1941 under command of Lt. R.M. Favell, RN she unsuccessfully fired a torpedo at an unidentified enemy armed merchant cruiser of 4000 tons, approximately 175 nautical miles east of Valetta, Malta.

During 1943 she was transferred to Simonstown, South Africa for purposes of anti-submarine training.

During December 1944 she was nominated to be withdrawn from service. She was paid-off and transferred to Reserve status. During 1945 she was transferred to Durban, South Africa. HMS Otus was scuttled off Durban in September 1946.

Discovery of the wreck
The wreck was rediscovered during March 2013 by two deep sea specialist divers, Patrick Voorma and Allan Maclean, from the Calypso Dive Centre at uShaka Marine World, Durban approximately 8 km south-east of the Durban Harbour entrance, at an approximate depth of 100m.