To the average person, the chain dangling from the top looks like just any ordinary chain, but you will notice that every second link is enclosed in a rubber ball. A normal chain used for a chain block arrangement is extremely noisy, but by having a rubber “ball” at every second link, it makes the chain block totally quiet, therefore allowing you to carry on with the shifting of torpedoes even in a “quiet” state. 

                                                                                  Gilles Poirier

One of the assigned tasks aboard HMCS Ojibwa was that of Messman. Unlike her siblings, Onondaga and Okanagan, there was no dedicated cafeteria-like space on Ojibwa. Submariners ate in their Mess where they also slept or spent their spare time. To complicate things further, the galley was located in a very small space just aft of the Control Room removed from the Mess areas of the boat. To accommodate the restricted space of the galley, each Mess area had a sink where the dishes could be washed before returning the plates to the galley and the utensils to a drawer near the sink. The only dishes washed in the Galley were those used to produce the meals.

The collar was not part of the jumper; it was attached to the inside of the jumper with buttons. Now that collar was supposed to be a real dark Navy blue, with a crisp white trim. Here the name of the game was to look like an old tar as quickly as possible, so you washed this collar as often as you could, till it became almost pale blue…! You then looked like an old salt!