laststandonzombieisland

As the man said, “You can’t take a picture of this, it’s already gone.”

Here we see, in this circa October 1989 U.S. Navy image from the National Archives, a PBR Mark II riverine patrol boat escorts the British patrol submarine HMS Ocelot (S 17) into the Miraflores Locks during the latter’s transit of the Panama Canal.

Introduced in the early 1960s for use in the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam’s myriad inshore rivers and streams, the Patrol Boat, Riverine, or PBR, was an Apocalypse Now-icon worthy staple of Operation Game Warden in both its 31-foot MK I and improved 32-foot MK II varieties.

With over 300 produced, most PBRs were handed over to the South Vietnamese by 1972 but a handful were retained for use by USNR small boat units in California and the Canal Zone until circa 1995.

Likewise, Ocelot, one of 13 Oberon-class diesel boats built for the Royal Navy in the early 1960s and the last submarine built for the Royal Navy at Chatham Dockyard, was, in the above image, like the PBR, coming to an end of her career and would be paid off less than two years after the above image was snapped.

Decommissioned in August 1991 after a 27-year career, she is preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard.