The British Oberon submarine HMS Osiris had an affinity with the town of Ilkley in Yorkshire, which had raised the money for an earlier submarine, also called Osiris, in the Second World War. In the 1980s the patron of the Ilkley naval cadets was a highly regarded pianist. For one cadet fundraiser the submarine went to Hull and a piano was placed on it so the pianist could give a concert as they sailed down the river. However, the tides are fierce in the Humber River and following several delays the trip started with an ebb tide of 7–8 knots. The tug line parted and the submarine sailed sideways for a mile and a quarter down the Humber. It was pouring rain but the pianist kept playing, and the submarine's skipper thinks he was quite unaware of the drama or the rain. After recovering the submarine's heading they completed the transit of the Humber with no damage other than a little embarrassment.

The commanding officer was Mike Gallagher, later to be the commanding officer of HMAS Farncomb, the second of the Collins class submarines. Gallagher, like many Australian submariners before him, had successfully completed the stressful and demanding Royal Navy course for submarine commanders known as ‘Perisher’ and, again like a select few Australians, he was given command of a British conventional submarine.