Motorised Submersible Canoe "Sleeping Beauty"

Operation Jaywick
In September 1943, under the auspices of Special Operations Australia, a raid resulted in 40,000 tonnes of Japanese shipping damaged or destroyed in Singapore Harbour. The raid had been launched on 2 September 1943 when the MV Krait disguised as a native Asiatic fishing boat left Exmouth with members of the Z Special Unit onboard. After a relatively uneventful voyage, Krait arrived off Singapore on 24 September. That night, six men paddled 50 kilometres with folboat collapsible canoes to establish a forward base on a small island near the harbour. On the night of 26 September 1943, they paddled into the harbour and placed limpet mines on several Japanese ships. They then slipped away undetected to rendezvous with the Krait.

Operation Rimau
The success of Operation Jaywick, spurred a second, more ambitious raid, Operation Rimau, for which new, improved equipment was acquired. In March 1944, the leader of Jaywick and this new raid, Lt-Col Ivan Lyon, travelled to England to view the latest sabotage equipment being produced by SOE. Here he was introduced to the newly invented, highly secret, Sleeping Beauty. Lyon was enthusiastic about the possibilities of the SBs and several canoes were obtained for him and his crew for Operation Rimau.

Sleeping Beauty training was undertaken at Station XIII, Careening Bay, Garden Island, Western Australia. Lyon and his men left Garden Island aboard the British submarine HMS Porpoise on 11 September 1944.The submarine reached the island of Merapas off the coast of Pulau Bintan on 23 September 1944. Subsequently HMS Porpoise captured a coastal junk the Mustika to which they transferred Z Force and their equipment, before starting the return voyage to Fremantle on 1 October.
Unfortunately, the operation was compromised on the approach to Singapore Harbour on 10 October and Lyon ordered the unused and still top-secret SBs sunk so that they would not fall into enemy hands. The operation ended tragically, with all the operatives either killed or captured and executed by the Japanese.

After Operation Rimau, SOA operatives continued to be trained at Careening Bay in the use of the Sleeping Beauties as well as other small submersibles such as the Welman and Welfreighter mini-submarines – however none of the craft appear to have been particularly widely used in the field. The SBs in particular were plagued by technical problems and steering difficulties, with only a few highly skilled operatives able to handle them efficiently.