Submariners AssociationBarrow in Furness Branch
Articles
| Title | Boat | Class |
| Adventures in the Adriatic | Rorqual (S02) | Porpoise |
| The Rorqual penetrated to the head of the Adriatic to lay a minefield, There is no doubt that this operation was fruitful, for the Italian destroyer Francesco Stocco was soon after blown in half off Fiume. Her mines laid, the Rorqual proceeded on offensive patrol farther south in the Adriatic, there to encounter one of the most curious targets ever attacked by a submarine. | ||
| Riddle of the Affray | Affray (P421) | Amphion |
| Sports divers using new deepwater techniques have reached the wreck of the Affray, the Royal Navy submarine in which 75 sailors lost their lives almost 50 years ago in a disaster that remains shrouded in mystery. | ||
| Ambush - Surface Gun Action | Ambush (P418) | Amphion |
| Skipper was a bit of a Gunnery addict (I think he liked the smell of cordite) and he had an obsession to be able to go to Surface Gun Action faster than it had ever been done before. | ||
| Spread Awnings | Amphion (P439) | Amphion |
| It was here that I heard a pipe that I never heard repeated again in my twenty - four years in boats. It was 'Clear lower Deck of Seamen, Spread awnings' | ||
| Baptism by Bell | Tally-Ho (P317) | T |
| Leslie Willcox, a section head in Industrial Services and an ex Royal Navy man of 24 years experience recently attended a very special service with his wife Georgina at Holy Trinity Church Gosport for the christening of their son, Richard. | ||
| Dolphin - Fort Blockhouse | ||
| Fort Blockhouse had its beginnings as a military base in 1431 when Henry VI authorised a tower to be built on the Gosport side of Portsmouth Harbour. | ||
| Submariners Bond | ||
| Many men have served, and are still serving in British submarines. They are all professional men who learn to co-exist within the confines of an enclosed hull. | ||
| History of the Boatswain call | ||
| The boatswain's pipe is one of the oldest and most distinctive pieces of personal nautical equipment and was once the only method other than human voice of passing orders to men on board ship. | ||
| Camouflage Schemes | ||
| During WWII, the standard camouflage scheme for British Submarines operating in the Mediterranean was light and dark green and some were even painted pink. Submarines operating in the Gulf waters have displayed a khaki colour. | ||
| Midgets in Canal | ||
| The skipper cleared lower deck. Right men, this is the position we are in. We have got to get two X Craft plus the Depot Ship through the Canal, negotiating obstacles and hidden dangers to achieve our objective of flying the White Ensign in the centre of Janner Land. | ||
| E14 | E14 (E14) | E |
| Barrows first of the class for the Royal Navy was the E9 (1913), and while there may be doubt as to who takes the real credit Chatham or Vickers for developing the E's, Barrow built two boats which between them earned three VC's in the first World War. | ||
| Escape | Otus (S18) | Oberon |
| Escape training with the Royal Navy. You could lose your job if you goofed the submarine escape exercise the men here are undergoing. But in the real world, hundreds of submariners have perished because they were unable to get out of iron coffins. | ||
| Experimental Types | ||
| Considering that British submarine construction and Royal Navy interest in submarines had begun only 13 years before, the Admiralty must have been very bold indeed to decide, with war clouds on the horizon, that the time had come for expanding the submarine fleet and trying experimental types. | ||
| First British Sub Ever To Be Lost At Sea | A1 (A1) | A |
| Intent on attacking the Barrow-built cruiser HMS Juno (Home Fleet) off Spit-head the young Captain became so engrossed in his task that he failed to notice the Castle Line steamer Berwick Castle bearing down upon his command. The Berwick Castle hit the conning tower of A.1 and the submarine sank immediately. She was recovered a month later but all her crew lost their lives. | ||
| Subs Sailing Wave Of The Future | ||
| Groton - When the USS Virginia goes to sea in 2004, it will represent perhaps the most radical change in submarine design since the Navy s first underwater Fighting vessel in 1900. | ||
| Guppy (USN) conversions | ||
| These notes are focussed largely on the technical details of the USN GUPPY programme, the first and most numerous of the post war submarine conversions carried out to gain higher submerged speed. Similar, more modest conversion programs in the Royal Navy complete the story. There are brief but essential notes about the influence of the German Type 21 U-Boat on Western submarine policy, post WWII. | ||
| K Class | ||
| It is on record that on June 1, 1913 the late Lord Fisher, former First Sea Lord, addressed a comment to Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe - The most fatal error imaginable would be to put steam engines in a submarine. | ||
| Midgets | ||
| Now we are in the nuclear age and we think in terms of Fleet submarines displacing 4,000 tons and Polaris armed submarines displacing 7,000 tons, it is very difficult to think of a submarine one could load on to a railway wagon, cover with tarpaulin sheets and haul away to some remote place in Scotland, there to run trials in the utmost secrecy. | ||
| Onyx - Dits from | Onyx (S21) | Oberon |
| Towards the end of my spell in the Submarine school I was offered a Sonar Course and Polaris. I declined the offer and asked to be recommended for Coxswain. I needed a sea recommend and was duly drafted to HMS Onyx the last ‘O’ boat building in Birkenhead. My stint in the School over I was on my way to | ||
| Falklands War - HMS Onyx | Onyx (S21) | Oberon |
| HMS Onyx was on a visit to Plymouth when the summons came. Her Commanding Officer had just arrived at his home nearby when the telephone rang with orders to take his submarine back to Gosport. He would not be back for another 117 days. | ||
| Maria - The | A1 (A1) | A |
| The future King of England went a sailing and a submerging in a small, pioneer submarine, his life guarded by three little white mice. The voyage was arranged for the Prince of Wales the future King George V - in March 1904 by the man who kick-started the British submarine service, Admiral Jacky Fisher. | ||
| Shotley Boy | ||
| HMS GANGES was the premier boys training establishment for boy seamen in the 1930's. It was a shore establishment situated at Shotley near lpswich. Anyone trained at Shotley was considered a first class seaman. The training and discipline were considered very strict and although we hated it at the time, it was always with a certain amount of pride that one said, Of course, 'I was a Shotley Boy'. | ||
| Steam Submarines | ||
| It is on record that on June 1, 1913 the late Lord Fisher, former First Sea Lord, addressed a comment to Vice-Admiral Sir John Jellicoe - The most fatal error imaginable would be to put steam engines in a submarine. | ||
| Submariners Life | ||
| These undersea James Bonds ply the depths in cramped quarters. It seems crazy but there is nothing they'd rather do. | ||
| What happens if a Submarine goes missing | ||
| By its underwater nature, the submarine service remains one of the more perilous jobs in the Royal Navy. Advanced technology means that today's nuclear-powered vessels can now remain 120 days without surfacing and deliver a cruise missile with pinpoint accuracy to a target 400 miles away. There are also hundreds of checks constantly carried out on board and improved training for modern submariners. But there is always the potential for disaster. | ||
| T Class Conversion | ||
| This is a summary of the key points in BR 1965 the Hand Book (Electrical propulsion Equipment) for the 'T' Conversion Class and the First of Class Trials of the first conversion, HMS TACITURN | ||
| Tenth Man - The | ||
| Tora! Tora! Tora! (Our surprise attack has been successful). The exultant signal sent by Commander Mitsuo Fuchida to Admiral Chuichi Nagumo told a surprised world that Japan had carried out a devastating attack on Pearl Harbour bringing America into the war, an act which finally sealed the fate of the Axis powers. | ||
| Thetis Fund | Thetis (11T) | T |
| The following chronicles the communication between the Chairman of the Barrow Branch of The Submariners Association and the office of The Lord mayor of London. | ||
| Token - gone fishing | Token (P328) | T |
| He proceeded across the gangplank and headed for the Dolphin main gate leaving Jan shaking his head after the apparition he had just seen. | ||
| U1171 | ||
| In early May of 1945, U-Boats were leaving their patrol areas at sea for the last time and heading for ports around the coasts of Europe and Great Britain in compliance with the order of unconditional surrender contained in last signals from Submarine Command. | ||
| U333 | ||
| In October 1942, the Battle of the Atlantic was at Its height and we were losing. Despite being far superior to anything Barrow had put in the water up to that time, German U-boats were not always successful. | ||
| U889 a TYPE IXC U-Boat | ||
| U-889 was a type IXC U-Boat which spent some months in Canadian hands after the german surrender in 1945, before being handed over to the US Navy the following year. She was examined in minute detail and the results have survived, giving a unique account of the layout and equipment of a U-Boat. | ||
| When a Wolf and an Eagle Came Up The Tay | ||
| The Orzel (Eagle) and the Wulk (Wolf) joined the five-nation (Britain, Poland, France, Holland and Norway) underwater fleet based on HMS Ambrose at Dundees Stannergate from 1939 - 45. Both had escaped from the Baltic despite the German blockade of the Skagerrak and the Kattegat. | ||
| Diesel Submarines 1948 - 1958 | ||
| The Diesel Submarines Of The Royal Navy Available To Engage In A Major War In The Period 1948 to 1958. | ||
| HMS Scotsman - 1948 Trials | Scotsman (P243) | S |
| The aim stated in the trial document was straightforward - a streamlined trials and experimental submarine that could achieve a speed of 17 knots (deep) to be maintained for 40 minutes. | ||
| Man Who Invented The Submarine | No 1 (1) | Holland |
| He was a trailblazer for what would become known as the American Century: Isaac Rice was a law professor, magazine publisher, industrial entrepreneur and a hell of a salesman and over 100 years ago he sailed to England and pulled off another big deal. He sold the Royal Navy its first submarine. | ||
| T class Streamlining | ||
| No archival information is available as to why FOSM decided in 1950 to commence the streamlining of five T class. The reasons are not immediately obvious if the significant changes that were required to streamline the SERAPH are considered. | ||
| Navys New Toy Shook The High Level Bridge | No 1 (1) | Holland |
| So we come to the first five submarines ever ordered for the Royal Navy. HMS Holland 1 was the first to enter the water on 2nd October 1901 but no one can now tell us whether she was truly launched into Walney Channel or lowered by crane into Devonshire Dock. | ||
| D3 Located | D3 (D3) | D |
| After many years of club dive trips across the English Channel to France we now faced the usual first big decision, dive a known wreck or take a chance on an uncharted unknown? The decision had already been made, but being a democratic club we took a vote anyway, the inevitable show of hands in favour of the unknown decided the fate of a discovery we would make that day. | ||
| Building X Craft Submarines | ||
| My first glimpse of a Midget Submarine was about August 1942 when my then foreman in the Submarine Dock sent me to have my photograph taken to form a special pass to enter a secure area set in the North Shop to work on a special project. I had no idea what the project was and doubted whether anyone else in working in my area did either. | ||
| E14 - The Senior Survivors Report | E14 (E14) | E |
| In January 1918 Submarine E14 was transferred from its Base at Corfu to the Dardanelles in an attempt to locate and sink the Turkish Battleship GOEBEN which had been damaged by mines and had then run aground in the Dardanelles. The Submarine failed to find the target which, by the time that Submarine E14 reached the grounding position, had been re-floated and towed away to safety. On 28th January 1918 Submarine E14 was destroyed by the Turkish Navy and shore based artillery after running aground at Kum Kale. The Commanding Officer Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Saxton White was killed by shell fire, many of his crew were killed and injured (all the officers died). The Senior Survivor was Petty Officer Robert Andree Perkins – the Coxswain. | ||
| Artful Pooped | Artful (P456) | Amphion |
| I woke up, as one did in boats and rushed to the Asdic Office in the Control Room. The boat managed to surface and the lower lid opened. Here, once again I must explain that Lt Peter Fenton (the CO) had been in his cabin which was situated between the lower hatch of the conning tower and the upper hatch. This placed the cabin outside the pressure hull. He had the ultimate wake up call - his cabin flooding. | ||
| Explorer - More Haste Less Speed | Explorer () | Explorer |
| I dont think anyone realised exactly how fast hearts can beat when they suddenly get a chance to operate on lungfuls of decent air - quite an experience. | ||
| Bombers Lament | ||
| Now that my signature on the 'Official Secrets Form' has expired, I can tell you Diesel Submariners in our midst what we in the Bombers had to endure and put up with, keeping you safe from the 'Red Hordes' on our Patrols! | ||
| AE1 - Missing Sub | ||
| The whereabouts of a Barrow built submarine sunk during the First World War has remained a mystery for nine decades. The AE1 submarine, built by Vickers Armstrong for the Royal Australian Navy, disappeared on September 14, 1914, just three months into the war, with the loss of 35 crew members. | ||
| Wadding - Escape from 603ft | ||
| Peter Wadding answers some questions on the record breaking Submarine Escape | ||
| Affray - Subsmash Commentary | Affray (P421) | Amphion |
| An extensive AFFRAY thread on the Submariners Forum led me to get hold of a copy of Alan Gallop's book SUBSMASH concerning the loss of the submarine AFFRAY in 1951. Now I have a copy and after a first read I decided to read it again with notes about things that caught my attention and post them on the forum. This seemed like a good idea at the time but the notes got longer and longer requiring some serious checking. | ||
| Snorting in the Royal Navy | ||
| A basic picture of how the dream of the Dutch Submariners, mentioned by Commander Tall, was achieved by snort conversion of RN submarines from end of WWII through to the later submarines designed and built with snort in mind. | ||
| Snorkel in the US Navy | ||
| A brief description of the US Navy snorkel conversion, intended to be complementary to the article SNORTING in the ROYAL NAVY - 1945 onward and as an adjunct to the article US Navy GUPPY SUBMARINE CONVERSIONS 1947-1954 | ||
| Oswald lost in 1940 | Oswald (N58) | O |
| This is an account of the events leading to the loss of HMS OSWALD in 1940 and the court martial of her Captain in 1946. | ||
| Amphion Class Submarines | ||
| In a personal minute to the Board of Admiralty dated 14th June, 1941 the Prime Minister (Mr Winston Churchill) called for a new submarine programme to meet the turn of events which the war had taken. Numbers and speed of construction were to be primary factors as the vessels would be required principally for short-range work to resist invasion and impose blockade. | ||
| WW1 German U-Boats | ||
| For the last ten years, teams of divers have scoured waters off the North East and Yorkshire Coast looking for the last few missing German U-Boats from World War One. | ||
| Sinking of U-593 | ||
| U-593 was on her fifteenth patrol when she was sunk, having been in commission over two years. During the course of her long history, she claimed the sinking of 15 merchant vessels and the damaging of three others, in addition to sinking three destroyers. Most of her success was achieved in the Mediterranean which she entered on her fourth patrol in late September or early October 1942. | ||
| Norway tackles toxic war grave | ||
| Robotic excavations have found some canisters of mercury. It was not quite the deadly legacy the Germans had in mind when they deployed a U-boat on a daring mission to Japan in the last desperate months of World War II. When it set sail in December 1944, U864 was packed with 65 tonnes of weapons grade mercury destined to help the Japanese win back supremacy over the US in the Pacific and divert American attention away from Europe in the process. Neither the cargo nor the 73 men on board made it. The U-boat was torpedoed to the bottom of the North Sea floor by a British submarine. | ||
| The Demise Of Jack Tar | ||
| The traditional British sailor was not defined by his looks, he was defined by his attitude, his name was Jack Tar, he was a happy-go-lucky sort of bloke. He took the good times with the bad. | ||
| Hunley - Skull found on sub that sank in 1864 | No 1 (1) | Holland |
| A skull has been found inside the Confederate Submarine H.L. Hunley along with what appear to be a bellows that could help reasearchers reconstruct the doomed subs Final minutes. | ||
| Women Serving in Submarines | Osiris (S13) | Oberon |
| There has always been much concern about whether women should serve in Submarines - and Submariners to a man, have always said 'No Way'. However it seems that without us realising it (women serving in Submarines) has been going on for years! George Meadows has highlighted a case that he knows of! | ||
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