Articles

1431	2004	Fort Blockhouse	Misc
READ		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.

1671	2004	History of the Boatswain call	Misc
READ		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.

1864	1864	Skull found on sub that sank in 1864	Loss	Hunley
READ		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.

1900	1901	The Man Who Invented The Submarine With A Little Help from The IRA	Biography	Holland 1
READ		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.

1902	1902	The Navys New Toy Shook The High Level Bridge	Sub Development	Holland 1
READ		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.

1904	1904	A right royal time for submariners and their mice	Loss	A1
READ		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.

1904	1904	The First British Sub Ever To Be Lost At Sea	Loss	A1
READ		History tells us that there were to have been six submarines of the Holland type built for the Royal Navy at Barrow. That there were only five and that Vickers Sons and Maxim really got a foothold in the building business is due to one man, Captain Reginald Bacon, the first Inspecting Captain of Submarines.

1905	1905	HM Submarine A5 (Forgotten Submariners)	Loss	A5
READ		Early in 1999, CPO Owen O'Keeffe of the Irish Naval Service was visiting Old Church Cemetery near Cobh, County Cork. The purpose of his visit was to do some research on US Navy graves dating back to the First World War. In the course of his search for the American graves, O'Keeffe came across five particular graves that had like headstones. The graves were very neglected and overgrown and the headstones, which were in the form of crosses, were moss covered.

1912	1912	The Loss of Submarine A3	Loss	A3
READ		Submarine A3 was sunk as a result of a collision with HMS Hazard on 2nd Feb 1912 during trials in the Solent. All members of the crew were lost.

1912	1970	Built to hunt the German U-Boats	Sub Development
READ		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.

1913	1918	E14 - One That Got Away & Won Two VC's	Operations	E Class
READ		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.

1914	1914	Missing Sub AE1	Loss	AE1
READ		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.

1914	1914	The Two Men Who Calmly Kept To Their Stations	Operations	B11
READ		By the time the Holland's and the A class submarines had come from the berths at Barrow and entered service, the Royal Navy's Submarine Service - every man a volunteer by the way - had become accustomed to dicing with death. (Includes the tall of Lieut Holbrook VC)

1915	1931	My Ends Diving - What The Hell Is Your End Doing?	Sub Development	K Class
READ		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.

1915	1931	Steam Submarines	Operations	K Class
READ		The gargantuan steam submarines were treated as a joke by the hardened veterans of the Submarine Service when they first appeared. But on the fateful afternoon of January 29th, 1917 the K-boats suddenly developed a new and more sinister reputation. From that day onwards K stood for Killer.

1915	1960	WWI Submariners	Biography
READ		Hugh Lamberton Donald George Fagan Bradshaw Douglas Ramsden Attwood Frederick Robert Knight

1917	1918	WW1 German U-Boats	Loss	U41 & U75
READ		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.

1918	1918	E14 - The Senior Survivor’s Report	Loss	E14
READ		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.

1918	1918	The Ordeal of HMS C25	Operations	C25
READ		On 6 July 1918, a squadron of German seaplanes returning from a daylight raid on Lowestoft and Walmer, caught a Harwich-based British C-class submarine napping on the surface. When the boat was eventually towed into port she was literally a bloody shambles, her captain and nearly half her crew were dead and several others wounded. Yet, even this tragic event had its share of heroism.

1918	2007	HMS D3 Located	Loss	D3
READ		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.

1925	1925	Supergun Submarine (M1) located 74 years after tragic loss	Loss	M1
READ		The British submarine, M1 which uniquely carried the firepower of a battleship was discovered 35 miles south-east of Plymouth at a depth of 81 metres by diver and submarine expert, Innes McCartney and boat skipper Grahame Knott.

1926	1926	Submarine H29	Loss	H29
READ		Submarine H29 was accidentally sunk at Devonport Dockyard on 9th Aug 1926. One member of the Ships Company died in the accident as did five civilian Dockyard workers

1930	1939	A Shotley Boy	Memoir
READ		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'.

1938	1945	Captain Mchael Lumby	Biography	Saracen
READ		Submarine skipper who wreaked mayhem on axis shipping

1938	1947	Lieutenant-Commander Canon Rupert Lonsdale	Biography	Seal
READ		RUPERT LONSDALE had the unhappy distinction of being the only British warship captain to have surrendered his ship to the enemy in the Second World War.

1939	1945	When A Wolf And An Eagle Came Up The Tay	Operations	Polish
READ		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.

1939	1952	The Midgets - a breed of their own	Sub Development	Midget
READ		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.

1939	1966	The Thetis Disaster Relief Fund	Commentary	Thetis
READ		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.

1940	1942	Extracts from The Diary of Telegraphist	Operations	Truant
READ		Fri: 3rd July: 1942 at about 1700hrs sighted smoke, surfaced and chased until dark, saw it was a Jap aux naval ship, about 2,000 tons, unsuccessfully attacked her at 800yds range (2 fish) 1 missed, other went underneath. Dived and on coming up again heard a very loud explosion, later surfaced and went to gun action, hit her 5 times, she hit our bridge, one chap (Smithy) the bunting tosser injured, quite a lot of splinters, confirmed when we got back to harbour, she was sunk by us, heard making SOS signals on their radio.

1941	1941	HMS Perseus	Operations	Perseus
READ		HM Submarine Perseus had joined the 1st Flotilla at Alexandria in early August 1940. From the tragic loss of this old war-horse and her crew in December 1941 came one of the most courageous submarine escapes of the war.

1941	1941	Reindeer Sails on WWII Submarine	Operations	Trident
READ		A WWII legend of how a Russian reindeer sailed from the far north to Britain in a submarine had always been written off as one of those hoary old wartime tales.

1941	1941	Taku's attempted trip to Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1941	Operations	Taku
READ		On Monday 14th February 1941, HM Submarine Taku sailed quietly from Holy Loch in Scotland bound for Nova Scotia. She was under escort and commanded by Lieutenant Brown. No-one could possibly have imagined or foreseen what would happen in the days following this departure.

1941	1941	The Tenth Man	Operations	Midget
READ		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.

1941	1942	Upholder Sank 129,529 Tons Of Axis Ships	Operations	Upholder
READ		Upholder - The ship and her company are gone; the example and inspiration remain.

1941	1947	U-570	Commentary	U570 - Graph
READ		A German sub that served the Allies and Barrows role after her capture

1942	1942	Building X Craft Submarines	Memoir	X - Craft
READ		A Memoir by James Henry Weatherburn (ex Vickers Ltd) 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.

1942	1942	The Lucky Thirteen	Operations	Thrasher
READ		HM Submarine Thrasher was one of the most successful submarines of the Second World War. She was definitely the most decorated, being the only submarine to have two VC's among her host of decorations.

1942	1944	How flower power beat a U-Boat in the Atlantic	Operations	U333
READ		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.

1942	1962	HMS Seraph star of film and books	Operations	Seraph
READ		It cannot be said of many ships of any nationality that they have had two books and a film produced as a result of their efforts. Only one submarine could ever have a signal sent to her reading Hymn No. 30: Verse Five.

1942	1962	Terrapins 6th Far East Patrol	Operations	Terrapin
READ		The H.E. of an asdic-fitted vessel was heard closing and five charges were dropped fairly near but no serious damage resulted. After ten minutes another pattern of five charges arrived very close, buckling the hull in the tube space and causing extensive internal damage and considerable leaks.

1943	1942	Sinking of U-593	Loss	U593
READ		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.

1943	1943	Supply Run to Leros	Operations	Severn
READ		Although the Italians had capitulated, the German forces continued to offer fierce resistance. They enjoyed air supremacy over the Dodecanese Islands, in consequence of which it was only possible to transport arms and supplies to Leros was either by MTB under cover of darkness or by submarine.

1943	1957	Tally-Ho, The Boat With a Charmed Life	Operations	Tally-Ho
READ		She began life, as HM submarine P 317 and then changed to P 97. When it was decided to give her a name, Sir Winston Churchill chose it. He probably felt that the huntsman's cry on sighting his quarry was appropriate for a submarine. Tally-Ho's first motto, however, was an unofficial choice, Celeriter in Hostem (swiftly among the foe.) How appropriate it turned out to be.

1943	1977	A Class Submarines	Sub Development	A Class
READ		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.

1944	1985	Derek Lilliman (My Story)	Memoir
READ		Joined the 'Andrew' in 1944 at HMS Royal Arthur, Skegness (ex Butlins Holiday Camp) to be 'kitted up' and finally to HMS Ganges at Shotley as an HO (Hostilities Only). Halfway through Basic Training as a Seaman, the 'conscripts' on the course where shipped away into the Army leaving only the volunteers.

1944	2007	Norway tackles toxic war grave	Operations	U864
READ		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.

1945	1945	Adventures in the Adriatic	Operations	Rorqual
READ		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.

1945	1945	Bill Morrison	Loss	Midget
READ		Bill s prime Cause Celebre has resulted in his being included in the Guinness Book of Records as having made the deepest unaided ascent from a sunken submarine. He has other claims worthy of recognition, he was among those officers and men who trained many of the crews who joined the Twelfth Submarine Flotilla during WW2.

1945	1945	Gone Fishing	Characters	Token
READ		He proceeded across the gangplank and headed for the Dolphin main gate leaving Jan shaking his head after the apparition he had just seen.

1945	1945	U-1171	Operations	U1171
READ		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.

1945	1945	U-889 a Type IXC U-Boat	Sub Development	U889
READ		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.

1945	1951	Affray - Disaster Beneath the Waves	Loss	Affray
READ		HMS/M Affray was the last RN submarine to be lost at sea. At the time of her sinking, rumours about the cause of her loss circulated widely. Many were discounted once her final resting place had been found and the official inquiry's report had been published. However, speculation persists to this day as to the reasons why she sank.

1946	1946	Spread Awnings	Memoir	Amphion
READ		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'

1947	1947	Surface Gun Action	Operations	Ambush
READ		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.

1947	1954	USN Guppy Submarine Conversions	Sub Development
READ		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. New submarines of the era are introduced to complete the historical picture and provide some technical comparisons - the basic GUPPY method did not remain unique to conversions and continues to be used, with variations, in most Western submarines. Included are notes about the compromises involved in the design and use of the fast battery submarine along with mention of Soviet submarines of the era.

1948	1948	A fresh look at the Five Streamlined T Class	Sub Development	T Class
READ		No archival information is available (to the author) 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. The 1944 conversion of this boat into a non-operational ASW target involved all torpedo apertures blanked, one third of the free flood apertures blanked, the forward periscope and radar mast removed, stern external tube, a small closed-in streamlined bridge, the existing main motors rated to give 13% more power, and T class propellers fitted, with many other smaller alterations.

1948	1948	HMS Scotsman - Trials and experimental submarine	Sub Development	Scotsman
READ		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. The conversion of the SCOTSMAN, a WWII Group III 'S' class submarine, was carried out at Chatham Dockyard commencing 8th April 1947, completing 8th July 1948. Presumably the design was the work of the office of the Director of Naval Construction, however it is notable that 1948 FOSM letters about Trials were minuted to Scotts Ltd, the original builder and a Scotts representative was to be present at the post conversion acceptance trials. The main components involved in the conversion are shown in the attached text from the document recording the 1948 trials along with the hull dimensions and displacement of the conversion.

1948	1948	T Class Conversion	Sub Development	T Class
READ		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, to FOSM May 1952 - that enable a satisfactory understanding of the electrical propulsion conversion of the 'T' class to meet the object stated in FOSM letter, 546/SM.472 20th May 1948 - 'A fully operational submarine with maximum possible submerged speed and endurance, capable of carrying out a war patrol continuously submerged '.

1948	1958	Diesel Submarines 1948 - 1958	Sub Development
READ		The Diesel Submarines Of The Royal Navy Available To Engage In A Major War In The Period 1948 to 1958.

1948	1961	Pooped aboard HMS Artful	Memoir	Artful & Sidon
READ		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. He was OK and assisted with gaining access to the bridge. There they found young Fenwick wrapped around the 'standards' and no sign of S/Lt Stothers. Fenwick must have had a rope around his waist. S/Lt Stothers would not have suffered in these waters - practically death within seconds.

1950	1950	The Sinking of HMS Truculent	Loss	Truculent
READ		It is said that the tragedy of the Truculent was the result of bad luck. All those concerned had acted with absolute correctness and there had been no failure of equipment. Yet, sixty-four men had died.

1951	1951	Divers try to solve riddle of the Affray	Loss	Affray
READ		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.

1953	2004	Escape Or Die!	Commentary
READ		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.

1955	1955	More Haste Less Speed	Operations	Explorer
READ		I don t 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.

1955	1956	Memories of (Buckwheat) Harris	Characters	Telemachus
READ		While reading an old edition of the Submariners News I noticed a name in the xmas greetings column that brought back a few memories of my time in the 4th squadron based at Huntersbay in Sydney. That name was Buckwheat Harris or to give him his proper name Donald John Nathaniel Harris (according to buckwheat).

1955	1956	Navy planned Midget Submarine to plant Atomic Bombs in Russia	Operations	Midget
READ		The Royal Navy planned to build midget submarines capable of planting a nuclear weapon inside Russian harbours, documents newly released at the Public record Office have revealed.

1956	1956	Midget Submarines Canal Zone	Operations	Midget
READ		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.

1967	1967	Dits of the Onyx	Operations	Onyx
READ		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 Onyx

1968	1968	Totem mystery solved - by Titanic hunters	Loss	Totem
READ		More than 30 years after her mysterious disappearance, the wreck of the former HM Submarine Totem had been found - by the same US organisation that found the Titanic.

1969	1986	Women Serving in Submarines	Memoir	Osiris & Conqueror
READ		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!

1979	1999	Submarine Camouflage Schemes	Sub Development
READ		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.

1982	1982	War Patrol The Falklands	Operations	Onyx
READ		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.

1985	1985	Baptism by Bell	Tradition	Tally-Ho
READ		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.

1987	1987	603ft Escape	Memoir	Otus
READ		Peter Wadding answers some questions on the record breaking Submarine Escape

1990	1990	Stealth & Secrecy Under The Ocean Waves	Commentary	Sovereign
READ		As unusual places to have lunch go, 100ft beneath the Firth of Clyde is pretty hard to beat. Yet to the officers in the wardroom of the Sovereign it all seems pretty unremarkable. I suppose that when you have breakfasted below the North Atlantic and dined under the Arctic pack ice a calm sea five miles off Largs is nothing to write home about.

2000	2004	What happens if a Submarine goes missing?	Commentary
READ		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.

2001	2001	The Submariners Bond	Commentary
READ		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.

2002	2002	A Submariners Life	Commentary	USS Ohio
READ		These undersea James Bonds ply the depths in cramped quarters. It seems crazy but there is nothing they'd rather do.

2004	2004	On top of the world	Operations	Tireless
READ		For 17 hours, HMS Tireless was on top of the world - and the memories will linger long in the minds of the sailors who experienced it.

2004	2004	Subs Sailing Wave Of The Future	Sub Development	USS Virginia
READ		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.

2006	2006	HMS Spartan Paying Off	Commentary	Spartan
READ		HMS Spartan left HM Naval Base Clyde for the last time following 28 years of service with the Royal Navy (Wednesday 25th January 2006). Sailing out of the Gareloch with her 45 m decommissioning pennant blowing in the breeze Commander Paul Halton, the Captain of Spartan said: "It is sad leaving Faslane for the last time. Over the years the teams in the base have given us exceptional support to keep Spartan ready for operations and of course keeping the crew fed, watered and happy when alongside."