CENTURY OF THESILENT SERVICE

Royal Navy submarines 1901-2001News

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NAVY NEWS SUBMARINE CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 2001

" C-boats at Portsmouth, August 1907: "The submarine Iwill be the battleship of the future," said Admiral Fisher.

" " (/1151 ,.

tharcricket pitch", according to tEdwardian press) with elbow-Joint

I I Portsmouth, probably mid-190aperiscope raised and braced,

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Occupãtk

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A

SUBMARINE

Boat

No.1 -Holland I -was conceived, and

subsequently broughtinto the world at launch

on October 2, 1901, in

strict privacy; but mod-

esty was not the reason

for avoiding public gaze.Britannia, still ruling the

seas in the 19th century, wasslow to take the plungebecause the Admiraltyelected to watch, disparageand discourage the subma-

rine development of other

nations.

Big guns were inaccurate andineffective against heavilyarmoured capital ships, but ifsome foreigner produced asubmersible torpedo craft thathit, unseen, below the belt - thearmoured belt - Great Britain's

magnificent fleets could be

gravely endangered.

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FRONT COVER: No.1, under the command of Lt A. Quicke (left of picture), on " Eli (Lt Cdr Martin Nasmith) was fitted with a very useful heavy

her way out to the Solent with the first submarine Diving Coxswain, P0 Williamgun for a Marmara patrol In the latter part of 1915. The submarinecompleted three successful Marmara patrols, and the addition of

R. Wailer, at the wheel, circa 1904. S/Lt Adrian Keyes is on the right, and behind a gun made hera more effective unit, as it enabled the submarine

him are AB Wallace (with pipe) and AB Banham. to engage targets ashore, and to fire upon smaller vessels whichdid not merit the use ofa precious torpedo.

By the 1890s it looked as thoughFrance was developing workablesous-marins to challenge the supc-nor Royal Navy and threatenBritain's scabornc trade.

Germany was not yet interestedin U-bootcn - her aim was to sur-

pass Britain's battle-fleet on the sur-face - but, further afield, the Irish.American John Philip Holland wasbuilding a realistic submarine forthe US Navy. She was duly namedUSS Holland (S&1), and commis-sioned on October 12,19(X).

11 was time for Britain to acquiresubmcrsibles and find out just howmuch of a menace they might be.No homc-grown design was

available, and it was unthinkable toapproach French naval architects.but Naval Lords were glad to talk -

very quietly- to a representative

from the American Electric Boat

Company.which incorporated J.P.

Holland s own small business.Careful spin and timing would

be needed when announcing thepolitical U-turn.A secret contract was signed

between Electric Boat, theAdmiralty and Vickers (Barrow-in.Furness) on December 18. 1900.Work proceeded forthwith, and the

__By RICI

first three of five Holland boal'were laid downon February4. 1901.

However, Parliament was notinformed until March. when the

Parliamentary Secretary to the

Admiralty, HO. Arnold-ForstciMR told the House "it was wisenot to be found unprepared" with

regard to "these boats ... which Iconfess I desire shall never pros.

Cdr Young MP testily remarkedthat, if submarines were built, "all Iwould ask is that I might not beasked to serve in one".

What,

then, were people tothink when the inelegant,hump-backed little craft

arrived at Portsmouth to splash hap-pily around in the Solent?The petrol-driven Hollands were

initially consi3ned to FarehamCreek along with powder vessels,

quarantine hulks and other unde-sirables.On the way out to sea for exercis-

es they clattered past lines of battle-

ships and cruisers, from whose

sparkling decks immaculate officerslooked down on them with disdain.

Submanning was condemned asno occupation for a gentleman anddubbed 'the Trade' in an era whencommercial dealings were anathe-ma to the governing classes.

Fledgling submariners thereforewithdrew into their steel shells andformed something like a privatenavy, with the result that few admi-rals properly understoodsubma-rinecapabilities, strengths or weak-nesses for decades to come.

Nonetheless, Admiral 'RadicalJack' Fisher strenuously promotedthe new naval arm - even thoughhis very own Dreadnoughts werenow threatened by it.

In 1904 he predicted the "vast

impending revolution" that sub-marines would bring about.

Meanwhile, seaman officers inthe Trade necessarily acquiredcngincering skills, exemplifyingFishers determination to kick anoutdated but complacent Navy intothe technological 20th century.

In l904-05 submariners adoptedFort Blockhouse, at the entrance toPortsmouth Harbour. formerly thehome of Mining Engineers, as a'Submarine Depot'.The takeover signalled that the

Navy was relieving the Army of

responsibility for coastal protectionagainst invasion, with 'locomotivetorpedoes' instead of Royal Engin-eers' remotely.detonated mines.

It followed, as crafty Fisherintended, that when a financially.embarrassed Government imposeddefence cuts they fell more heavilyon soldiers than on sailors.

But why did submariners accepthazardous, possibly unhealthy andcertainly uncomfortable duty?

" Teatime on patrol in E34 - chiefs and petty officers enjoy a break in the confined spaces of theirboat. E34 was one of the second group of if-boats, launched by Thomycroft in January 1917, andwas configured as a minelayer, carrying 20 mines In ten vertical chutes housed In the boat's saddletanks in place ofbeam torpedo tubes. Mlnelaylng if-boats tended to operate In home waters, withjustone ofthe type

- E46 - venturing further afield to lay mlnefieids in the Adriatic, although the depth ofwater In the area is believedto have rendered hermines lneflectlve. E34 was lost probably to a mine,in the North Sea around July 20, 1918- the last ofher class to be sunk during the First World War.

NAVY NEWS. SUBMARINE CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 2001 3

" VC boat 911 under tow - a quit. nonnal means of

progress. Conditions In apetroi.,gn.d

B-boat worelike living under the bonnet of

dllIUIP

" Lt E.W. LelrJus-titles the criti-cism that being asubmariner wasno occupationfor a gentleman(left, on thebridge of C13) -but the sameofficer proveshe could be agentlemanwhen required(right).

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111 9p1 lefin rimlARD COMPTON-HALL

The answer was money. In sub.marines, a young lieutenant was

paid 16s a day (say £30 now)instead of lOs, and a lieutenant incommand got another 3s 9d. Anable seaman received 3s 7d insteadof Is 7d.

It was enough to make marriage- or a motorbike - feasible, whilethose not so inclined could more

easily afford to relax in other ways:by 1908 only one in 14 submarinerswas earning a penny a day for giv-ing up grog compared with thenavy's average of one in six.

However, pay did not accountfor famously high morale amongstcrews: that was mainly due tomutual reliance, and hence com-

radeship, while facing an implaca-ble enemy only half-an-inch awayin peace or war - the sea itself.

Every man was perforce profes-sional - sink or swim: formal disci-

pline was redundant.Lessons, in the early days, were

learned the hard way. Petrol fumesin a confined space were explosiveand intoxicating; sanitation mostlydepended on buckets; internal bal-last tanks admitted sea pressure toflat surfaces inside a boat; crushingdepth was too close for comfort;

rudimentary periscopes were fre-

quently fogged and, depending onrelative bearing, an image rotatedfrom right way up to upside down.

Electrical circuits were plaguedby damp or swamped with water,

compasses deviated wildly, andnaviation was "by guess or byGixi'; watch-and-watch was thenorm: and practically all handsslept on bare decks in the beads-less 206 to 320-ton A, B and Cboats that followed the 122-tonHollands (which at least had a

hand-pumped WC).None too soon, from 1910, the

flotilla was joined by diesel-drivenD-boats, with safe and economicaloil fuel. cxterii;il hill,i't ink.. md

more internal space, and in 1913came the first of 56 versatile 800-ton E-boats.

With a 1,500-mile operationalradius at ten knots, these 'oversea'submarines were able to deployoffensively; on dived patrol theycould make eight knots for onehour or transit covertly for 65 milesat five knots.Too bow, two beam and one stern

tube for ten 18-inch torpedoesembarked, or in some cases 20 minesin saddle-tank chutes instead of'beamers'. gave the Es a hefty punch,and some acquired a 12-pdr gun.

Torpedoes were aimed by eye,usually from 500-1,000 yards, andthere were no attack instrumentsuntil 1918; of 617 tinfish fired inwar 101 (16 per cent) struck home.

When war was declared in 1914the Trade was not yet in its teens,but boyish enthusiasm made every-one "very keen for a scrap".An exciting patrol was "a jolly

good stunt" and, before sailing, aship's company was "on the grin".

But ripping yams of underseaadventure failed to describe stink-

ing bilges and hideous, overflowingbuckets of garbage or worse.

In the North Sea there were few

targets, and it was brutally hard

physicalwork to keep a boat going

in foul weather.Canvas screens around bridges -

inadequate at the best of times -tore away; rivets started and had tobe plugged; compasses toppled.

Officers and men alike were per-

ruailycold. wet, filthy. tired and

ustrated.Wanting results, First Lord

Winston Churchill suggestedsneaking boats into the Balticwhere targets ought to be plentiful.

In October 1914 El (It Cdr NoelLawrence) and E9 (LI Cdr MaxHorton DSO. who had made theonly worthwhile attack so far by sink-iii the crmim..er I Telm1 ..Impped thrimuch

the Kattcgat and berthed - uninvited- in the Russian port of Libau.

Subsequent successes were suchthat German naval units support-ing the army withdrew from theBaltic (becoming known asHorton's Sea) and a plannedadvance against Rigs was delayeduntil October 1917.

Four more E-boats followed,although E13 (Geoffrey Layton)ran aground and the crew wasinterned in Copenhagen.Thanks to the continuing eager-

ness of Churchill and Roger Keyes,head of the submarine service,another daring undertaking, in sup-port of the ill-fated Dardanelles

campaign, was instigated.Submarines were directed to

rnetratcthe slim. 27-milc. heavi-

!yIl.guardedand thickly-mined

Dardanelles channel to launch anoffensive against Turkish supplylines in the Sea of Marmara.

It Norman Holbrook, in the tinycoastal Bit, led the way, against allodds, by reconnoitring the Straits upto the Narrows - the ancientHellespont

- and sinking the Turkish

battleship Messoudich as a bonus.Holbrook thereby won the

1adc's first Victoria Cross, whilethe ship's company shared £3,500prize bounty: Holbrook himselftook £601 10s 2d (say £22,500today), and each able seamanreceived £120 6¬ id (4,5OO).

When

HM ships Triumphand Majestic were sunkby U-21 (Otto Hersing)

south of the Gallipoli peninsula inMay 1915. all hope of allied capitalships forcing the Dardanelles wasabandoned; submarines alone wereleft to attempt the appallingly dan-gerous passage.The Australian AE2, command-

ed by Irishman Henry Stoker, wasthe first to reach the Marrnara; but.alas, somebody opened a tank-valve when it should have beenshut.The boat lost control and had to

wreaked havoc during three Mar-maca patrols

- one lasting a record-breakingtwo months. El l's total bagwas 122 vessels, albeit mostly small.The crew enjoyed their 96 days

in hostile waters, and the diary ofSignalman George Plowman indi-cates a remarkable lack of tension:

"24 May ... glorious start by sink-ing a gunboat, that being our firstship.

"26 May ... very exciting; at day-light we dived at the entrance of

it.

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the harbour at Constantinople landwent inside the Thrkish port - withonly the handsonwatch closed up].

"7 June ... Li Hughes spots amine hanging on to us so callsCaptain and Navvie up to have alook. They keep it quiet until weare about to rise when I am sent toget some flags out of the tower. Isec the mine and go to inform theCaptain wholauhs and tells me toget a hammer" Turn to nextpage.

Indeed, before the peninsula wasevacuated in December 1916, fourBritish and three French sub-marines were lost, but sevenThrkish warships, nine transports,30 steamers, seven supply vesselsand 188 smaller craft weredestroyed by submarines, besidesthe damage done by submarinegunnery to infrastructure ashore.The lion's share of thisdestruc-tionwent to Eli (Lt Cdr Martin

Nasmith) who, from May 1915,

0SUBMARINERSASSOCIATIONFounded 10th November 1956

Recognised by the Ministry of Defence

a. To promote and support the RNSubmarine Service and It's heritage.

b. To foster the friendships andcomradeshippeculiar to all submariners so that theymaycontinue to share the experiencesand associations, and to keep alive thatpride in the Submarine Branch, formedduring their service in HM Submarines.

ADDRESS

I II II IL POSTCODE-----------

--------------------jBend to. THE NATIONAL SECRETARY, SUBMARINERS ASSOCIATION,

15 YARL MEADOW, BARROW-IN-FURNUS, CUMBRIA, LAI3 SSJ

c. To promote and foster relationshipswith submariners of other countries.

d. To enhance the wellbeing ofsubmariners past and present and theirfamilies.

e. To promote and support the SubmarineBenevolent Fund.

If you are a qualified Submariner (passed your part 3), whether serving or past,then you are welcome to join oneof the 66 branches in the UK, and 3 overseas.

For details of membership of the Submarine Association please complete the slip below.---

-i

NAME

" E18 (Lt CdrRobert Halahan) suffering icing during the Baltic winter of 1915-16. She was lost, pos-sibly mined, in May 1916, shortly after damaging the German destroyer V-tOO.

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-OUR OBJECTIVES:

"1:1 *1II:1 M;i I I11 1;VI[ 1 II :1;LI*11 '1' IIT1 VI1 F'Iiil

4 NAVY NEWS, SUBMARINE CENTENARY SUPPLEMENT, JANUARY 2001 www. navynews, co. uk

• K4 aground off Barrow in January, 1917 - a relatively trivial mishap for a K-boat

No Occupation lor a Gentleman?• Continued from previous page.

"4 December ... third washindulged in."

Nasmith was given the highestaward. Five VCs were won by sub-mariners 1914-18, all but one inthe Dardanelles, where sub-marines upheld the honour of theRoyal Navy during an otherwisesomewhat inglorious navalepisode.

Unfortunately, despite abun-dant proof that submarines werebest employed where surface ves-sels could not venture, admiralspressed for them to work with theGrand Fleet at speeds up to 24knots.

This demanded a steam plant -hence the catastrophic twin-fun-nelled K-class.

Seventeen K-boats were complet-ed during the war: eight suffereddisasters, and there were 16 majoraccidents together with an uncount-ed number of lesser mishaps.

After the war, First Lord Sir EricGeddes blamed the crews: "It looks

as though there was somethingwrong with the standard of efficien-cy."

Submariners thought otherwise:one remarked, correctly, that "K-boats came to grief because theyhad the speed of a destroyer, butthe turning circle of a battle-cruis-er and the bridge-control facilitiesof a picket-boat."

Whatever tasks submarinerswere allotted they made best use oftools at their disposal, but onething is clear from the Trade'swartime experience - men andmorale were more important thanmachinery and materiel. Which, allthings considered, was just as well.

• Richard Compton-Hall is oneof the foremost authors andauthorities on submarine his-tory. A former submarine com-mander in the Royal Navy, hewas also Director of the RNSubmarine Museum in Gosportfrom 1975 to 1994.

• K22 lowering her funnels before diving. Thediving procedure for K-boats was protracted -around five minutes was the average, comparedto 30 seconds for an H-boat, because of thenumber of valves to be closed.

This is the first of four supplements this year which build into a history of the SubmarineService. Part 2 will appear in our May edition - with a cutaway of an historic submarine.Part 3 will appear in September, and Part 4 in November.

Babcock Engineering Services Linyled^

wish the Submarine Squadronsevery success in th;

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to enable operationalexcellence

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