Nelson to Vanguard by David K. Brown

Author:David K. Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473816695
Publisher: Seaforth Publishing

Wartime building of the ‘S’, ‘T’ and ‘U’ classes

As mentioned earlier, it was decided in 1940 that more ‘S’ class boats should be built and thirty-three were ordered in the 1940 and 1941 Programmes. They had welded frames and riveted plating with a diving depth of 300ft.31 After the first six boats, a single, external tube was fitted aft. Seventeen more were ordered under the 1942 and 1943 programmes. The first two were similar to the riveted, 1941 boats with a 3in gun and a stern tube.32 Later boats were all-welded with a diving depth of 350ft and the stern tube was omitted to allow for the weight of a 4in gun. Both groups incorporated improved shock protection following trials in Job 81 and some noise reduction measures were incorporated. The cost was about £318,000.

Sixteen more ‘T’ class boats were ordered under the War and 1940 programmes and twenty-two more in 1941 and 1942. The main change was that the midships external tubes were moved to fire aft and another external tube added at the stern giving a stern salvo of three and a bow salvo of eight.33 The bow external tubes in the original design made the bow very bluff, causing a big bow wave on the surface and impairing depth keeping submerged, and in the later wartime boats these tubes were moved 7ft aft to allow a finer bow.34 The last twelve boats had all-welded hulls with 30lb S quality steel plating allowing a safe diving depth of 350ft.35

A total of seventy-one more boats based on Undine were ordered under the War 1940, 1941 and 1942 Programmes. The external bow tubes were omitted in all of them to improve the form. The shape of the bow and hence the length varied in the earlier boats, depending on how far building had advanced when the change was made. The earlier boats had a 12pdr gun, changed to a 3in (17pdr) in the later boats. The later boats from Venturer were altered more substantially. The bow shape was fined further and the stern lines were altered to improve the flow into the propellers. Several early boats suffered from ‘singing’ propellers and it was though that poor inflow contributed.36 This later group had an all-welded pressure hull with 25lb plating which increased their diving depth to 300ft.

Vulpine, a ‘V’ class submarine. She has been fitted with a dummy ‘Snort’ for A/S training. (Imperial War Museum: A25976)

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