Jump to content

HMS Unswerving

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Monkbot (talk | contribs) at 19:05, 11 October 2015 (Task 9: convert line-break list(s) to unordered list(s) in ship infobox templates;). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

History
NameHMS Unswerving
BuilderVickers Armstrong, Newcastle upon Tyne
Laid down17 February 1942
Launched19 July 1943
Commissioned3 October 1943
Fatescrapped July 1949
Badge
General characteristics
Displacement
  • Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
  • Submerged - 730 tons
Length58.22 m (191 feet)
Beam4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
  • 2 shaft diesel-electric
  • 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors
  • 615 / 825 hp
Speed
  • 11.25 knots max surfaced
  • 10 knots max submerged
Complement27-31
Armament
  • 4 bow internal 21 inch torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes
  • 1 - 3 inch gun

HMS Unswerving (P63) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unswerving.

Career

Unswerving carried out work-ups at end of 1943, then joined the 1st Flotilla in the Mediterranean, where she carried out patrols in the Aegean Sea. She would eventually spend most of her wartime career in the Mediterranean, where she sank the German guardboats GN 61 and GN 62, the German tanker Bertha (the former French Bacchus) and six sailing vessels, and claimed to have damaged a seventh. She was however unlucky on numerous occasions, unsuccessfully attacking the small German merchant Toni (the former Greek Thalia), the German auxiliary minelayer Zeus, the German transport Pelikan and her escort, the German torpedo boat TA 19, and the German merchant Gertrud on two separate occasions.

Under the command of Lieutenant M. D. "Mick" Tattershall, Unswerving was the first British submarine where all the officers were members of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve rather than any of them being officers of the regular navy.

Unswerving survived the war and arrived at John Cashmore Ltd, Newport on 10 July 1946 for scrapping.

References

  • "HMS Unswerving (P 63)". uboat.net.
  • "Universal to Untamed". British submarines of World War II.
  • Colledge, J. J.; Warlow, Ben (2006) [1969]. Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy (Rev. ed.). London: Chatham Publishing. ISBN 978-1-86176-281-8.
  • Hutchinson, Robert (2001). Jane's Submarines: War Beneath the Waves from 1776 to the Present Day. London: HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-00-710558-8. OCLC 53783010.
  • Lennox Kerr, J; Granville, Wilfred (1957). The R.N.V.R. A Record of Achievement. George G Harrap.