River class submarine

River class submarine

The River class, or "Thames" class were a class of submarines built for the Royal Navy.

They were the last attempt by the Admiralty to produce "Fleet Submarines" that is submarines fast enough to operate as part of a fleet which at the time meant being able to manage somewhere around convert|20|kn|km/h|0 while surfaced. The previous attempts had been the steam powered K class submarines and the large convert|12|in|mm|0|sing=on gunned M class submarines.

A design was drawn up in the late 1920s and three vessels were built by Vickers in Barrow, "Thames" in 1932, "Severn" and "Clyde" in 1935. The latter were a little larger than "Thames". Initially 20 were planned but changes in thinking and cost limited the building to just the three.

The design compromised on diving depth to keep weight down and speed up. They had a safe diving depth of some convert|300|ft|m|-1 compared to the "Odin" class before them which had managed convert|500|ft|m|-1. They were powered by two diesel engines delivering 8,000 bhp. Two Ricardo engines drove generators that supercharged the diesels up to 10,000 bhp. This gave them a surface speed of convert|22|kn|km/h|0.

During the Second World War they initially operated in the North Sea and Mediterranean.

"Thames" was lost off Norway on 23 September 1940. "Clyde" was used to deliver suppplies to the besieged island of Malta in September 1941. "Severn" and "Clyde" were in service in the Far East when they were taken out of service in mid to late 1945.

hips

* HMS "Thames" (N71)
* HMS "Severn" (N57)
* HMS "Clyde" (N12)

References

* Conway's All the World's Fighting ships 1922-1946
* D.K. Brown - Nelson to Vanguard , Chatham Maritime Press ISBN 1 86176 136 8
* [http://www.submariners.co.uk/Boats/Barrowbuilt/River/index.htm - page from submariners.co.uk]
* [http://uboat.net/allies/warships/class.html?ID=48 - page from Uboat.net]


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