HMS Salmon (N65)

For other ships with the same name, see HMS Salmon.
History
United Kingdom
Class and type: S-class submarine
Name: HMS Salmon
Builder: Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead
Laid down: 15 June 1933
Launched: 30 April 1934
Commissioned: 8 March 1935
Fate: Sunk on 9 July 1940
Badge:
General characteristics
Displacement:
  • 670 tons surfaced
  • 960 tons submerged
Length: 208 ft 9 in (63.63 m)
Beam: 24 ft (7.3 m)
Draught: 10 ft 6 in (3.20 m)
Propulsion: Twin diesel/electric
Speed:
  • 13.75 knots surfaced
  • 10 knots submerged
Complement: 39 officers and men
Armament:
  • 6 × forward 21-inch torpedo tubes
  • 12 torpedoes
  • one three-inch gun
  • one .303-calibre machine gun

HMS Salmon was a Royal Navy S-class submarine which was launched on 30 April 1934, and fought in the Second World War. Salmon is one of twelve boats named in the song "Twelve Little S-Boats".

On 4 December 1939, while on patrol in the North Sea, Salmon torpedoed and sank U-36.[1]

On 12 December 1939, Salmon sighted the German liner SS Bremen. While challenging Bremen, an escorting Dornier Do 18 seaplane forced Salmon to dive. After diving the Salmon's commander, Lieutenant Commander E. O. Bickford, decided not to torpedo the liner because he believed she was not a legal target.[2] Bickford's decision not to fire on Bremen likely delayed the start of unrestricted submarine warfare in the war.[1]

On 13 December 1939, Salmon sighted a fleet of German warships. She fired a spread of torpedoes which damaged two German cruisers (one was German cruiser Leipzig, the other, her younger sister ship, German cruiser  Nürnberg). Salmon evaded the fleet's destroyers, which hunted her for two hours.[1][2]

She was lost, probably sunk by a mine, on 9 July 1940.

There is a report from 2008 that the same survey ship that found the wreck of the sister submarine HMS Shark also found the wreck of the HMS Salmon nearby in waters off Norway.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Huchthausen, Peter A. (2005). Shadow Voyage: The Extraordinary Wartime Escape of the Legendary SS Bremen. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 164, 227. ISBN 0-471-45758-2. OCLC 55764562.
  2. 1 2 http://web.ukonline.co.uk/chalcraft/sm/salmon.html

External links

Coordinates: 57°00′N 2°47′E / 57.000°N 2.783°E / 57.000; 2.783


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