Parthian-class submarine

HMS Phoenix, 1939
Class overview
Name:	Parthian class
Operators:	Royal Navy
Preceded by:	Odin class
Succeeded by:	Rainbow class
In commission:	1929—1946
Completed:	6
Lost:	5
General characteristics [1]
Displacement:	1,760 long tons (1,790 t) surfaced 2,040 long tons (2,070 t) submerged
Length:	289 ft (88 m)
Beam:	30 ft (9.1 m)
Draught:	16 ft (4.9 m)
Propulsion:	Diesel-electric 2 × Admiralty diesel engines, 4,640 hp (3,460 kW) 2 × electric motors, 1,635 hp (1,219 kW) 2 shafts
Speed:	17.5 knots (20.1 mph; 32.4 km/h) surfaced 8.6 kn (9.9 mph; 15.9 km/h) submerged
Complement:	53
Armament:	8 × 21 in (533 mm) torpedo tubes (6 bow, 2 stern) with 14 reloads 1 × QF 4-inch (102 mm) Mk XII deck gun After 1942 : 2 × 20 mm Oerlikon cannons Equipped to lay mines through torpedo tubes

The Parthian-class submarine or P class was a class of six submarines built for the Royal Navy in the late 1920s. They were designed as long-range patrol submarines for the Far East. These boats were almost identical to the Odin class, the only difference being a different bow shape.

Boats

Name	Builder	Launched	Fate
Pandora (ex-Python)	Vickers, Barrow	22 August 1929	Sunk by Italian aircraft in harbour at Valletta, Malta 1 April 1942. Raised in September 1943, but not repaired. Hulk scrapped in 1955.
Parthian	Chatham Dockyard	22 June 1929	Lost between 6 August and 11 August 1943 in the Adriatic. Presumed mined.
Perseus	Vickers, Barrow	22 May 1929	Most likely to have been Mined in the Ionian Sea between the islands of Kefallonia and Zakynthos off the west coast of Greece, 6 December 1941.
Phoenix	Cammell Laird	3 October 1929	Presumed sunk on 16 July 1940 in depth charge attack by the Italian torpedo boat Albatros off the coast of Sicily.
Poseidon	Vickers, Barrow	21 June 1929	Sank in accidental collision with a merchant steamer on 9 June 1931. Wreck alleged to have been salvaged by China during 1970s.[2]
Proteus	Vickers, Barrow	23 July 1929	Scrapped in March 1946 at Troon.

References

1. Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5515941/China-accused-of-secretly-salvaging-sunken-British-submarine-containing-18-lost-sailors.html|

• Akermann, Paul (2002). Encyclopaedia of British Submarines 1901–1955 (reprint of the 1989 ed.). Penzance, Cornwall: Periscope Publishing. ISBN 1-904381-05-7.
• Bagnasco, Erminio (1977). Submarines of World War Two. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0-87021-962-6.
• 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. OCLC 67375475.
• Chesneau, Roger, ed. (1980). Conway's All the World's Fighting Ships 1922–1946. Greenwich, UK: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-146-7.
• McCartney, Innes (2006). British Submarines 1939–1945. New Vanguard. 129. Oxford, UK: Osprey. ISBN 1-84603-007-2.

External links

• "Parthian class submarine". Battleships-cruisers.co.uk. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
• "Parthian class". BritSub. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
• "HMS Pandora". Uboat.net. Retrieved 2006-12-02.
• "Submarine losses 1904 to present day". Royal Navy Submarine Museum. Archived from the original on 2006-08-16. Retrieved 2006-12-02.