Submarines on Foreign Stations.
Attached to Mediterranean Fleet.—Submarines B.9, B.10, and B.11.
At Gibraltar.—Submarines B.6, B.7, and B.8.
Attached to China Squadron.—Submarines C.36, C.37, and C.38.
With Australian Fleet.—Submarines A.E.1[[2]] and A.E.2.
The statement that the headquarters of the various submarine flotillas in home waters are at Chatham, Portsmouth, and Devonport, must not be taken as indicating that these are the only points along the coast protected by submarines. These places are merely the chief bases of the Patrol Flotillas. The wide range of action of modern submarines enables them to operate several hundred miles from any base or depôt, and consequently Chatham becomes merely the general store, or head-depôt, of what should be termed the North Sea Flotillas, which not only patrol the whole East, North-East and South-East Coasts of England and Scotland, but also have their floating secondary bases in the form of Depôt Ships, which, with their attached submarines, are often at Harwich, Newcastle, Rosyth, etc. In the same way Portsmouth is merely the headquarters of the submarines patrolling the Channel; and Dover, Portland, etc., are seldom without strong flotillas of submarines with their Depôt ships. The Devonport Flotillas have the longest coast-line to patrol, for their area covers not only the West Coast of England, Wales and Scotland, but also the Irish Coast. They are, however, furthest removed from the zone of war.
Considerable alterations have taken place in the composition and distribution of the British submarine flotillas since the outbreak of war, with the object of materially strengthening the Fleet in the main theatre of operations, but the addition to the flotillas of new vessels of the latest “E” type—nearly completed when war broke out—has made this rearrangement possible without materially weakening the flotillas guarding the more distant coasts of Great Britain or recalling vessels from overseas.
Photo, Cribb, Southsea.]
THE BRITISH SUBMARINE “D.7.”
Displacement, 620 tons; Speed, 16·10 knots; Armament, 2 bow and 1 stern torpedo tube.
There are 8 vessels of this class, completed between 1908–12.
The first submarine torpedo-boat built for the British Navy was launched from the yard of Messrs. Vickers Ltd., Barrow-in-Furness in 1901, and was designated the No. 1. It was constructed from the designs of the famous American inventor, Mr. John P. Holland, and was one of the most successful boats afloat at that time. A series of exhaustive trials with this and the succeeding five vessels, all of the same type and launched during 1901–2, proved conclusively the fighting value of this type of craft, and a further order was given by the British Admiralty for four new vessels embodying the improvements suggested by the trials of the first five. These vessels were the first of the “A” class, and were designated the “A’s 1, 2, 3, and 4.” They had a submerged displacement of 180 tons, a length of 100 feet and a beam of 10 feet. They were propelled by petrol motors of 190 H.-P. on the surface and by electric motors of about 80 H.-P. when submerged. Their speed ranged from 8 knots an hour on the surface to 5 knots when travelling submerged, and their maximum surface endurance (or fuel capacity) was only 400 knots at 8 knots. Their armament consisted of three 18-inch Whitehead torpedoes and one bow tube.
All these vessels were, however, obsolete and therefore scrapped before the opening of hostilities, hence information concerning them is only of interest as showing the rapid growth in size, power and armament of British submarines. The next batch of vessels were the A’s 5 to 13, launched at Barrow in 1904, but these, as will have been seen from the table showing the composition and distribution of the submarine flotillas at the outbreak of war, are still on the effective list. All the following British submarines are now in the fighting line.