HMS Tarpon (N17)

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HMS Tudor.jpg
The British T-class submarine HMS Tudor , sister ship of HMS Tarpon.
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
Builder Scotts, Greenock
Laid down5 October 1937
Launched17 October 1939
Commissioned8 March 1940
Identification Pennant number N17
FateSunk with all hands, 14 April 1940 [1]
Badge
TARPON badge-1-.jpg
General characteristics
Class and type British T class submarine
Displacement
  • 1,090 tons surfaced
  • 1,575 tons submerged
Length275 ft (84 m)
Beam26 ft 6 in (8.08 m)
Draught16.3 ft (5.0 m)
Propulsion
  • Two shafts
  • Twin diesel engines 2,500 hp (1.86 MW) each
  • Twin electric motors 1,450 hp (1.08 MW) each
Speed
  • 15.25 knots (28.7 km/h) surfaced
  • 9 knots (20 km/h) submerged
Range4,500 nautical miles at 11 knots (8,330 km at 20 km/h) surfaced
Test depth300 ft (91 m) max
Complement59
Armament

The second HMS Tarpon (N17) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. She was laid down by Scotts, Greenock and launched in October 1939. She is named after the large fish Tarpon; one species of which is native to the Atlantic, and the other to the Indo-Pacific Oceans. [2]

Contents

Career

Tarpon had a short career, serving in the North Sea. She left Portsmouth on 5 April 1940 for Rosyth in company with HMS Severn. The following day they were ordered to Norway. On the 10th Tarpon was ordered to take up a new position. Tarpon was never heard from again.

It is asserted that there is a combination of British and German records which state that she was engaged by Schiff 40. [3] The records show that Tarpon had attacked the Q-ship Schiff 40/Schürbek, but her first torpedoes had missed. The Q-ship picked up the Tarpon on her sonar and her periscope was sighted. The ship dropped numerous depth charges in a sustained counterattack that went on most of the morning. Finally a pattern of depth charges brought wreckage to the surface. The Q-ship remained on the scene until 0500 the next morning when it became clear the submarine had been sunk. Tarpon was reported overdue on 22 April 1940. [4] [5]

Wreck

The wreck was found and identified in the Danish part of the North Sea, near the harbour town of Thyborøn, by a Danish commercial diver, Gert Normann Andersen of the company JD-Contractor and British marine archaeologist Dr Innes McCartney in March 2016. [6] [7] The wreck was explored in a live TV program by Denmark's Radio on 28 August 2016. [8] The submarine wreck was found with two torpedo tubes empty; confirming it likely they were fired in battle before her sinking. It is therefore still most likely she was then sunk by depth charges. [3] The wreck is submerged in 40 metres of water. [3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Colledge (2006), p. 344
  2. ↑ " Megalops atlanticus", www.fishbase.org, 11 February 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 "Sunken WWII-Era British Submarine Found off Danish Coast". New Historian. 10 September 2016. Retrieved 22 September 2016.
  4. ↑ HMS Tarpon, Uboat.net
  5. ↑ Submarine losses 1904 to present day Archived 8 August 2007 at the Wayback Machine , RN Submarine Museum, Gosport
  6. ↑ "Wreck of second world war British submarine found off Denmark". The Guardian . 5 September 2016. Retrieved 5 September 2016.
  7. ↑ Usædvanligt fund af ubåd fra anden verdenskrig fundet i dansk farvand, Jyllandsposten, 17 Marts 2016
  8. ↑ "Live fra dybet" . Retrieved 5 September 2016.

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References

56°43′01″N6°33′00″E / 56.717°N 6.55°E / 56.717; 6.55

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