HMS Umpire (N82)

Last updated

Hms umpire submarine.jpg
HMS Umpire
History
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svgUnited Kingdom
Builder Chatham Dockyard
Laid down1 January 1940
Launched30 December 1940
Commissioned10 July 1941
FateSunk in collision 19 July 1941
Badge UMPIRE badge-1-.jpg
General characteristics
Displacement
  • Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load
  • Submerged - 730 tons
Length60 m (196 ft 10 in)
Beam4.90 m (16 ft 1 in)
Draught4.62 m (15 ft 2 in)
Propulsion
  • 2 shaft diesel-electric
  • 2 Paxman Ricardo diesel generators + electric motors
  • 615 / 825 hp
Speed
  • 11.25 knots (20.8 km/h) max surfaced
  • 10 knots (19 km/h) max submerged
Complement31
Armament

HMS Umpire (N82) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built at Chatham Dockyard and sunk in an accident nine days after commissioning in July 1941 with the loss of 22 men. The submarine was sunk while en route from Chatham to join the 3rd Submarine Flotilla at Dunoon, under the command of Lieutenant Mervyn Wingfield. [1] From Dunoon she was to carry out a single working-up patrol in the North Sea before heading to the Mediterranean. [2] She stopped overnight at Sheerness and joined a convoy headed North. The submarine suffered engine failure with one of the two diesel engines and as a result fell behind the convoy; the propellers were driven purely by electric motors on the surface and when submerged with no mechanical linkage to the diesel engines. The convoy passed a Southbound convoy around midnight while about 12 nautical miles (22 km) off Blakeney, Norfolk, with the two convoys passing starboard to starboard; this was unusual since ships and convoys should pass port to port. No ships showed any lights because of the risk from German E-boats. [2] However, an armed escort trawler, Peter Hendriks in the southbound convoy accidentally struck Umpire sinking her in 18 metres of water. [3]

Contents

Four crew members were on the bridge when the submarine sank - Wingfield, the navigator and two lookouts. [4] However, only Wingfield survived in the cold water to be picked up by the trawler. Several other personnel also survived, escaping from the sunken wreck using the conning tower or the engine room escape hatch, the majority wearing DSEA. [5] Chief ERA Killen received a British Empire Medal for leaving the submarine wearing DSEA to check for obstructions around the engine room hatch and then returning to the engine room to assist the other crew members in escaping. He remained in the engine room until everyone else there had escaped. [2] 16 of the crew successfully escaped, 22 crew were lost.

Lieutenant Edward Young, one of the survivors from Umpire, later went on to command HMS Storm.

The wreck is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. [6] [7]

Citations

  1. "HMS Umpire (N 82)". Uboat.net. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  2. 1 2 3 Edward Young (May 1998). One of Our submarines. Wordsworth Editions Limited. pp. 46–59. ISBN   1-85326-681-7. Young was on board the submarine when it sank
  3. "Submarine losses 1904 to present day". Royal Navy Submarine Museum. Archived from the original on 2 January 2007. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  4. "Todays memoir". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 21 February 2011.
  5. "Submarine Casualties Booklet". U.S. Naval Submarine School. 1966. Archived from the original on 27 July 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2009.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  6. "Protected Wrecks in the UK". Maritime and Coastguard Agency. Archived from the original on 16 May 2010. Retrieved 24 February 2007.
  7. "Statutory Instrument 2008/0950". Office of Public Sector Information, 1 April 2008. Retrieved 19 July 2008.

Related Research Articles

HMS <i>A1</i> Royal Navys first British-designed submarine

HMS A1 was the Royal Navy's first British-designed submarine, and their first to suffer fatal casualties.

HMS <i>Sidon</i> (P259) Royal Navy submarine sunk in Portland Harbour by explosion of a faulty torpedo

HMS Sidon was a submarine of the Royal Navy, launched in September 1944, one of the third group of S class built by Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead, named after the naval bombardment of Sidon in 1840. An explosion caused by a faulty torpedo sank her in Portland Harbour with the loss of 13 lives.

HMS <i>Seal</i> (N37) Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Seal was one of six Grampus-class mine-laying submarines of the Royal Navy. She served in the Second World War and was captured by the Kriegsmarine and taken into German service as UB, one of several captured subs. She was the only submarine the Germans captured at sea during World War II. Her capture allowed the Germans to correct a critical fault in their U-boat torpedoes.

HMS <i>Truculent</i> (P315) T-class submarine of the Royal Navy, in service from 1942 to 1950

HMS Truculent was a British submarine of the third group of the T-class. She was built as P315 by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow, and launched on 12 September 1942. She sank nine enemy vessels.

HMS <i>Swordfish</i> (61S) Submarine

HMS Swordfish (61S) was a first-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during the 1930s. Commissioned in 1932, she was given the pennant number 61S and was assigned to the 2nd Submarine Flotilla.

British U-class submarine 1940 class of British submarines

The British U-class submarines were a class of 49 small submarines built just before and during the Second World War. The class is sometimes known as the Undine class, after the first submarine built. A further development was the British V-class submarine of 1942.

HMS <i>Perseus</i> (N36) British submarine

HMS Perseus was a British Parthian-class submarine built in 1929 and lost in 1941 during the Second World War. This class were the first to be fitted with Mark VIII torpedoes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mediterranean U-boat campaign of World War II</span>

The Mediterranean U-boat Campaign lasted from about 21 September 1941 to 19 September 1944 during the Second World War. Malta was an active British base strategically located near supply routes from Europe to North Africa. Axis supply convoys across the Mediterranean Sea suffered severe losses, which in turn threatened the fighting ability of the Axis armies in North Africa. The Allies were able to keep their North African armies supplied. The Kriegsmarine tried to isolate Malta but later it concentrated its U-boat operations on disrupting Allied landing operations in southern Europe.

HMS <i>Vandal</i> Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Vandal (P64) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness, yard number 838. The submarine had the shortest career of any Royal Navy submarine, being lost with all 37 onboard just four days after commissioning.

HMS P32 was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness.

HMS Bergamot was an Anchusa-class sloop of the Royal Navy, which had a short career during World War I. Built by Armstrong Whitworth, the ship was laid down on 1 January 1917, launched on 5 May, and commissioned on 14 July.

HMS <i>Splendid</i> (P228) Submarine

HMS Splendid was a third-batch S-class submarine built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She was laid down on 7 March 1941 and launched on 19 January 1942. After an initial patrol through the Bay of Biscay to Gibraltar, Splendid conducted two patrols in the Mediterranean Sea; one was abandoned after technical problems and on the other she sank two Italian ships. On her next patrol, the submarine attacked two Italian convoys, sinking an Italian destroyer in the second attack. Based in Algiers, the boat operated north of Sicily, sinking six Italian ships, including two tankers and two heavy merchant ships. Splendid was detected by a German destroyer on 21 April 1943 while patrolling off Naples, Italy; the submarine was attacked with depth charges by the destroyer and forced to surface, after which she was scuttled and her surviving crew members taken prisoner. She was the most successful British submarine by tonnage sunk between November 1942 and May 1943.

HMS <i>Narwhal</i> (N45) Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Narwhal (N45) was one of the six ship class of Grampus-class mine-laying submarine of the Royal Navy. She was built by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched 29 August 1935. She served in the Second World War in home waters. She was lost in the North Sea on 23 July 1940, probably sunk by German aircraft.

HMS <i>Turbulent</i> (N98) Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Turbulent (N98) was a T-class submarine of the Royal Navy. It was laid down by Vickers Armstrong, Barrow and launched in May 1941.

HMS <i>Attack</i> (1911) Destroyer of the Royal Navy

HMS Attack was an Acheron-class destroyer built in 1911, which served during the First World War and was sunk in 1917 in the Mediterranean by a German U-boat. She was the third ship of the name to serve in the Royal Navy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Preston Young</span> English book publisher and submariner (1913–2003)

Edward Preston "Teddy" Young, & Bar, was a British graphic designer, submariner and publisher. In 1935, he joined the then new publishers Penguin Books and was responsible for designing the cover scheme used by Penguin for many years as well as drawing the original penguin logo. During World War II he served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR) and became the first British RNVR officer to command a submarine. After the war he returned to the publishing world and eventually became managing director of the Rainbird Group. Having written his wartime biography, One of Our Submarines, in 1952, he later wrote several other books.

HMS <i>Untamed</i> Submarine of the Royal Navy

HMS Untamed was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrongs, High Walker. So far, she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Untamed. On 30 May 1943, she sank during a training exercise in the Firth of Clyde with the loss of all 35 of her crew. Untamed was subsequently salvaged and renamed HMS Vitality, another unique name, and lasted until 1946 when she was scrapped.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Action of 13 November 1943</span> Submarine engagement of World War II

The action of 13 November 1943 was a submarine engagement of World War II. It resulted in the sinking of the Japanese Navy's Kaidai Junsen Type B1 submarine I-34 in the Strait of Malacca by the British Royal Navy submarine HMS Taurus. I-34 was on a Yanagi Mission, an underwater convoy secretly shipping goods between Japan and their German allies.

HMS Mary Rose, launched on 8 October 1915, was an Admiralty M-class destroyer sunk on 17 October 1917 approximately 70 miles east of Lerwick in an action off Lerwick while escorting a convoy of 12 merchant ships from Norway. The wreck is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986.

HMS <i>Southwold</i> (L10) British warship

HMS Southwold was a Type II British Hunt-class destroyer built for the Royal Navy during World War II. She served in the Mediterranean for a few months until she was sunk off Malta in March 1942.

References

53°09′N1°06′E / 53.150°N 1.100°E / 53.150; 1.100