HMS Saracen (P247)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 HMS Saracen |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | S class submarine |
| Name: | HMS Saracen |
| Builder: | Cammell Laird & Co Limited, Birkenhead |
| Laid down: | 16 July 1940 |
| Launched: | February 16, 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 27 June 1942 |
| Fate: | Sunk August 14, 1943 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 814-872 tons surfaced 990 tons submerged |
| Length: | 217 ft (66 m) |
| Beam: | 23 ft 6 in (7.2 m) |
| Draught: | 11 ft (3.4 m) |
| Speed: | 14.75 knots surfaced 8 knots submerged |
| Complement: | 48 officers and men |
| Armament: | 6 x forward 21-inch torpedo tubes, one aft 13 torpedoes one three-inch gun (four-inch on later boats) one 20 mm cannon three .303-calibre machine gun |
HMS Saracen was an S class submarine of the Royal Navy, and part of the Third Group built of that class. She was built by Cammell Laird and launched on February 16, 1942. Her original pennant was P247.
[edit] Career
She started her wartime career in home waters, where she sank the German submarine U-335 in the North Sea. There was only one survivor out of a crew of 44.
She then served in the Mediterranean, where she sank the Italian submarine Granito, the Italian auxiliary submarine chaser V 3 / Maria Angelette, the French tugs Provincale II and Marseillaise V, the Italian merchants Tagliamento and Tripoli and the German merchant Tell. She also attacked and damaged two sailing vessels and the French (in German service) tanker Marguerite Finally. She also attacked a number of convoys, torpedoeing and sinking the Italian merchant Francesco Crispi. Saracen had less luck attacking other convoys though, firing three torpedoes against a convoy made up of the small Italian tanker Labor, the German merchant Menes, escorted by the Italian torpedo boats Calliope and Climene. All torpedoes fired missed their targets. On another occasion, she fired four torpedoes against the German transport ship Ankara and one of her escorts, the Italian destroyer Camicia Nera. Again all torpedoes fired missed their targets.[1]
[edit] Sinking
On August 14, 1943, whilst on patrol off Bastia, Saracen was spotted by the Italian corvettes Minerva and Eutepe who attacked with depth charges. Saracen was forced to surface and as the crew abandoned ship, they scuttled the submarine to avoid capture. [2]
[edit] References
- ^ HMS Saracen, Uboat.net
- ^ Submarine losses 1904 to present day, RN Submarine Museum, Gosport
- Colledge, J. J. and Warlow, Ben (2006). Ships of the Royal Navy: the complete record of all fighting ships of the Royal Navy, Rev. ed., London: Chatham. ISBN 9781861762818. OCLC 67375475.
|
||||||||||||||
