HMS Unrivalled (P45)
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 HMS Unrivalled entering Grand Harbour, Malta, flying the Jolly Roger flag denoting the sinking of a U boat. |
|
| Career |  |
|---|---|
| Class and type: | U-class submarine |
| Name: | HMS Unrivalled |
| Builder: | Vickers Armstrong, Barrow-in-Furness |
| Laid down: | 12 May 1941 |
| Launched: | 16 February 1942 |
| Commissioned: | 3 May 1942 |
| Fate: | scrapped January 1946 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: |
Surfaced - 540 tons standard, 630 tons full load Submerged - 730 tons |
| Length: | 58.22 m (191 ft) |
| Beam: | 4.90 m (16 ft 1 in) |
| Draught: | 4.62 m (15 ft 2 in) |
| Propulsion: |
2 shaft diesel-electric |
| Speed: |
11.25 knots max surfaced 10 knots max submerged |
| Complement: | 27-31 |
| Armament: |
4 bow internal 21 inch torpedo tubes - 8 - 10 torpedoes 1 - 3 inch gun |
HMS Unrivalled (P45) was a Royal Navy U-class submarine built by Vickers-Armstrong at Barrow-in-Furness. So far she has been the only ship of the Royal Navy to bear the name Unrivalled.
[edit] Career
Apart from a work-up patrol in the Norwegian Sea, she was to spend most of the war in the Mediterranean. While on her work-up patrol, Unrivalled fired a torpedo at what was thought to be a submerged enemy submarine. Only the periscope was sighted and the torpedo was fired in the direction of the hydrophone effect. There was however no German submarine in the area so the attack was most likely against a non-submarine target (perhaps a whale). Whilst in service in the Mediterranean, she sank the Italian auxiliary submarine chaser O 97 / Margherita, the Italian merchants Maddalena, Mostaganem and Pasubio, the Italian tugs Genova and Iseo, the Italian sailing vessels Triglav, Albina, Margherita, Sparviero and Ardito, the German auxiliary submarine chasers UJ 2201/Bois Rose and UJ 2204/Boréal, the Italian tanker Bivona, the small Italian merchant Santa Mariana Salina, the Italian auxiliary minesweeper R 172 / Impero and the small Italian vessel San Francisco di Paola A..
Unrivalled also damaged the Italian torpedo boat Antonio Mosto and the Italian sailing vessel Cesira Curreri. On the 20 January 1943, Unrivalled intercepted a small Italian naval auxiliary towing a schooner. She sank the naval auxiliary with gunfire, this was most likely the former French auxiliary minesweeper AD 283/Grondin that had been seized in Bizerta. The schooner apparently beached herself on the Tunisian coast.
Unrivalled survived the war and was scrapped at Briton Ferry, Wales from 22 January 1946.
[edit] References
- HMS Unrivalled (P 45). uboat.net.
- Universal to Untamed. British submarines of World War II.
- 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.
- Submarines, War Beneath The Waves, From 1776 To The Present Day, by Robert Hutchinson
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