Events
On This Day - May 22
| 1873 | Barrow's First Launch | The first ship to be launched from the current Barrow shipyard was the steam yacht Aries, which went down the slip on the 12th May 1873 for the founder Sir James Ramsden, launched by Lady Ramsden She was followed by more than a hundred ships built in the next ten years, and these included large passenger liners, warships and its subsequent success primarily in building submarines. |
| 1918 | D4 | Sank UB-72 |
| 1918 | D6 | Sank UB-72 |
| 1927 | Osiris (N67) | Laid Down |
| 1936 | Cachalot (N83) | Laid Down |
| 1940 | Graph (P715) | Laid Down |
| 1940 | O22 (Dutch) | Following the German invasion of 10 May 1940, O22 was hastily commissioned, still incomplete and sailed for England with her sister O21 and the tugboat B.V. 37, to be finally completed at the Navy yard in Rosyth. |
| 1940 | O21 (Dutch) | Arrived safely in Portsmouth along with O13 and O22 |
| 1940 | O9 (Dutch) | Departed Den Helder together with HrMs O10 to make for England. They were escorted by the tug Witte Zee. |
| 1941 | Undaunted (N55) | Lost HMS Undaunted sailed for her Mediterranean patrol from Malta on 1st May 1941. Ordered to patrol off Tripoli the submarine failed to return on her due date of 11th May and attempts to contact her failed. It is believed that she fell victim to the Italian torpedo boat Pegaso who had sailed from Tripoli on the 12th. At 2030 that evening Pegaso signaled that she had attacked a submarine with depth charges and that a large patch of oil had been observed, indication of the submarines destruction. Against this theory is the fact that by that date Undaunted should have been back in harbour but it is possible that a decision to remain at sea for a day had been taken or that Undaunted may have suffered mechanical problems preventing her return. There is always the every present possibility that the submarine fell foul to a mine. |
| 1941 | Rorqual (N74) | HMS Rorqual sinks two Greek sailing vessels with gunfire off Lemnos, Greece. |
| 1941 | Turbulent (N98) | Launched |
| 1941 | Unbending (P37) | Launched |
| 1941 | Unrivalled (P45) | Laid Down |
| 1942 | 1941 - 1946: Wuchang (F30) | Submarine depot ship HMS Wuchang commissioned |
| 1943 | Trident (N52) | HMS Trident unsuccesfully fires 6 torpedoes at the Italian merchant Agnani east of Cevrione, Corsica, France. |
| 1944 | Sickle (P224) | HMS Sickle sinks a sailing vessel with gunfire off Standia Island, Greece. |
| 1944 | Vampire (P72) | HMS Vampire sinks a sailing vessel Monemvassia, Greece through ramming. |
| 1945 | Sea Devil (P244) | Completed |
| 1990 | Talent (S92) | Completed |
| 2011 | Tireless (S88) | Tireless completed a ten-month deployment, spending 253 days at sea, the longest conducted by a Royal Navy submarine for ten years |
| 2013 | Trenchant (S91) | HMS Trenchant returned home to Devonport 11 months to the day she sailed on what became the longest patrol ever completed by one of the Royal Navy’s hunter-killer boats – beating the old record by HMS Tireless by 12 days. At continued high readiness as the United Kingdoms front-line strike asset, the submarine spent 267 days east of Suez, continuing the nuclear-powered submarine presence that has been established there since 2001. Operating under joint command, the submarine has completed several periods of national tasking and contributed to NATO operations against terrorism and counter narcotics. During this time the vessel has visited six different ports: Fujairah, UAE; the British Indian Ocean Territory – Diego Garcia; the Kingdom of Bahrain; Aqaba, Jordan; Souda Bay, Crete; and Gibraltar. HMS Trenchant conducted training and multi-national exercises with seven UK warships, a French submarine, multiple US warships and auxiliaries, a US submarine and a range of multinational aircraft - to develop the ability to conduct joint operations. The deployment covered 38,800nm (the equivalent of 1¾ times around the world) and the submarine has spent over 4,700 hours underwater – the equivalent of 6½ months. The submarine would now undergo a two-year maintenance period readying the boat for renewed operations. |
