| Acheron |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 3rd Sep, 1928 | |
| Motto | Post tenebras lux. (After darkness, light.) | |
| Symbology | The Acheron is the River of Sorrows in Hades, which all souls have to cross. | |
| Design Notes | Black with four wavy bars of silver. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Achilles |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 20th Jul, 1931 | |
| Motto | Foriter in re. (Bravely in action.) | |
| Symbology | Achilles is the hero of Homer's 'Iliad'. | |
| Design Notes | The head of Achilles, helmeted in gold on a red background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Adamant (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 12th Nov, 1919 | |
| Motto | Lead On. | |
| Symbology | From the arms of Sir William Hotham (1736-1813), who commanded the Adamant at Camperdown in 1797. | |
| Design Notes | A sword inflamed with a silver pommel and gold hilt on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Aeneas |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 16th May, 1946 | |
| Motto | Audentis fortuna juvat. (Fortune favours the daring.) | |
| Symbology | Aeneas was the son of Anchises and Aphrodite who escaped the siege of Troy and thereafter wandered the world. | |
| Design Notes | A classical Greek demi-warrior armoured in white, decorated with a gold helmet crested also in gold, carrying in the dexter hand a spear and in the sinister a white shield on a red background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Affray |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 20th Jul, 1945 | |
| Motto | Strong in battle. | |
| Symbology | An affray is a brawl. | |
| Design Notes | Four boarding axes in Saltaire are interlaced in white on a red background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Agamemnon |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | ||
| Motto | Multa Tula Fecique. (I have borne much and done much). | |
| Symbology | As King of Mycenae, Agamemnon commanded the Greek army at the siege of Troy. | |
| Design Notes | Blue background. A dexter arm embowed sinister, the hand grasping a throwing spear fesswise in gold. | |
| Additional Notes | Identical to the unofficial badge. | |
| Agincourt |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 6th May, 1946 | |
| Motto | Nestroque! (Now strike!) | |
| Symbology | King Henry V defeated the French at Agincourt in 1415. One of the king's insignia was an antelope. | |
| Design Notes | A heraldic antelope statant within a wreath of palm, gold-white-armed, crined and chained, gold-langued, blue on a red background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alaric |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 12th Oct, 1945 | |
| Motto | The thicker the hay, the easier mowed. | |
| Symbology | Alaric was the king of the Visigoths who ravaged Rome in 1410. | |
| Design Notes | A sword with a white pommel and hilt of gold surmounted by two white scythes in saltire, on a black background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alaunia (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 16th May, 1946 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | The name alludes to the Alani horsemen who occupied part of Caucasia. | |
| Design Notes | A black horse's erased head wearing a gold collar on a white plate with a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alcide |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 17th Jul, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A prize vessel name from 1755. Shows a Supporter from the Arms of Admiral Boscawen, Viscount Falmouth, who captured the ship. | |
| Design Notes | A sea lion, erect, white, goutty-de-larmes, armed and langued red, holding between the paws a fleur-de-lis in gold on a blue background. |
|
| Additional Notes | The fleur de lys (which does not appear on the supporters) is a reference to the captured French ship. | |
| Alderney |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 3rd Nov, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | From the arms of the Channel Island of the same name. (The ship is affiliated). |
|
| Design Notes | A gold lion rampant, ensigned with a royal crown in red, holding in his dexter paw a sprig of oak proper on a green background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alderney |
|
|
| Official | No | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | N/A | |
| Motto | Creme De La Creme. | |
| Symbology | The Alderney is an extinct breed of dairy cattle. It originated in, and is named for, the island of Alderney in the Channel Islands. | |
| Design Notes | ||
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alecto (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 3rd May, 1920 | |
| Motto | Cave prolem. (Beware my brood.) | |
| Symbology | Alecto is one of the Furies of Greek mythology. | |
| Design Notes | Two gold vipers confronting each other with their tails involved on a green background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Alliance |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | Yes | |
| Admiralty Approved | 12th Oct, 1945 | |
| Motto | Undivided | |
| Symbology | A French prize vessel of 1795. The design alludes to the Forces of the Crown. | |
| Design Notes | In front of two conjoined wings are two white swords in saltire with white pommels and hilts of gold surmounted by an anchor also in gold on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Ambrose (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 29th Jul, 1921 | |
| Motto | De profundis adsumus. (Out of the depths we are here.) | |
| Symbology | Saint Ambrose was an early father of the church and the Patron Saint of Submariners. | |
| Design Notes | A gold crozier interlaced in the base with three wavy bars of silver on a blue background. |
|
| Additional Notes | A submarine depot ship which became HMS Cochrane in 1938. | |
| Ambush |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 3rd Nov, 1945 | |
| Motto | Hide and seek. | |
| Symbology | Lying in wait. A submarine name. | |
| Design Notes | On a mount of green, a bush all proper; issuant therefrom are three spears, one erect, two in saltire proper. On a black background. |
|
| Additional Notes | ||
| Amphion |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 17th Jan, 1933 | |
| Motto | Fear none. | |
| Symbology | Amphion was a son of the god Zeus. The design alludes to the crest of Captain Thomas Hardy (1769-1839). Nelson's Flag Captain in Amphion. |
|
| Design Notes | A green dragon's head above a naval crown on a white backgroud. | |
| Additional Notes | The badge is now used by a Canadian Sea Cadet Unit. | |
| Anchorite |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 26th Aug, 1946 | |
| Motto | We prey alone. | |
| Symbology | A maritime hermit or recluse. | |
| Design Notes | An anchor, bendwise or recluse, in gold, surmounted by a hermit crab proper on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Andrew |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 23rd Aug, 1946 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | The Patron Saint of Scotland. |
|
| Design Notes | A saltire couped white with two thistles slipped and leaved proper. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Anson |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | ||
| Motto | Nil desperandum. (Despair of nothing.) | |
| Symbology | From the Arms of A of F Baron Anson of Soberton (1697-1762), who circumnavigated the world in the Centurion in 1741-1743. He was the last Sea Lord to fight at sea. | |
| Design Notes | Out of a ducal coronet of gold, a spearhead and shaft proper. Per fess wavy white and blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | Exact date badge passed not known as Pattern has been lost but was in 1940. | |
| Artemis |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 10th Nov, 1944 | |
| Motto | Clam cito certo. {Secretly, swiftly, surely.) | |
| Symbology | Artemis (or Diana) is the Goddess of the Hunt, etc. |
|
| Design Notes | A quiver of arrows and a bow in saltire all in gold surmounted by a white crescent on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Artful |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 12th Oct, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | No particular species is singled out. | |
| Design Notes | A monkey passant guardant proper on a green background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Artifex (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 13th Jun, 1946 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | The name is derived from the Latin for "artificer". | |
| Design Notes | Three sledgehammers: one erect, two in saltire, surmounted by a black anvil on a gold background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Astute |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 30th May, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A retriever's favourite work. |
|
| Design Notes | A retriever statant proper with a grouse, also proper, in his mouth on a white background. |
|
| Additional Notes | ||
| Audacious |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | ||
| Motto | Hide and seek | |
| Symbology | The Audacious name goes all the way back to an 1869 ironclad and a 1912 King George V-class battleship. | |
| Design Notes | The background pattern consists of ermine (white with black tail markings), symbolizing dignity and nobility. It features a central blue anchor surrounded by three red escallop shells. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Auriga |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 20th Jul, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | The Charioteer, after whom a constellation was named. | |
| Design Notes | A gold chariot with two white horses, the charioteer habited in white with gold armour. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Aurochs |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 17th Jul, 1945 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | An extinct species of European ox. | |
| Design Notes | The head of an ox caboshed black on a white background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Ausonia (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 13th Jun, 1946 | |
| Motto | Si frangites reparamus. (If you break it, we will mend it.) | |
| Symbology | The ancient name for Italy. The house flag shows a lion's mask. | |
| Design Notes | A carpenter's axe and a sledgehammer in saltire proper, surmounted by a gold lion's mask on a red background. |
|
| Additional Notes | The red field refers to the house flag and the funnel colour of Cunard, the vessels' original owners, and the lion's face is adapted from the Cunard badge. | |
| Bonaventure (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 11th Jun, 1940 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A composite Elizabethan word. The griffin is from the Arms of Drake. The horseshoe translates 'bonaventure' into 'good luck'. | |
| Design Notes | A red griffin statant wings extended all inclined to profile upon upon a reversed gold horse shoe on a barry wavy background of six white and blue. | |
| Additional Notes | Elizabeth Bonaventure was Drake's flagship in the West Indies and at Cadiz. | |
| Cachalot |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 1st Jan, 1939 | |
| Motto | Nec pluribus impar. (A match for many.) | |
| Symbology | A cachalot is another name for a sperm whale, which has teeth in the lower jaw only and belongs to the family Physeteridae. Sir Arthur Cochrane chose to devise a badge which is a pun on the name. |
|
| Design Notes | A grapnel of four flukes pale pendant from a cable, all in gold. The background chief per fess barry three silver wavy lines on a blue base. From 1959 was a fishhook of four flukes pale pendant from a cable, all in gold. The background chief per fess barry four white wavy lines on a blue base. |
|
| Additional Notes | A grappling hook was widely used as a boarding tool in earlier times. Approved early 1939. The original pattern is missing, so the exact date that the badge was passed cannot be established. |
|
| Cachalot |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 1st Jan, 1957 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A cachalot is another name for a sperm whale, which has teeth in the lower jaw only and belongs to the family Physeteridae. Sir Arthur Cochrane chose to devise a badge which is a pun on the name. | |
| Design Notes | A black grapnel of four flukes pale pendant from a cable, all in gold. The background chief per fess barry three white wavy lines on a blue base. | |
| Additional Notes | The original 1939 version featured a gold grapnel and silver lines. A grappling hook was widely used as a boarding tool in earlier times. Approved 1957. The original pattern is missing, so the exact date that the badge was passed cannot be established. |
|
| Churchill |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 1st Oct, 1941 | |
| Motto | Veteris vestigia flammae. (A spark of the old flame.) | |
| Symbology | From the crest of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough (1650-1722). | |
| Design Notes | A rampant, guardant white lion armed and langued red charged on the shoulder with a hurt thereon a mullet white and holding between the forepaws a gold staff flying therefrom to the sinister a red flag charged with a white dexter hand appaumy on a barry wavy background of six white and celeste blue. |
|
| Additional Notes | The addition of a five-pointed star denotes that this badge was granted to one of the 50 US Navy destroyers transferred to the UK in 1940 in exchange for 99-year rent-free leases of certain British bases, mainly in the Caribbean. | |
| Clyde |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 20th Jun, 1933 | |
| Motto | Be strong. | |
| Symbology | A Celtic king gave his wife a ring which he later found on the finger of a sleeping knight. He took and threw the ring into the Clyde, whence a fisherman recovered it from a hooked salmon and gave it back to the Queen. "Clwd" is Gaelic for "strong". | |
| Design Notes | A gold signet ring on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Conqueror |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 9th Aug, 1968 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A raven flag, as seen on the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings, 1066. It is said to have been flown by William the Conqueror. | |
| Design Notes | Flying from a spear erect proper, a red banner red with gold tassels charged with a raven proper on a white background. | |
| Additional Notes | The badge was designed by Captain Barraclough RN, who served on the Ships Badges Committee prior to a short stint as the Admiralty Advisor on Heraldry. | |
| Cormorant (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 29th Jul, 1930 | |
| Motto | Laboris avidus. (Greedy of work.) | |
| Symbology | A fish and eel eater, larger than the more common shag. | |
| Design Notes | A gold cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo) on a rock holding a silver eel in his beak on a blue background. | |
| Additional Notes | The name was given to the RN Base at Gibraltar from 1889 to 1946, which later became HMS Rooke. | |
| Courageous |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 1st Jan, 1923 | |
| Motto | Fortis in angustis. (Bravely in difficulties.) | |
| Symbology | In allusion to the name. |
|
| Design Notes | An erect dexter arm proper grasping a green serpent against a black background. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Cyclops (Depot Ship) |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 11th Jun, 1923 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | A tribe of one-eyed giants who forged iron for Vulcan. (Cyclops means 'round eye' in Greek). |
|
| Design Notes | An eye proper within a sixteen-pointed red star bordered in gold. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| Dreadnought |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 11th Feb, 1959 | |
| Motto | Fear God and dread nought. | |
| Symbology | An Elizabethan combination word. The badge commemorates Admiral Jackie Fisher, architect and proponent of the battleship HMS Dreadnought of 1906 that made all previous battleships obsolete. Later Baron Fisher, The Armoured Fist is adapted from his crest with the addition of a key to indicate that the ship represented a key to naval supremacy. |
|
| Design Notes | A dexter gauntlet proper grasping a gold key in bend sinister, ward to the dexter. Background per fess: wavy blue and white, two bars being wavy blue. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
| E1 |
|
|
| Official | No | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | N/A | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | ||
| Design Notes | ||
| Additional Notes | Possibly produced to celebrate the building/commissioning of the submarine. | |
| Excalibur |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 8th Aug, 1946 | |
| Motto | Deo duce ferro comitante. (God is my leader and his sword my companion.) | |
| Symbology | The sword in the stone from Arthurian legend. | |
| Design Notes | A rock proper sits upon a green mound wherein is fixed a gold-hilted sword enfiled with an antique gold crown against a field of blue. | |
| Additional Notes | Name given to the New Entry Establishment at Stoke-on-Trent, 1942-1947. | |
| Explorer |
|
|
| Official | Yes | |
| Broad Design | No | |
| Admiralty Approved | 1st Dec, 1954 | |
| Motto | ||
| Symbology | The lead was used for sounding depths in uncharted waters. | |
| Design Notes | An astrolabe environed by a gold lead line wavy in orle. | |
| Additional Notes | ||
Provides a full description of the A Class Royal Navy Submarine Alliance, with particulars of the A Class, with photos & technical diagrams.
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Provides a full description of the A Class Royal Navy Submarine Alliance, with particulars of the A Class, with photos & technical diagrams.
20 pages added or updated in the last 2 month
Please help to maintain this site by reporting any Errors, Broken Links, Information or Site Issues on this page using this button
If you find this site useful, please consider supporting my work with a small Donation.
Please Note: Donations made using this option go directly to the site owner and not to the Submariners Association.
Thankyou for your support.