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On This Day - March 18

1904 A 1 Whist on exercise off the Isle of Wight HMS A1 was tasked with 'attacking' HMS Juno. The mock attack began in the early afternoon; HMS Juno had been sighted heading towards Portsmouth Harbour. First to attack were the Holland Boats, after which came A1's turn. As A1 closed in for the kill she was struck on the starboard side, near the conning tower, by the steam ship Berwick Castle, on route from Southampton to Hamburg.

Unaware of the submarines in the area the master of the Berwick Castle reported that he believed he had been struck by a practice torpedo and continued his journey.

It was not until A1 failed to return to harbour that the full scale of the disaster was known
1916 Swordfish / S1 (ICA 30) Launched
1916 G 2 (I A4) Completed
1917 H 28 Laid Down
1917 H 30 Laid Down
1940 O 24 (Dutch) Launched
1941 Thorn (N 11) Launched
1942 Upholder (N 99) HMS Upholder torpedoes and sinks the Italian submarine Trichecoeast off Brindisi in the southern Adriatic.
1943 Surf (P 239) Completed
1945 Thrasher (N 37) HMS Thrasher sinks a Japanese sailing vessel with gunfire of the west coast of Burma.
2016 Artful (S 121) HMS Artful become a Commissioned Warship of the Royal Navy at a ceremony at HM Naval Base Clyde.

Guest of honour at the ceremony was the submarine's sponsor Lady Zambellas, who had named Artful in September 2013, before her launch in May 2014, in Barrow in Furness.

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Orpheus (S 11)

Class: 1959 - 1998: Oberon Class
Built By: Vickers (Barrow)
Build Group: O2a
Fate:
Orpheus was paid of in January 1987.
Broken Up 1994
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It was the Italians who pioneered the use of two-man human torpedoes or 'chariots', and their attacks on ships of the Royal Navy in Alexandria Harbour in 1941 caused Winston Churchill to write to the Chief of Staffs committee to enquire what was being done to emulate these daring attacks.

The result was the development of British 'chariots' which were regarded as stop-gaps until the X-Craft or midget submarines could be deployed.
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