| Built By: | Armstrong Whitworth (Tyne) |
| Build Group: | M |
| Fate: | Sold for scrapping in February 1932. |
| 1919: | Lieutenant Commander | Hugh Richard Marrack | DSC |
| 1923: | Lieutenant Commander | Colin Mayers | |
| 1924: | Lieutenant | James Feltham | |
| 1927: | Lieutenant Commander | Ian Agnew Patteson Macintyre | |
| 1943: | Acting Lieutenant | Leslie Arthur Martin |
Started life as K20.
15th October 1926: Reserve.
1927-1928: Reconstuction at HM Dockyard, Chatham.
June-October 1928: Trials.
8th October 1928: Reserve.
1928-1930: Reserve-Portsmouth - Trials.
1930-1932: Reserve-Portsmouth.
In 1927 M2 and M3 had their large 12-inch guns removed in the late 1920s to conform with the Washington Disarmament Treaty, which stated that no submarine should have larger than 8-inch calibre guns.
M3 was converted to an experimental minelayer, stowing her 100 mines on rails inside a large free-flooding casing outside the hull. The mines were laid over her stern by means of a chain-conveyor belt. M3 was finally taken out of service in April 1932, and scrapped in 1933.
| Length overall | 295 ft 9 inch |
| Beam | 24 ft 8 inch |
| Depth | 18 ft 8 inch |
| Displacement | 1594 tons (surface) |
| 1946 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | 200 ft |
| Speed | Surface 16 knots (design) 10 (service) |
| Submerged 10 (design) 8 to 9 knots (service) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Propeller | 3 blades, 5 ft 10 inch diameter |
| Armament | (i) 4 x 18 inch bow tubes (8 torpedoes carried) |
| 1 x 12 inch gun | |
| 1 x 3 inch gun | |
| Endurance | Surface: 2500 miles at 16 knots (design) 2000 miles at full power or 4500 miles max (service) / Submerged: 10 miles at 10 knots (design) 9 miles at 8+ knots (service) |
| Complement | 6 Officers and 62 Ratings |
| Note | (i) In M3 these were replaced by four 21 inch bow tubes, which were responsible for an overall increase in length of 10 ft |
Further Reading |
|
| M-class Submarines |
Martin H. Brice |
I wanted to shout back, "You have never trained me to fire, have you? I'm only eighteen, remember!" But of course, I did no such thing. A Stuka bomber was poised overhead about a few hundred feet above our ship. The bomber came literally screaming down (at me personally, I thought). More orders shouted down to me from the bridge. "Open fire! Open fire!" I pointed the machine gun directly straight up in the air, my eyes squeezed tightly shut, my fingers squeezed tight, pressing the firing trigger. I was waiting for the bomb to explode on me.
A candid, visceral, and incredibly entertaining account of what it's like to live in one of the most extreme environments in the world.
Imagine a world without natural light, where you can barely stand up straight for fear of knocking your head, where you have no idea of where in the world you are or what time of day it is, where you sleep in a coffin-sized bunk and sometimes eat a full roast for breakfast.
Now imagine sharing that world with 140 other sweaty bodies, crammed into a 430ft x 33ft steel tube, 300ft underwater, for up to 90 days at a time, with no possibility of escape. And to top it off, a sizeable chunk of your living space is taken up by the most formidably destructive nuclear weapons history has ever known. This is the world of the submariner. This is life under pressure.
As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War. Nothing could have prepared him for life beneath the waves. Aside from the claustrophobia and disorientation, there were the prolonged periods of boredom, the constant dread of discovery by the Soviets, and the smorgasbord of rank odours that only a group of poorly-washed and flatulent submariners can unleash.
But even in this most pressurised of environments, the consolations were unique: where else could you sit peacefully for hours listening to whale song.
Based on first-hand experience, Under Pressure is the candid, visceral and incredibly entertaining account of what it's like to live, work, sleep, eat and stay sane in one of the most extreme man-made environments on the planet.
18 pages added or updated in the last 1 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.
| Length overall | 295 ft 9 inch |
| Beam | 24 ft 8 inch |
| Depth | 18 ft 8 inch |
| Displacement | 1594 tons (surface) |
| 1946 tons (submerged) | |
| Diving Depth | 200 ft |
| Speed | Surface 16 knots (design) 10 (service) |
| Submerged 10 (design) 8 to 9 knots (service) | |
| No. of shafts | 2 |
| Propeller | 3 blades, 5 ft 10 inch diameter |
| Armament | (i) 4 x 18 inch bow tubes (8 torpedoes carried) |
| 1 x 12 inch gun | |
| 1 x 3 inch gun | |
| Endurance | Surface: 2500 miles at 16 knots (design) 2000 miles at full power or 4500 miles max (service) / Submerged: 10 miles at 10 knots (design) 9 miles at 8+ knots (service) |
| Complement | 6 Officers and 62 Ratings |
| Note | (i) In M3 these were replaced by four 21 inch bow tubes, which were responsible for an overall increase in length of 10 ft |
Further Reading |
|
| M-class Submarines |
|
Martin H. Brice |
I wanted to shout back, "You have never trained me to fire, have you? I'm only eighteen, remember!" But of course, I did no such thing. A Stuka bomber was poised overhead about a few hundred feet above our ship. The bomber came literally screaming down (at me personally, I thought). More orders shouted down to me from the bridge. "Open fire! Open fire!" I pointed the machine gun directly straight up in the air, my eyes squeezed tightly shut, my fingers squeezed tight, pressing the firing trigger. I was waiting for the bomb to explode on me.
A candid, visceral, and incredibly entertaining account of what it's like to live in one of the most extreme environments in the world.
Imagine a world without natural light, where you can barely stand up straight for fear of knocking your head, where you have no idea of where in the world you are or what time of day it is, where you sleep in a coffin-sized bunk and sometimes eat a full roast for breakfast.
Now imagine sharing that world with 140 other sweaty bodies, crammed into a 430ft x 33ft steel tube, 300ft underwater, for up to 90 days at a time, with no possibility of escape. And to top it off, a sizeable chunk of your living space is taken up by the most formidably destructive nuclear weapons history has ever known. This is the world of the submariner. This is life under pressure.
As a restless and adventurous 18-year-old, Richard Humphreys joined the submarine service in 1985 and went on to serve aboard the nuclear deterrent for five years at the end of the Cold War. Nothing could have prepared him for life beneath the waves. Aside from the claustrophobia and disorientation, there were the prolonged periods of boredom, the constant dread of discovery by the Soviets, and the smorgasbord of rank odours that only a group of poorly-washed and flatulent submariners can unleash.
But even in this most pressurised of environments, the consolations were unique: where else could you sit peacefully for hours listening to whale song.
Based on first-hand experience, Under Pressure is the candid, visceral and incredibly entertaining account of what it's like to live, work, sleep, eat and stay sane in one of the most extreme man-made environments on the planet.
18 pages added or updated in the last 1 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.
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