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Narwhal (S 03)

Built By: Vickers (Barrow)
Build Group: P2
Fate: 1983 towed to a position off Falmouth and scuttled for use as diver training in salvage exercises. still in use

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Paid off and placed in reserve 1977. Taken in hand during 1980 and sunk off Portland for Smashex exercise. Salvaged and towed to Devonport.

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Events

 15-03-1956   Laid Down
 25-10-1957   Launched
 04-05-1959   Completed
Official
Official
P2 Specification
Length overall  295 ft 3 inch
Beam  26 ft 6 inch
Depth  15 ft
Displacement   2030 tons (surface)
  2410 tons (submerged)
Diving Depth  300 ft
Speed  12 knots (surface)
  17 knots (submerged)
No. of shafts  2
Endurance  Surface: 12800 miles maximum (design)
  Surface: 3860 miles at full power or 11500 miles at 8 knots (service)
  Submerged: 64 miles at 4 knots (design)
  Submerged: 8 miles at 9 knots or 66 miles at 6 knots (service)
Armament  6 x 21 inch bow tubes
  2 x 21 inch stern tubes
  (24 torpedoes carried)
Complement  6 Officers and 65 Others
Comments

Comment by: Graham(George) Bourne on May 9th, 2019

Was an OEM1 on Narwhal in the Seventies. Can't remember to many names but can see the faces of the lads. Wacker Payne was the POEL, Ollie Windle was the skipper and we had a stoker called Basil who had a chopper motor bike.

I think we did a trip to northern Norway at some stage and a round Britain tour to Sunderland, Newcastle, and through the Pentland Firth in a force 12 to Portree on the Isle of Skye. we then took her into drydock in Chatham dockyard for a refit. These were great times and our ships company were left to our own devices mainly. Myself and a stoker called Wingent (Wingnut) did the cooking.

I remember there was a production line going putting ships in bottles for the local pubs. I was drafted to HMAS Platypus in Sydney for 12 months as spare crew for HM/SM Odin. Life's a beach.

When I got back to the uk I left the RN and joined the Merchant Navy with Blue Star Line sailing mainly to North and South America, Australia and New Zealand via South Africa or the west coast of the USA. I also spent time in the Falklands in 1982 on a reefer ship being used as a supply ship for the task force.

Like your site. Keep up the good work.

Comment by: Dave Dickie on July 31st, 2018

My late father was CERA Dickie on HMS Narwhal until he left the Navy in 1972 and moved to South Africa.

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X 3 (Piker)

Class: 1942 - 1946: X Class
Built By: Varley Marine (Hamble)
Build Group: XP
Fate:
Scrapped 1945
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