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This website is brought to you in association with the Barrow-in-Furness Branch of the Submariners Association and is the premier UK internet resource for Submariners and anyone interested in Royal Navy Submarines.

Vickers and Barrow are names synonymous with the development of the submarine. Hundreds of submarines covering virtually every class have been built for the Royal Navy and foreign Navies. This site is dedicated to not only to those who have served on Her Majesty's Submarines but also to those employees past and present whose skills and efforts have given pride to the phrase 'Barrow built' and made the name Vickers known and respected throughout the world.

On This Day - September 16

1916 E 36 Launched
1939 Triad (N 53) Completed
1939 Seahorse (S 98) HMS Seahorse departed Dundee for her 2nd war patrol. She was ordered to patrol off the south-west coast of Norway.
1940 H 49 HMS H 49 fired 4 torpedoes at a large, 16 ship, convoy and 8 bunched ships were fired at without success.
1942 Sahib (P 212) HMS Sahib sinks an Italian sailing vessel with gunfire west of Sardinia.
1943 X 9 (Pluto) On 11th September 1943 X9 left Loch Cairnbawn under tow from HMS Syrtis to take part in the attack on the Scharnhorst. During the passage the Syrtis remained on the surface, whilst the x-craft, manned by a passage crew, remained dived. The midget submarine was due to surface at regular intervals to ventilate. On the 16th Syrtis made the signal for the x-craft to surface. There was no reply. At this point the tow was hauled in and was found to have parted and despite an extensive search, no sign of X9 was ever found.
1944 Tradewind (P 329) HMS Tradewind sinks two small Japanese vessels with scuttling charges off the Sunda Strait.
1944 Trenchant (P 331) HMS Trenchant lays mines in the the Straits of Malacca.
1958 Ausonia (F53) 1921 - 1965 Commissioned at Devomport to relieve HMS Ranpura after 12 months in reserve
Lastest Comments
29/08/2026 on page Stratagem (P 234)
Clare Cunningham wrote:
My Uncle Frederick Hayes was a stoker on board when she went down. I’m trying to find as much information as possible. I’d love to see some pictures of the crew if there ever were any. His name is on the war memorial in Plymouth, UK, and whenever any of the family are near the memorial, we alway ...
06/08/2026 on page Finwhale (S 05)
Jones wrote:
Just to confirm, the submarine was sunk off the Western Approaches. I was the Nav Officer on board the Admiralty tug RMAS Rollicker, and we towed the submarine from Loch Ewe out into the NW Approaches for a 'sinkex'; however, we hit Storm Force 11, which forced us to cancel the sinkex. A few months ...
23/07/2026 on page Token (P 328)
Legs D. wrote:
Token was my very first boat from 1963 to 1965. During that period, for about 6 months, we were refitted with a 4inch gun. For some reason I was chosen to be a sight setter (I was a baby AB RP3). This became a 'Boy's Own' adventure for me. The 'sight setter' happened to be fourth in the queue to get ...
13/05/2026 on page H 49
kevin walker wrote:
believe was also attacked on 1-10-1940 near Texel by Sperrbrecher 3/H3 (ex M/S Belgrad) with pattern of 4 depth charges
16/04/2026 on page Thorough (P 324)
navy42 wrote:
Lord Kitchener was lost in the sinking of HMS Hampshire, denoted by the black field. As Secretary of State, he initiated the recruiting scheme which raised the new army. The first complete New Army formation (as opposed to divisions) as a result of this scheme was the 4th Army under the command of G ...